FOOTBALL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 306, 20 May 1911, Page 7

FOOTBALL

' (By "Old Stager") To-day's fixtures are as follows: Star v. Rovers, at the Recreation Sports Ground at 3 p.m.; United v. Okato, at Western Park at 3 p.m. Both matches should provide interesting competitions. The matches set down for last Thursday were postponed owing to the rough weather. They will probably be played at the end of the first round, or on June Ist, on which date no fixtures have been arranged owing to the representative fixture at Wanganui eventuating on June 3. The senior fixtures for next Thursday are as follows: Eltham v. Inglewood, at Inglewood; Stratford v. Tukapa, at Stratford. The Okato-Star match last Saturday at the country township provided a very interesting game, and, judging by the work of both teams, Saturday football should prove well worth following. There are prospects of some good exhibitions of rugby when the greenness of the players wears off. The country club's ground is not quite as smooth as a bowling green, but it is level compared to some of the countrygrounds that football is played on. It is understood that Okato intend to arrange f«r a more suitable ground if pos-, sible. The coastal township is much handicapped by the want of a recreation ground reserve, and have to rely on the generosity of private owners to supply the deficiency when a ground is required, The match, although keenly contested until want of condition caused Okato's pace to slacken, was played in a moat friendly manner. A high tribute of praise is due to the referee (Mr Geo. Griffiths) whose control of the game gave satisfaction to all who know the game. There was one occasion when a free i kick was awarded Star from which at goal was kicked that some adverse com-* ment was made, as it was thought that he had awarded the penalty against the: player who followed up and kicked the ball. This was not the case, as three other men were off-side. Stars quite enjoyed the outing and are looking forward to their next trip down the coast. Hill and Daily were easily the best of the Star backs. Both take the ball well, and run and pass with judgment, but for' them the game might have ended -differently; Hill scored two tries, and' was mainly responsible for he third. S'eldon- .was very weak. ' Bain at full-back did all that was required of him. His kicks gained much ground. Pfankuch at five-eights was slow at getting the ball out to his threequarters M'Alhim: and Dewar on the wings played dashy beady, games. The former matte Some ;:fkie openings for his backs. }]e,' however, has a tendency to play (Sff-side. All the forwards grafted hard, tjut Hawkins stood' out. . IhtfiOkato. forwards played a great, 'igamn in the early part of the .contest,; They had the advantage of the weight) "itnd > were easily superior in the loose.- ' L. Carey, Andrews, Poe and Eustace ' ere. prominent. . Power and Andrewa.on the., wings, although opposed to such doughty opponents; played a. •«oK4: -game; Ktipi, at five-eighths, did ®ot "playr with his usuala dash, although* he-did-some useful work at times. Malorier i centre' three-quarter, was the pick of tho.-backs, and played a very safe game. .31 is line kicking was' marvellously well judged, anil gained much ground. His defensive work was good, particularly in the last quarter of an hour, when he •saved'the situation repeatedly. Sullivan .and Rua, 'on the wings, were not too safe.. Sullivan has. a nasty habit of waiting for tile bounce. He did not ap- ' pear, to appreciate his sample of the association game, i.e., when the ball landed on his head. The tackling on both sides was \yretqhed. Okato, however, were tho worst" offenders. Go low. It is no use" ipaking grabs at an opponent's neck, it is only so much waste of time; make a •live for his legs. Then if you . reach llinvyou are certain to bring him- down:' were -very 'few decent tackles' during the afternoon. Putt, howeVei'S fljt the ■ conclusion of the game, col* Jnred "Daly in a very workmanlike manner, and saved a certain try. Okiito.'-'caiV considerably strbngthefri team,' as I last week's fifteen wtae .got' together at short notice. Htika' 'ylaftin, Who toured Australia with {lift ' natives, will'pi'ob'ably filid a place in the I backs, and vF. Rothery and Grcenwhyi in | jthe'-'forw.ards'.- : ' •' u -i With the exception of several good ga ss I tig 'rushes by Rovers backs, the 'in 'tllte Recreation Ground's', tyS't'l j Saturday was very uninteresting'.'" 1 OcS'l <)fisionally the forwards started a go<|3! rush, but liiek of combination and eW- . ilitfori prevented much good being do'nij/ jjhe line-kicking was poor. United'being 1 the worst offenders in this; respect. Bdjtlr tea ins "badly want practit% ! -in scri.immag-' ing. as well-packed scrum's Wre noticeable by' their absence, with the resjilt (fiat the ball did not come out cleanly. ■The' tackling on both sides was vcry f poor, the majority of the players goirtg 1 for tile neck. The score against "United would'nut have been so large had their back's tticklcd in proper style. ' Pfitt, full-back, played a good sound game' for Rovers, and did some goqa kicking, lie catches well and picks iip a rolling ball cleanly, but is inclined ,to be too <'Ool. ' . Webster, on the wing, did good work in the first spell, and bad bad luelc'iri not snoring a couple more tries. Ho' played full-back in the seeond half, h.iv-, ing received a nasty knock on the leg when scoring bis try, I. and. A. Grant, centre and wing, were easily the best backs on the ground. m? (bev played splendid football. Their kicking and passing were exceptionally good, and one of the tries notelic! by T. Grant, was the result of a prett . passing rush between him and his bro'lu-r. Thompson, five-eighths, made some niee openings, but held on too long, and his passes to bis throe-quarters suffered i-i consequence, some of them being a!, n 1 ,' the ground. TTis goalkiekitig was fair, but he should have registered more than one goal, some of the she'- being in good positions. Laing, half-back, does not get the ball away quick enough, and is rather fund of picking the ball out of the serum. Among the forwards, Reid was easily the best, ami he played a dashing game. Tie is "ist and willing, and with a bit of coai-ing. should develop into a first class J,;.in. R. Cokor played a very vigorou- ..'Mine, in fact, too vigorous at times. Itaker got away with the ball nicely a; tiir-'s. and made several good openings hut was inclined to kick too hard. Kisb' . ightlis for United, played a very -.i'M i.jmp, but did not get much support "i-.hi! his backs. ITc made two poor af' a.'ipls to land goals from very easy pii-i^nns. Skip]). ; !:-i'f-back. is a nuggetty plavcr. -. '".wed up well at times. He pin ved .• ' ■ 1 ~)• game on the wing ih (lie see"' 'T. Tito. . it. is possessed of a fair anioun: »' y.we, but does not use it to advant 1!,'.-. He should have scored in the fir-' ' ' bail be let himself out. The fi - . .r Is all played a hard game, but bad' I. 1 'iiit a leader. Maxwell did some ver, ..Tectivc tackling, and played a good gap; throughout. Cliarteris also plavcil v.i ; , but is inclined to play

