“AS OTHERS SEE US”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1049, 13 August 1930, Page 15

“AS OTHERS SEE US”

AUSTRALIA ON LEAGUE IN AUCKLAND CODE’S GREAT PROGRESS In this, the coming-of-age year of the Rugby League Football code in New Zealand, it is interesting for the code to look at itself as others see it, and in this direction an article which appeared recently in the “Sporting Globe,” Melbourne, is very enlightening. 1 1 says: “The difference between the scope of Rugby and League football in New Zealand is that one is the national game, played from the Bay of Islands to the Bluff, while the other is intensely localised. Auckland alone has more League players than the rest of the Dominion put together. “League is running neck and neck with Rugby in the Dominion’s largest city, Auckland. Here, a population heading rapidly for the quarter of a million mark, makes for diversified tastes in sport. But outside the Auckland province, Christchurch and the once “Wild West Coast” of the South Island are the only parts of Maoriland that have made any sort of progress with League. “In Dunedin and Wellington, the-13-a-side code is struggling to get a footing. In Wellington, it has no money and no ground. Otago, on the contrary, is rolling in wealth. All told, the Rugby code in New Zealand numbers nearly 2,000 clubs and 32,000 players. ..The League game has not a third of that. I What is the secret of the League game’s phenomenal progress in Auckland, and its comparative failure elsewhere? The answer has to do with tho temperament and training of the average New Zealander. BULWARK OF TRADITION For 50 years Rugby lias been the Dominion’s national game. The wonderful success at home and abroad of the All Blacks over a long period of years lias built up a tradition in sport which is tho underlying feature of Rugby’s dominant influence, Maurice Brownlie is as well known as the Prime Minister. The All Blacks are a national institution. “In its general outlook, as in its taste in sport, Auckland differs from the rest of the Dominion. It is in closest touch with Australia and America. It is more vigorously alert and more cosmopolitan than any other part of Maoriland. “Auckland it was that introduced tho amended rules of Rugby, under which the whole of the Dominion is playing today. The amended kicking-into-touch rule was borrowed lock, stock and barrel from the Lejigue code. The urgent need of the moment triumphed over Rugby tradition. LEAGUE STRONGHOLD ‘Small wonder then that in the 20 years it has been established, the League gam© lias made amazing strides In Auckland. It set out to cater for tho masses, and today it has a following which not even the potent appeal of tho Ellerslie racecourse can seriously undermine. An average club attendance of from 8,000 to 10,000 people was reduced by only a couple of thousand when the first day of the big winter meeting opened at Ellerslie on the first of June. “The largest crowd which has ever attended a sport gathering, outside of racing, in New Zealand, was that which saw the League Test match between England and New Zealand in 1924. “Even granting that 30.000 would be nearer the mark than the unofficial League estimate of 40,000. it is fairly generally admitted that the attendance was in excess of the 27,000 official figures for the Rugby test between the All Blacks and the Springboks at Eden Park in 1921. PLAYING STRENGTH “As to the playing strength of the two codes, this must be considered in tho light of what has been said about the scope of the two ’ games. The writer has seen Rugby played in practically every centre from Invercargill in the far south to Kaikohe in the far north. He has seen test matches against South African and Australian sides, and representative matches in every main centre. PI is acquaintance with League is not so extensive, but bo has had ample opportunity to study the game at first hand in the Auckland Province and also in Christchurch and Dunedin. With a recollection of the English League team’s visit to New Zealand last year, and after having seen all its games in Auckland, it can be said that one would not care to pick the winner in a match under cither code of rules between tho British Leaguers and the New Zealand All Blacks. “As to New Zealand, one would not hesitate to say that the All Black forwards would beat the New Zealand League forwards, in either the 13-a----side or 15-a-side code. There is no League forward today in the class of Maurice Brownlie, Plarvey or Hazlett. The reverse holds good in respect to the backs. The incomparable Ccwoke would be a champion at League as well as Rugby, but the standard of play disclosed by Wetherill, Delgrosso, Dufty and Co. in the first League Test between New Zealand and England at Auckland last winter was ahead of anything that has been seen in All Black football in New Zealand in the last few years. LEAGUE AN AMATEUR GAME “So far, League football has progressed in New Zealand on an amateur basis. One of the essential clauses on the reinstatement forms used by New Zealand Rugby Unions is that the applicant for reinstatement must show that he has received no money for playing League. Almost without exception applicants can 'satisfy the Union on that point. “The removal of the ban on the importation of overseas players by English clubs may force the League sooner or later to abandon its complete amateur control. So far, it has lost only two of its prominent players, but it is conceivable that if more of its prominent players are lured away by big fees from English clubs, the League will have to act in self-defence to retain them in New Zealand. With the exception of several minor Inaccuracies, the writer has summed up the position very well. Referring to the unofficial 40,000 gate he says was claimed in 1924. it should be pointed out that this was really in 1920 when New Zealand played New South Wales. The official estimate was 36,700, and with schoolboys admitted free there is every reason to believe that the attendance on that day was easily 40.000. He is also in error when he says that only two of the code’s prominent players have been snapped up bv English clubs. What of Hutt, T. Hall, Hardgrave, Hanlon, Lou Brown, Wilson Hall, Spillane and company? All these were prominent players in New Zealand before leaving for England, where most of them have continued to distinguish themselves.