Who Will be Captain?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 945, 11 April 1930, Page 7

Who Will be Captain?

BRITISH RUGBY TEAM'S ? LOSS ; I DEFECTION OF W. W. 1 WAKEFIELD j ( " 1 BOWCOTT’S INCLUSION WELCOME J I By J. G. McLEAX I The defection of W. W. Wake- ' field from the British Rugby side 1 1 weakens the team less in playing strength than in personality. Wakefield’s continued troub e with an injury suffered in trials last January deprives the tourists of an inspired leader, and creates an interesting position concerning the captaincy. rpHREE changes have been an- | ■*" nounced in the last fortnight, j D. A. Kendrew, 12 months ago an unI known country forward, replaces Wakefield; H. M. Bowcott replaces the Irish threequarter, Crowe, and a Lancashire man, Jones, replaces P. H. Howard, who lias retired for business reasons. These changes have strengthened rather than weakened the team. The only instance in which the adjustment has not produced obvious improvement is in the substitution of Jones for Howard. Though Jones has done yeoman service for Lancashire in the county championship, he;. has not figured in international trial matches. There are many other forwards who would have been chosen ahead of him. had they been available. H. G. Periton, for instance, or “Sam” Tucker, | would have been welcomed. The British team does not now include any of the English team which met the 1924-25 All Blacks in the historic match at Twickenham. THREE WELSH CAPTAINS j Bowcott lias a much better record ! in big football than Crowe, v;hom he replaces. As outside halfback in the winning Cambridge team of last season (1928-29) lie developed rare combination with C. D. Aarvold. and these two may figure in the British team as a test combination. Bowcott plays anywhere from the scrum to the wing, but preferably at centre. This season he has had liis ups and downs, and was dropped from the Welsh side, which he captained, after the first match, only to be restored to it later on. In his turn Ivor Jones, who became captain after Bowcott was dropped, was himself discarded, and J. A. Bassett, the splendidly reliable Penarth fullback, was honoured with the burdens of captaincy. Thus the British team coming to New Zealand is in the extraordinary position of Having in its ranks three men who have captained Wales this season. It may be added that the addition » of Bowcott to the six Welshmen al- ; ready in the team reduces Welsh 1 chances of defeating France at Paris on Easter Monday, and correspond- ‘ ingly enlarges French prospects of i

winning the international championship for the first time in history. BEAMISH AS CAPTAIN? The retirement of Wakefield leaves the captaincy open, and creates an

interesting position. Xone of the three W r elsh captains seems likely to be given the position. Much more likely candidates are C. D. Aarvold, who captained Cambridge and has had deep experience of international Rugby, and G. R. Beamish, the great Irish forward, who has

been captain of the R.A.F. for some seasons. Beamish is one of the three Army men who were released for the tour after leave had originally been denied them. The concession was obtained as a result of intervention by his Majesty the King.