RUGBY COMPARISONS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 407, 14 April 1937, Page 2

RUGBY COMPARISONS.

SOUTH AFRICA AND BRITAIN. I Springboks Are Better, Says! Dr. Bollie Sieff. Dr. Bollie Sieff, who will be recalled as one o£ the most brilliant fly-hal£ backs the Transvaal has ever produced, is back in Johannesburg after a few years of study in England, and he has formed many interesting comparisons between British and South African Rugby football. “The chief difference,” Dr. Sieff, who turned out for a few matches himself in London three years ago, told a Rand Daily Mail writer, “is that Rugby football technique is not so seriously studied by teams in Britain as is the case in this country.” “In Britain one gets the impression that the players regard the game as a healthy pastime. In South Africa it is a serious devotion by the players. Standards Compared. “This is reflected by the 'spirit in which most of the games are played and also in the standard o£ British Rugby football generally. “My impression is that the average Western Province or Transvaal teams would do very well against international teams in Britain, though whether our players would get the same amount of enjoyment out of these games is a different matter entirely.” He did not think that British forwards. generally were of the standard of the South African players. There was not not so much concentrated scrummaging and too much of a hankering after doing a lot in the open. Rugby football in Britain was on the whole more open but not as good as in South Africa. Nor was he unduly Impressed by the play of the backs. , Brilliant Half-back. The one man who stood head and shoulders above the others as a Rugby footballer was, in Dr. Sieff’s opinion, the Welsh fly-half back, Cliff Jones. He considered this player as good a stand-off half back as he had ever had the pleasure of seeing in action. “This year, unfortunately for Wales,” said “Cliff Jpnes was on the injured list. But I would go so far as to compare him favourably with Bennie Osler at his best. He has every asset essential to a firstclass player in his position and he knows how to make the best use of his genius for the game." Dr. Sieff did not see any full-back as good as, say, Gerry Brand. “Owen Smith, who captains England this season, is a thoroughly sound and enterprising full-back, but if I were to choose between the twql I would say Gerry Brand every time.” Of Obolensky, the Russian prince who played for England last season, Dr, Sieff said; “He is tremendously fast —as speedy a wing-three-quarter as there is in Britain. But he lacks in knowledge of the finer points of Rugby that would make him a really great player.”