OUR FOOTBALLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8007, 19 December 1905, Page 3

OUR FOOTBALLERS.

TROUBLE OVER DUNCAN. HIS AUTHORITY IGNORED. BITTER FACTION FEELING ENGENDERED. OTAGO MEMBERS' VERSION. PES PEESS ASSOCI ATION. DrSEDIx, December IS. It wan definitely knawn in town on Saturday that the relations between certjin section* of the New Zealand football team were very much strained This can easily be gathered from the content* of a number of letters received by the last mail by friends of the

Otago members. The trouble has apparently arisen oat of the old sore feeling over the appointment of Duncan as coach. Letters to hand indicate that, from the first! the Auckland members set themselves up in [sharp opposition to Duncan, and then to the Otago members in general. A number of others, including Stead) have sided with the Auckland contingent, and the general result has been that every attempt by Duncan to assert his authority lias been met with open hostility. At meetings of the team, and while on the field. Dunean has been simply ignored. "He is just nobody," is the way one writer sums up the situation. It has been imjwssible to confine the trouble to the question as between Duncan and some of It team, the result being tiiat certain other Otago members have been drawn into it, and so bitterly that there is a rumour that a well-known Otago player applied the argumentuni ad homiumn to one of the Aucklanders, and give him a good thrashing.

Rightly or wrongly, Ac Otago nicm. ber also belwre that, owing to Ae influence of Ac Northern opposition, they arc being kept out of inatrhr* to which tli«ir rlaims a* players entitle them Says one of them: —" None of at, except Casey. »ro getting a hearing at all, and they would leave Sieve out, too, only they can't do withoiif hin.kerauac he i»the b?st * hooker' they're got" IHENAORILANDERS' RECORD .The results of the matches played

ara as follows :— Match. Pts. for. Pts. agst Devon .. 155 4 Cornwall .. 41 e Bristol ... 41 G Northampton ... . ... 32 0 Leicester .. 28 C Middlesex ; .. 34 0 Durban .. lfl 3 Hartlepool .. 63 0 Northumberland ► .. 31 0 Gloucester) ... . .. 44 0 Somerset .. 22 0 Dcvonport Albion 21 8 Midland Counties 1 21 5 tHackheath , ,.. 32 0 Serrey .. 11 0 Oxford .. 47 0 Cambridge ... . .. 14 0 Bichmoad .. 17 0 Bedford ... .-.. . .. 41 0 Scotland . .. 12 7 YTfcit of Scotland 22 0 Ireland .. 15 0 Itanstvr | .. 33 0 EngVad .. 15 0 Chalteabam ... . .. 18 0 Cheshire .. 34 0 Yorkshire .. 40 0 Wales .. 0 3 Total 801 "05