Rugby

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 717, 17 July 1929, Page 13

Rugby

A*— -__The Game and. its 4 Players*.— %

Ex-All Black J. Steel scored all of Albion’s nine points against Christchurch recently. Rustless Steel. City has balanced things very well. So far it has won five games and lost five, and 104 points have been scored by the team, and also against it. Fifty-fifty must be the club motto. C. H. Towers complained that in the New Zealand-Australian match there was a man on top o£ him every time he went near the ball. It is the penalty of fame. ' s Attempts to revive winded players on No. 2 ground at Eden Park on Saturday could easily have been mistaken for attempts to resuscitate the- apparently drowned. In College Rifles’ drawn game with Grammar last Saturday, the outstanding part was taken by Stewart, scrumsman. This forward played a great game of the solid variety. Test Forwards’ Weight The radio reporter of the Australia - Mew Zealand Rugby test in Sydney evidently was under the impression that the New Zealand forwards were heavier than their opponents. But both collectively and in individual average, the Australian forwards were tho heavier. The eight Australian forwards weighed 109st 51b, an average of 13.0 3-8- The seven New Zealand packmen weighed 95.6, an average of 13. S 6-7. Twins on Tour Alf Kivell. burly New Zealand forward. now with Porter’s team in Syd- . ney t j ie father of I twins, had bad luck | just prior to leav- ! ins the Dominion (states the Sydney "Sun”). In a rail- [ way accident he injured a leg. the day I on which the New || Zealanders left. As it a result, he has not II yet played during the present tour. Mrs. Kivell, who is accompanying the team, does not mind, as while oilier players are spending their time practising and playing, Alf, who is a wellknown Taranaki farmer, has plenty of time to nurse the 22 -months-old twins. # * * Lake of Mud Sydney papers tell us that far the first match between the AH Blacks and New South Wales, on the Sydney Cricket Ground, a wide lake of mud extended across the field. “It was tho starting and finishing point of many enterprising movements which ended ignominiously with the player grasping the ball, gasping for air, and his tackier wheezing like a drowning man.” To date five games have been played by the All Blacks at present touring Australia and only two members of the party, Stringfellow and McWilliams, have participated in all five. Stringfellow owes this record to the fact that in two games he relieved injured men. Shortly before half time in the first game he replaced Carleton, who retired as the result of an injured arm and m the third game he performed a like service when Nepal had to leave the field at half time with an injured ; back. McWilliams, however, has played throughout all five games, striking testimony to his sterling worth as an honest and very effective forward. Gunga Din To Southern readers the term waterboy appearing in reports of Auckland Rugby matches might give a misleading impression of the conditions under which Rugby football is played in this sub-tropical clime. It should be explained that the modern Gunga Din at Eden Park on Saturday was not employed in alleviating the thirst of perspiring players toiling in the blazing sunshine. For washing mud out of the eyes of half-blinded players, however, water is a priceless boon. As one mud - plastered player groping his way to the sideline remarked: ‘ ioure a whiter man than I am, Gunga Din. Westfield Gone West? The Waratalis of last season brought over with them a first-rate fullback named Westfield. Though not outstandingly endowed in the physical sense, Westfield was a fullback of rare calibre, and some of his performances, notably bis game in the wet in the match against the Maori team at Wellington, when the event became a kicking duel between him and Nepia, were of the inspiring order. On that s occasion Westfield betrayed evidence of a hasty temper in his dealings with Beach, a fast-following Maori forward. It is queer that he has not been heard of this season in the matches played by the All Blacks on the other side. Send Us a Manager Send us a good manager—that ought : to be the prayer of every New Zealand team that goes abroad. Mr. ' James McLeod, the well-meaning manager of the team now in Australia, has not distinguished himself so far, unless the inanities into which he has betrayed himself on odd occasions can be counted distinction. The latest is that he has intensely annoyed the Duller Rugby Union by describing the earthquake as a minor affair. His cheerful platitudes with reference to the ashes and the injury to Towers afforded other evidence of the fact that he has seemingly overlooked a primary rule for football managers, the precept that silence is golden. Grafton Out Of Luck i The heavy defeat of Grafton by j University last Saturday recalls that the students seem always to have had a terrorising effect on this club. In 1927 Grafton was w r ell up for the championship before the season was two-thirds gone, and the event threat- ; oned to resolve itself into a struggle ; between that club and Ponsonby. Then ■ along came University to beat Grafton 11-7, and that was the beginning of the end. Grafton lias been right out of luck this season, but with a bit of stiffening in the rearguard should in a season or two be fully capable of regaining its lost prestige. i Falwasser Case * Though Albert Falwasser was willing to stand down last Saturday, on a point of law it is doubtful if he could have been prevented from playing. So long as he had made no written contract with the League people, or taken no money, he was free to say that he had been the victim of misrepresentation. In that case it was his word against anyone else’**, and in a showdown Falwasser might have won.

