Rugby

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

Rugby

——The Game and its* Plsp/ers*.

No Ball Boys Although ball boys might not like working on a wet day, it is just the time that they are needed. On a wet ground, and when the game develops into a muddy forward scramble, it is then that tho line comes in *for the greatest use. There was a lot of linekicking in the Auckland-Taranaki game on Saturday and with the ball boys having a day off. hold-ups were frequent. The game was slow enough Speedy

J. 11. Geddes, who scored two tries for Southland in the Ranfurly Shield match with Wanganui last Saturday, is a track runner as well as a footballer. He ran third in the New Zealand 100yds championships a year or two back, and has held the Otago title on occasions. 1 le is very fast on the football field, too, but was not an unqualified success when taken to Australia with the All Black team last year. He is a son of an All Black selector, J. H. Geddes.

When Butler Missed When Vic. Butler missed a rolling: greasy ball last Saturday, the Taranaki forwards broke through and went nearly the length of the paddock to score a fine try. Auckland was attacking at the time, right on the Taranaki line, and apparently no one thought it was necessary to back up the fullback. Everybody took it for granted that he would not miss, an easy feeling that bucks sometimes get. But if there had been a player after the type of Bert Cooke on the Auckland side that tiy would never have been scored. A player of class always backs up his man, just as the fieldsman backs up the wicketkeeper when a hot return is sent in. It is not tactics —just plain common sense. * »> * A Fine Leader When Cliff Porter announced on Saturday evening that he had played his last game he no doubt did so with considerable regret. No man likes to give up the game, and particularly when he has occupied such a big place in it as Porter, but there is always a right time to get out and that is when a man is at the top. Porter has the consolation of making a great exit. In his last game he captained a .New Zealand side that won a great victory and in which he himself played a man's part. It is a pleasant memory for a footballer to take with him down the years. Porter, in addition to being a fine player, is one of the best sportsmen in the country as evidenced by his action at Twickenham during the~1924 tour when, although captain of the side, he stood down in favour of Parker. The side came first. Pleasing personality and gentlemanly bearing fitted him well for the leadership of a touring side. On and off the field he was always a credit to the country ho represented. In his retirement Porter carries with him the best wishes of Rugby men throughout the Dominion. * * * Back To Normal Now that the final Test is over and the British tour ends today, Rugby will be getting back to normal. Players and public will begin to show renewed interest in competition games, and might even remember that there is such a thing as a Ranfurly Shield. In case the public has forgotten, the writer reminds it that it is held by Southland, a province at the extreme end of the South Island. Hawke’s Bay, which retains pleasant memories of the happy days when the squatter’s province held the trophy, has sent a team South in an effort to .wrest it from the grip of the rugged Southerners and, having survived the floods of Canterbury where it was beaten on Saturday last by 12 to 3, the team will meet Southland next Saturday. If Southland still holds the Shield after Saturday, the province will bo called upon to meet North Auckland on August 30. Wellington on September 3, and Canterbury on September 17. If Southland is still in possession by the time it is scheduled to play Canterbury a very interesting game should develop. But the most interesting this year would be a game for the shield between Auckland and Canterbury, w>th both sides at full strength. Rugby Veterans Never before has there been such a mustering of Rugby veterans as that which took place on Saturday evening, when the New Zealand Rugby Union gave a dinner in honour of the British team. The Government was fully represented by the Prime Minister, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, the Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, the Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. H. E. Holland, the Minister of Native Affairs, the Hon. Sir Apirana Ngata, and the Speaker. Sir Charles Statham, who is also president of the New Zealand Football Association. Present also were members of all the All Black teams from 1903 onward, together with members of old British teams which have toured New Zealand in years gone by, the doyen of theta all being Mr. Munro, who captained the first representative team to visit New Zealand in 1870. Then came G. Harding, the leader rf the British team of . 1900, J. Kissick, who captained the Army team, and Dr. P. F. McEvedy, who played in Hai ding’s 1904 team and the Anglo-Welsh team in 190 S. The old All Blacks were: G. Nicholson, 3903-05; E. E. Booth, 1905-07; F. Roberts, 1905; W. J. Wallace. 1903-05; J. Hunter. 1905; J. Corbett, 1905; “Mona” Thompson, 1905; A. McDonald, 1905; E. Roberts, 1913; and the following members of 1920 teams and later: H. E. Nicholls, K. S. Svenson, A. E. Beilis, M. Brownlie, J. Tilyard, J. H. Parker, B. McCleary, H. Brown, B. Algar, J. Moffitt. and those who were in the New Zealand team on Saturday, including C. G. Porter, who announced that he had brought his memorable representative career to a close that day as he would be playing no more. "Uncanny Anticipation” If Bert Cooke had been playing for Auckland on Saturday and had saved the try referred to above, most of the sporting writers would have again dragged in the term “uncanny anticipation,” a term many of them are very partial to, particularly when applied to Cooke. Although there is probably such a thing as anticipation, the word itself is very much overdone. Cooke’s “uncanny anticipation” in most instances is strict adherence to recognised Rugby principles which most players nowadays ignore. When you find a player who does follow them he immediately puts himself in a class above the others. When a man backs up consistently and “anticipates” the possibility of the other fellow missing, by no means remote, and bears in mind that the opposing team’s passing movement may just as easily swing back in-field as out to the wing, it is not necessarily “uncanny anticipation.” Cooke’s success has been largely due to the fact that, in addition to possessing the right qualifications for a good back, viz., speed and quick thinking, his positional play is always very sound, and thus it naturally follows that where the play is Cooke also is handy. The continual use of this term as applied to

Cooke will possibly lead many young players into thinking that this player possesses some mysterious power denied to others, and that it is impossible to hope to emulate him which is not so. What happens is that Cooke does the right thing in the right way, and he does it more often than anybody else. Therefore he carries the hallmark of class. Broken Noses Although H. F. McLean, and I?. H. Black were temporarily laid out when they collided heavily in the fourth Test, it was not until alter the game that it was discovered that both had broken their noses. This seems to be a habit of Black’s. Just before the team sailed for New Zealand the Oxford and English forward finished the game against Wales with a broken nose. His shorts and jersey were heavily stained with

blood and someone wanted to send for a doctor, but Black would have none of it, saying that he had broken it three or four times before and it would soon get all right. If he finishes the Australian tour without getting it broken again he can consider himself very lucky. SCHOOLS COMPETITION The following points were scored by teams competing in the Bomain group of the Auckland Primary Schools Rugby 'Union’s competitions: Senior Grade.—Parnell, 19; Newmarket, 15; Newton Central, 6: Grafton, 4. Intermediate Grade. Parnell. 24; Meadowbank, 11; Newmarket, 10; Wellesley Street, 3. Junior Grade.—Parnell, 21; Newton Central, 19; Grafton A, 18; Wellesley Street, S; Meadowbank, 8; Grafton B, 0. TAURANGA V. WHAKATANE From Our Oion Correspondent TAURANGA, Today. Footballers are keenly interested in the match for the Apuni-Awanui Shield, to be played at Whakatane on August 16, between the Tauranga and Whakatane clubs. This most coveted trophy was held by Tauranga last year, but was lost to Te Puke at the beginning of the season. That club lost to Whakatane, and, as Tauranga had the right to another challenge, it exercised it and will play the game at Whakatane.