ALL BLACKS’ CHANCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 924, 18 March 1930, Page 7

ALL BLACKS’ CHANCES

“NO CERTAINTY AS TO OUTCOME” ENGLISH RUGBY VISIT From Our Resident Reporter WELLINGTON, Today. * Canvassing New Zealand's prospects against the British Rugby team to tour New Zealand this season. two famous All Blacks of much experience consider that New Zealand will be put to a severe test and that there is no certainty as to the outcome. “It is unquestioned that we shall be j caught at a disadvantage forward,” J said one All Black of great experience = when commenting upon the statements j of Mr. C. Brown, former Taranaki and ! Army half-back, on the subject of for- j ward play. “During the 1924 tour of I Britain we met a large number of j county sides and our experience was ; that county football was well up to the standard of provincial football in New Zealand. It is true that in some of those matches we were not allowed to play as hard as we should have liked, but it is also true that in most of the games our forwards were well held. Can anyone imagine a provincial team in New Zealand beating an All Black side which was all out? It follow's that, w'ith any decent system of selection, the forward team which will ; visit New' Zealand must be a great j one.

“During that 1924 tour we obtained something like 30 per cent, of the ball from the scrummages, and that is the greatest percentage of any All Black team that I have played in. In Australia last year, we gained about 50 per cent, but kept the ball in the scrums, as we did not want it out. “Often in England we managed to push them over the ball after they had hooked it, as there is not the same passage for it to come out to the halfback. But our actual heelings were not greater than one in three. In that tour, if the English backs had been up to the standard of their forwards, w r e must have had a hard time. “I shall never forget the first match we played in England. The ball was placed in the first scrum seven times and when our forw'ards got out of that scrum they were absolutely lightheaded. They had never faced such pushing before. We developed the pushing forward in England, but only by dint of constant nagging at the offenders before matches. LOOSE, FAST TYPE

“Since 1924. though, our forward play has developed more and more into the type of loose, fast play. It is not the fault of the forwards, but of the rules. I know, because I have felt the influence of the game myself. Often I have found myself in a scrum not pushing, but waiting to get out into the open. That is the disadvantage -which wa face this year, and w r e should have reverted to the old rules before now'. The first thing that British forw'ards are taught is to push.

“It is true that the alteration of our tactics made by experience under the new rules was of great advantage to us in England in 1924, for it often enabled us to catch the opponents napping. They were not used to the play begin opened up so much. But then* in 1924, w'e had superior backs, and no one knows what the,visiting backs w'ill bo like.”

Surveying the prospects from the point of view of back-play, M. F. Nicholls confesses misgivings.

“The only players whose names I reniember as meeting in England are D. Parker and Wakefield,” he said. “The men whom we met there were most!}'’ the products of post-war football. Three or four were dropped and new men introduced. Kittermaster was a new man: so were Gibbs and A. T. Young. Tlie backs in the coming team are all new. Thus in 10 years this is tho second completely new set of backs that Britain has had. Why have we, in New Zealand, not been able to produce new backs also? On the selection of last year’s All Black team. Mill, Cooke and Lucas are still our best inside men.

“We should be able to find more high standard players than we have added to the list since 1924. One reason may be the fact that representative honours are cheaper than they were. In 1920, only about 20 players would get into a Wellington representative team in a season. Nowadays, the number would exceed 40. There is not the same honour about selection for provincial teams and the players are less keen to get in. It stands to reason that as players get older they lose their dash. In 1924, backs who were playing for New Zealand were at the height of their form; there ought to be. other players of equal ability ready to take their place.”

A pungent criticism of forward interference with back play, which may supply the reason for what Nicholls deplores, was contained in one statement by the first All Black when ha said: “Of late years I have not shone in the open as once I was said to do. The reason is not so much my fault as may be imagined. It is due to the fact that when I arrive to take my part in passing rushes to make an opening I find three or four forwards in the way. They are taking my place.”