Where is Brownlie.' i What has happened to Maurice ; Brownlie this year? On his return i from South Africa the big fellow inrHrntprl flint not bine:

his thoughts than retirement, and that if chosen he would bo on the spot to lead the All Blacks against v'akeficld and his merry men next season. But Brownlie is now on his farm in the Wairoa district, and this season appears to have played no serious football at all. If he wishes to complete his line Rugby record by leading New Zealand against England, ho should not rest on his laurels. There have been some good “come backs” registered in New Zealand Rugby lately, but not every one can come back so successfully as Mill and Nepia appear to have done. The End Of An Epoch When Hawke’s Bay met Waikato at Dannevirke in 1925, it had a galaxy of stars at beck and call, and routed the dairymen to the tune of 64 to B. i The other day Waikato again met Hawke’s Bay, this time at Hastings, and the score was 11 all. Perhaps Norman McKenzie, whose retirement at the end of this season is foreshadowed. was doing a bit of experimenting, but it certainly does look as though, outside Steere and Grenside, Hawke’s Bay’s former greatness has dwindled away almost to nothing. Perhaps the Bay will return to the limelight by retrieving the Ranfurlv .Shield from Wairarapa next Saturday, b\it the odds are against it. To begin with, three of the Bay’s former stalwarts, Mill, Cooke and Irvine, are now allied against it.

SNOW A CHAMPION

HOW ALL BLACKS PLAYED S SECOND TEST COMMENT In the Sydney “Referee," Cynic has the following - interesting comment on players in the first test between the All Blacks and Australia: “The New Zealanders made it clear in this match that they can still produce errent. forwards with the best of them. Snow is a real star, on this for m—h e a v y, rugged, tireless, t r e mendo usly strong, and a tiger for work. The whole seven scrummagers were tip-top, with Reid, Liki and McWilliams going great guns, especially in the second half. NIPPIEST BACKS “Halfback Tuck is a new-comer. Many of the New Zealanders had never seen him play, his promotion having

been rapid. He is slippery, and, it* ! the sidt' had developed true All .Black combination on attack through the backs he might have engineered a try or two. Oliver was extremely quick ; in thinking and acting, and over the j ground. He got the only try, and deserved it, because he was so enterprising and nippy. He was quicker to take advantage of the Greens’ errors than anyone else. “Lilburne, the other five-eighth, who captained the side, seemed to make breaches when things were opening up, though he played very nicely. The wing threequarters did not get many chances, and this was due in some measure to the quick and sound defence of the inside home backs, especially Lawton and King. AUSTRALIAN BACKS “Malcolm, as scrum-half, played solidly, but revealed no guile nor nippiness, and at times seemed to miss the needs of the position by swinging the attack away from his supports on the ' open side. “Lawton was the best Australian back, and the best back in the ; match, leaving out of consideration ful I backs Nepia and Ross, who ! were Al. Lawton has been playI ing many years now, but there is j no five-eighth in either League or Union in Australia to compare with him. ' “Many of his clean-cut openings i were not brought to any try-getting I finish owing to the combination and backing up of the side being uncertain, I the handling of the ball faulty, and | the wings missing good chances. Lawton made one mistake in lobbing a pass in a dangerous position, but, with better support, even that might have not gone awry. “Ross, as fullback, was very good, and is really in the same class as Nepia, without being so picturesque. He was solid, sound, and very able in handling and kicking the ball, and tackled well."