FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 68, 10 March 1908, Page 4

FOOTBALL.

XIIE "'ALL CiOLDS'" TOVR. Sydney, March 0. The following is from an Knglish paper just to band:—"The All Black* succeeded in defeating Ebbw Vale by the narrow margin of a try to a goal. Play i throughout was fast and exciting, ilie teams attacking alternately. Wrigley during the first, half was frequently dangerous. Ilf eventually M-ored a clever try. The Welshmen, however, played up well, and before interval lauded a penalty goal. KxccMent football was •"•hown by both teams in the second half. . The home side made great ell'orts to ■secure the lead, but the defence of ike | Xew Zealanders wa- snperh, M

The Daily New-, commenting on the match, says:—"The J Hacks are distinctly stale. They admit the fact, themselves. They iiavp found the class of football iu which they have taken part nnieh better than they anticipated. If they again come, tbey will bring some 1 letter men mid a party of at least forty. Their weakness has been largely a matter of reserve-.''

T-lIK ALLECKI) DK.MORAIJSATfOX. In all interesting loiter son I to Mr. li. C. Karnes, of Pet one, Mr. 11. ■). Palmer, manager of (he "All Macks'' football team writes:— "I sco by the New Zealand papers to hand that we it 1 v reported as bei/ig demoralised on account of our financial success. I would like you lo s;iy that this is altogether wrong. J can assure you that nothing could Ik? letter lor the Micces;* of the tour than the way the men looked after themselves and their conduct on aucl oil' the field is everything that could he desired by their Iwst friends. We are losing matches. and no one deplores it more than the member.-; of the team. I have 1 sent you the accounts of alt our matches and you must sc<p from them that wo have a very hard task to perforin when I we try to defeat the Northern I'nion teams. In the first place, we are weelI ing nothing but the stronger teams, and the player- are the best that money can buy. The Northern Uniou teams are composed of the cream of Kngland and Wales, they are paid so much per match, the price ranging from one pound upwards, and nil the teams were double paid for a win against us, and in some cases they were presented wi<h a gold medal if they defeated the New Zealand team. All the teams trained ami made all sorts of special efforts to win again?! us; and it we did win, we were always played to a standstill by these teams rising to the occasion. What with travelling from place to place, sometimes starling away at 8 a.m., and not getting back to our hotel till 12 or one, o'clock in the morning, and doing this twice a week, did not improve the men; and then you must consider we had to meet nil tlie.se teams on their own ground (which is considered as good as six points to the home team h Take teams like Oldham, Wig- | an. Halifax, Harrow, BroughUoi Rangers: they have gone through nil the other club teams and have never ' been beaten on their own ground, but these teams who are on the lop of all the others can be beaten by teams who could not score a point against us. By this you will sec what is given away to have to meet these clubs on their owii ground. '' Then there is the climate lo contend against. \ i-ry few of our frieu Is in New Zealand iiavo any idea what it i> lo have to put in a winter in these big .Northern cities. What with smoke, snot. log. frost, and snow,, you do not I eel tit to do your best. Then, again, we hav ( . not been successful with our men. .Many have been laid up wi'h bad colds and accidents, and I must coniess that some of the men are not good enough to play against the opposition we are meeting, and for that reason we had to play the same men match after match, and they became ' rdale early in the tour. "At the same time I do Hot think we could have beaten all the club teams I if we were at our best, but under more • favourable conditions we could have wo * I most of our matches, i do not pretend | to make out that this team is as good as the other team that visited Kngland, ' m>r do I think that they are up" to a New Zealand rep. team, but i-veryomi nm>t admit that we have a very strong team—anyway quite strong enough u> ie»t the strength ot the Northern I'nion; ami after what I have .een of the professional team in this eountrv. 1 am of the opinion that they are verv

much better than the amateur. lint then. again, you have to con-ider the (lil)erencc in (lie two guiles. \ mall might lie a star in tlic Kujrby game ami not lie worth a place in this game. It i* v <'i'.v liaril to compare tins team with any other team. We arc I In- lirst lo invade Hie -Northern I'liion tcnilorv. and take the new game on, and until alter the New South Wales team has

a trial, we will not be in a position to say much aliout this team's performance. I would like to say that from "hat I have seen of the amateurs in England, and from what I hear from nieml>ers of our team who were with the original "All jilacks." in at least ill per cent, of the matches they played it was only a (|uestion of how many points they could win by. They coulil play every member of their team without any risk of losing, and by doing thai they could (.pell their best men tor hard matches; or in most eases the games were so easy to win that they were never distressed. I would not be all aid to back our best elnb team to win !Hl per cent, of the matches that the I9U» team beat. AW,, look at the dif-

ference in our tour. Kverv match we have played lias been hard and fast from the. word 'go,' and when the game was over the jilayers were hardly able io walk oil' the lield.

"When men are doing their best it is very hard to find people writing about lis as being demoralised. The word nuiv be misconstrued, and if all the men who have been here before n,. and all that may come after us, have had and will have the interest of their country and the honour of our country as much at heart as the jiresent team has, Now Zealand will never have anything to be ashamed of. As for myself, I would never s]iend another winter in these parts, and I do not care how soon I get back to Miod's Own Country',"