Finding Their Legs

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 974, 17 May 1930, Page 13

Finding Their Legs

BRITISH TEAM’S ARRIVAL Pen-Pictures of Players (Special Representative — Copyright) EXPECTATIONS that the British Rugby team would be immense social successes did not take long to materialise. Within a few hours of their arrival at the Grand Hotel, Wellington, invitations began pouring in on them. Several were invited to private dinner parties that evening, and those not otherwise attached were soon borne off to the pictures or other mild forms of entertainment.

With all who meet them the team are pretty sure to be popular. They tave the charm of youth on their side. Bonner, the Yorkshire fullback, is a mere boy, and so is Kendrew, the bespectacled forward, while JonesDavies, the Welsh threequarter, is another who looks surprisingly young for an international. Clad almost to a man either in plus fours or in well-cut grey flannels with brown tweed coats, the team looks a typically English band. Many of them, on landing, carried well-stocked golf-bags. Cynics on the wharf wondered whether they had come to play golf or football. Time alone will answer that question, but on the form exhibited in preliminary showings on Athletic Park, the youthful campaigners are amply endowed with the physique and talent which makes good Rugby men. There is considerable variation in their size, but the tall men are really tall, and the heavy men like Beamish and Parker are tremendously sturdy. In passing, most of them handled the ball very well indeed. There was none of the lob passing habitually associated with English back play. Naturally it will be conceded that against opposition their passing might develop weaknesses; but in practice the transfers were clean and sharp. EAGER TO START Eager to start, the team insisted on starting practice on the day of landing. in spite of the fact that to many of them the movement of the ship was still a distinct sensation. As the mountain of baggage which accompanies them had not been sorted out and unpacked, those who did not happen to h&v* football garb with them in

tlieir personal suitcases had to borrow jerseys and pants from the Wellington Rugby Union. Consequently they appeared in the yellow and black of Wellington B teams. The trousers, one gathered, were not of the roomy type they had been accustomed to. British footballers prefer their trousers to be redolent of the wide, open spaces. They are cut in a billowing curve over the hips, and have pockets, in which the hands are thrust in idle moments. This season they are not to have these advantages entirely on their own. It is understood that the pants that the New Zealand Rugby Union is providing for the all white All Blacks his season are also to have pockets, this being one of the big constructive ideas of the year in New Zealand Rugby. In spite of the deficiencies of their borrowed plumes, the visitors managed well enough at their first practice. Prentice, Rew and Murray, presumably still “all at sea,’' did not strip for the first run. Prentice, a much bigger man than most of us had expected, contended himself with directing operations from the side-line, and wise to insist that on its first outing the team should be careful not to overdo it. Some of them were keen enough, however, to be reluctant to leave the field. RELYING ON FORWARDS Some rather pretty work was done in exploiting twist and reverse passes, but whether these can be satisfactorily used against good opposition has yet to be seen. On general principles it seems that the strategy of the visitors will follow orthodox lines. From the few hints that the admirably reticent executive! have dropped, they

will be relying to a considerable extent upon their forwards. So it is interesting to note that according to one of the team a pack averaging 14 stone 4 pounds can he put down. Some of the forwards, however, look as though they could spare a hit of weight, and it is very doubtful if the best pack in lighting trim will scale as much as 14 stone a man. The fine physical specimens are Prentice, Beamish and Hodgson. Beamish is the outstanding figure, a magnificently proportioned fellow with the thews and determined, resolute features of a fighter. Beamish is a successful amateur heavy-weight boxer, and looks the part. He will be fully able to look after himself in any pleasantries on the Rugby field. Hodgson is tall, and a fine stamp of young Englishman, with clean-cut pleasant features. FROM LLANELLY Dai Parker, a sturdy, thick-set Welshman, scales 15 stone 2 pounds as against Beamish’s 15 stone 4 pounds, or thereabouts. Present weights are only approximate. No official weighing or measuring has yet been done. The only weight X can vouch for is that of Jones-Davies, 11 stone 11 pounds on the penny-in-the-slot machine in the Grand Hotel lobby. Ivor Jones, Parker’s compatriot, is a whimsical, thin-faced fellow, with a mop of fair hair. Asked his name, he simply said, modestly, “I’m from Llanelly,” but the baffling way he pronounced “Llanelly” made it very little easier to identify him. Farrell, Dunne and O’Neill are part of the merry Irish contingent. Farrell’s brogue should be an asset to the side. O’Neill is one of those who could dispense with a little weight. He is carrying a lot of it, both fore and aft, and with his short, almost tubby figure, looks an odd shape for an international forward. Rew is another immensely thick-set forward. He Is very much of the Irvine type, though perhaps not quite so rugged. Black, the Oxford goalkicker (a Springbok in disguise, for be is a South African by birth), will also contribute weight and height. Wilkinson, who is of rangy build, handles with the pace and accuracy of a back. Essentially a winging forward, his job is to leave the back row of the scrum as soon as possible, and get in among the opposing backs. The one difference between English and New Zealand ideas of the wing-forward is that one is attached to the scrum and the other not. Otherwise their functions are the same. SPOTTED TIES One of the much-discussed British jerseys was exhibited when the bags were being unpacked. Fears of confusion with the New Zealand livery were tairly well-founded, as tils blue

is of the darkest possible shade. It is a very neat and effective jersey, with the three gold lions enclosed in a shield. The jerseys are worn with immaculately tailored white shorts (not too short) and blue stockings with white tops. Stoddart’s team and Bedell-Si vwright’s team both played in red, v hite and blue, while Harding’s AngloWelsh side favoured red and white. The British teams in the Argentine and South Africa, however, both wore navy blue, and thus a precedent for this visit was established. Off the field the team now in New Zealand does not flaunt conspicuous emblems of its mission. They wear small gold lions in their coat lapels, however, and the same symbols appear at decorous Intervals on their navy blue ties.