Personalities In N.Z. Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 471, 28 September 1928, Page 6

Personalities In N.Z. Sport

After 15 Years of Rep. Rugby, “Mickey ” Lomas Is Still Going Strong

It is a commonplace in Rugby football that the man who plays in the hardest position in the team—the hooker—is the man who gets least of the limelight. If he is doing his work right, he is seldom seen in the open, except as a “loose head” breakaway. Buried in the thick of the fray, he has few opportunities for brilliant bursts in the open. Front row is essentially a specialist’s job. Every requirement is exacting. He must be short and thick-set, 'with neck and body muscles of iron and a quick pair of feet. The ideal type for big football is the man who stands about sft 9in or sft lOin and weighs from 12j& to 13st. It can be said, too, without prejudice to the thankless work of a Rugby selector, that more mistakes are made over front rankers than any other player on the field. Few better hookers has been seen in representative football in New Zealand in the last two or three years than A. Finlayson, of the Grafton Club, yet he has consistently missed All Black honours. A. Lomas was a typical case in 1924 He was seriously missed in England Picked for the New Zealand team which toured Australia the following year, he displayed such outstanding form that he was chosen to represent the All Blacks in the test match played at Auckland against New South Wales late that season, he and I. Finlayson

being the only two to gain a place in the team which included 13 of the famous 1924 team. NOT RETIRING The report from Thames that this fine player is retiring from the game at the end of this season was proved, on inquiry being made by The Sun’s correspondent, to be incorrect; and well it might be, because Lomas is still one of the finest players in the land. He has had a great career, but one of his proudest honours was to lead the Thames City team to victory in the Stewart Cup competition this year. “Micky,” as he is familiarly known, has had a long record in first-class football. In 1913, he gained his first rep. cap in the Thames team, and has played every year since, except during the war. He joined the N.Z.E.F. in 1915, played for the Auckland Mounted Rifles in the inter-theatre war championship, and was a member of a New Zealand team in Palestine which had its line crossed once in three years. His first game for Auckland was in 1920. He has been twice to Australia as an All Black, and looked a certainty for a trip to South Africa, but business reasons caused him to decline nomination.

Fifteen years of representative Rugby, and he is still playing brilliant football. Retiring from the game? Not a bit of it, while the old Thames wants him.