off-side. Goss is a young player who/ 1 ought to improve with coaching. ' It is to be hoped that United will get a full muster for to-day's match, as twelve men instead of fifteen will not win matches for them. They ought to give a good account of themselves later on, as they are mostly young players, and with condition and combination ought to shake - things up a bit. That weight is not everything was amply demonstrated in the llaweraOkaiawa match, says the Hawera Star. The Hawera forwards would probably average a stone lighter than their opponents, but they pushed the latter with comparative case in the scrums. The big Kaponga team, from whom great things were expected, also went down before Opunake, although no information has come to hand as to the weight of the latter team. In previous years the Opunake men have been a pretty solid lot. "Agnopak" in the Hawera Star, some of whose notes were published in this column last week, has the following in-, teresting notes this week: A ball that! is placed oil the goal line by one of the] attacking party is a try. Though aJ simple rule, yet in the minds of some] there is confusion on this point, and they think no try has been scored till! the goal line has been crossed. If placed on the goal line by a defender' it is a force. I Some doubt exists in the mind of some spectators as to when a man is, out of bounds. A player, with the ball,I is out of bounds should any part of hia body swing across the touch line; but a player may be out of bounds and play the ball providing that he had not the ball at the time he went over the touch line. A ball blown over the line and back into the field pf play, whether on the ground, or in the air, is out of bounds. If the ball, or a player holding the ball, touches the corner post it is touch-in-goiil. Passing the ball off the ground is an I oft-disputed point. Again and again I have the crowd criticised the referee for allowing what they consider passing off the ground to pass unchallenged! The rule reads: "If the ball whilst in his hands touches the ground he cannot! pass the ball to one of his own side." That is very clear, so if the player falls and jthc ball does not touch the ground, then the player is free to pass the ball to one of liis mates. This is often done, and; the crowd, with an enthusiasm bocn. of ignorance, cry out for a free kitfe . , . . ' players would also do well to rqroember that once a player is tackled; brought down, and the ball touch.es the ground, it can only be broughj, into play again by means of the r fpo.t. .He,must not on any consideration, if. near the line, lift the ball andj.push it a?;;<(iB the line, for a try eaiißojb be..registered in this fashion if theynaforae-is up, to his business. W)iety ; is a try sqoKy}? Certainly not when, a,,player.crosses his own line and boujjoes ~the ball. Many a player has .tri{#>g. in this way. The ball, must, he ,to the ground, .although ,tlie. pressure . may only be the fraqiiop; A good definiJ">l .9il%..try Vi..,%t hand, ball and .ground must oe irr.ftofltact a t the same . Junior jrefejrecs are asked to pfider, to see that this rule,, is observed, aiso that a ball <js Surged, of/ Hob ,forced, as the eaes may . JbQM#less-ness,jatj such a juncture may tojrou^e, ; i.