OUR FOOTBALLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8040, 30 January 1906, Page 3

OUR FOOTBALLERS.

THE GAME WITH NEWPORT. A TOUGH ENCOUNTER NARROW SQUEAK FOR THE "ALL BLACKS." llcccived 2'J, 5.1) p.m. Sydney, January 2'.). The "Daily Mail" says: "Either the ' All Blacks' are meeting loemen in South Wales far more worthy of their steel than they have met elsewhere or else the strain of their tremendous tour in beginning to tell its inevitable tale.

" They were hard put to it at Newport. The visitors left by tar the hardest and most dillkult part of their task to the end of their lour. It is asking too much of even so wonderful a football phalanx as they undoubtedly are that after their protracted and exhausting experience of hard-fought encounters they should retain all their pristine freshness.

"There was little to choose between the teams. Newport, so far as the aetual balance of play went, might have wou just as well as the Now Zealandcrs. For the first twenty minutes of the opening half, the visitors had pretty much their own way. After two fine efforts to score, Roberts set the Other wing in motion The ball came from Stead to Deans ami thence to Harper. The latter swerved most artistically round Griffiths and scored the first and only try of the game. Harper failed to convert, but a few minutes later, Wallace dropped a magnificent penalty goal from nearly half-way.

"It seemed as if the colonials were contented with this advantage. They were seldom dangerous afterwards. In proportion, as they fell off, Newport improved, and in the second half the Usksiders were in their opponents' territory most of the time and the colonials' were fortunate in possessing a lead of six points. Wallace's coolness and splendid kicking saved his ; side from disaster more than once. He, Roberts, Seeling, Tyler and >lyuott played a great defensive came."