THE SPORTSMANS LOG

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1003, 20 June 1930, Page 9

THE SPORTSMANS LOG

New Zealand's Rugby team for ! the first Test could provide a very good team * c or a married men’s 1 seven-a-side tourney ‘•Pretty Fair Shot” G. K. Beamish, who captained the , British Rugger side against Canter- | bury, a Pretty fair shot. While he ; was in Christchurch he had good sport < among hares and duck. Some people reckon that bowls is an old man’s game. From the look of New Zealand’s Rugby team i for the first Test it would appear that Rugby football also is becoming an old man’s game. • * * An English paper notes that Phil I Scott appends “Heavyweight Champion • of the world” to his signature to ; letters. A champion by write, appar- I « ntly - One of the “Overs” | Over 25,000 people watched the match between the British Rugby team and Canterbury. Twenty-five thousand ~t the spectators - considered that it •was a tine game. The “overs” did not think it was good. Alfred J. Griffiths, of Wellington, is one of the • overs.” A. J. Griffiths’s opinions would not j be of interest were it not that he is a j member of the Wellington Rugby Union's Management Committee, a former selector of New Zealand repre- < tentative teams and manager of the • *\H Black team which played the < springboks in the third Test match '• ja Wellington in 1921 —and that ho lias uttered his opinions for consumption by the people of Wellington. So listen to Alfred J. Griffiths: “It was i football far below international standard —probably the worst game any British team has played . . . The differ- « nee between this match and the British team’s match with Wellington was about that between two good senior 1 dub teams and watching two junior Teams . . . There were only lour players on the British side who had ulso played against Wellington; in fact, the team was just about the weakest that could have been fielded. There was a surprising amount of snaccuracy in the back play, and the whole team-combination was mediocre.” Alfred Griffiths is, of course, entitled to have his own opinions about the match, and to express them. No one would gainsay, for a moment, his light to that. But 25,000 people who the match are also entitled to an opinion that he has not shown himself to be a very good judge of Rugby football.

It is denied that James Baxter, manager of the British team, now considers that penalty goals should be abolished with wing-forwards. What Kind of ‘‘Strike"? _ *' V . , Br ,?? cor tcam representing the British Trade Union and Labour movenenr proposes to tour Germany and ieigium in August. It is to be hoped .oat if it strikes at all it will strike orm It is rather appropriate that the New Zealand team is to wear white jerseys in the Rugby tests. • he hair of some of the players rnay soon be matching the jerseys. * “Human” Failing A line from Cambridge University •rieket team’s score against the Aus.ralians: “R. H. C. Human b Braduan o.” Well do cricketers know that J. • duck” is a human failing. The Shy Scott Since he returned to Ungland from Hs last visit to the United States, ‘hil Scott has been offered several itish opponents, but his usual reply has consisted of talk about retiring. Kecently, though, it was discovered that Scott did actually agree to a match, his oppon* ent to be a young Yorkshire heavyweight, Frank Fowler. The public learned of the match when it was announced that Scott could not go i reason given for his withdrawal was that he had a severe •hill. An unreliable correspondent Ldds a suggestion that Scott will con,inue to be subject to chills until he vears warmer socks. » *>> * <Vhere Are Young Players? It is not disputed that New Zealand las a good team for the Dunedin rest —or it will have a good team if ibsolutely the best 15 players aro chosen from the 19 nominated, says a Southern exchange. But it is not an nspiring side, and the general elderiness does not leave one with great, confidence in the team’s ability to inish with a strong burst of attackng over the last 15 minutes. A greater nixture of youth would improve it it is because the selectors have taken 10 chances at all with youth, exfcept where they were compelled by circumstances, that one judges them to be acking in imagination. Reliance upon so many men who were at their football zenith years ago loes not speak well for New Zealand’s Cootba.ll. The inclusion of 10 or 11 players who are over 20 years of ag& emphasises the need for greater encouragement of young players of promise.