FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 July 1922, Page 3

FOOTBALL.

THE RUGBY GAME. TO-DAY’S FIXTURES SENIOR A. Hawera v. Tukapa, ar Hawera. Patea v. Okaiawa. at Patea. Stratford v Opunake, at Opunake Clifton v. Waimate, at Manaia. SENIOR B. Old Boys v. Eltham, at New Plymouth. Okato v. Inglewood, at Okato. Star t. Lepperton, at Lepperton. FIXTURES FOR NEXT WEEK. AT HAWERA SHOW GROUNDS. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1. 1.30 pm., Wanganui B v. Taranaki B. 3 pjn., Wellington v. Taranaki. SATURDAY, JULY 8. I p.m.. North v. South Prhmary Schools. 2.15 p.m., Wanganui College v. N.P.H.S. POSITION OF THE TEAMS. The position of the teams is as follows: Senior A.

REPRESENTATIVE MATCHES PLAYED. v. Wanganui, Icat 12 to 9. REPRESENTATIVE FIXTURES ARRANGED. July s—▼. Wellington, at Hawera. Aug. s.—v. Wanganui, at New Plymouth. Aug. 10.—v. Maoawatu, at Stratford. Aug. 12—v. Auckland, at New Plymouth. Aug. 19—v. Wellington, at Wellington. Aug. 23—v. South Canterbury, at Timaru. Aug. 26—v. Southland, at Invercargill. Aug. 30 —v. Otago, at Dunedin. Sept.—2 v. Canterbury, at Christchurch. Sept. 16—r. Auckland, at Auckland. Bor? matches have to be arranged against •”>%, and possibly against North Auck:ENTRAL DIVISION. THIRD GRADE. ire the third grade fixtures in livision for to-day:— Midhirst, at Inglewood, 3 pum.. Hanchard. itford, at Toko, at 2.30 p.m., homas. •AMS FOR TO-DAY. ourth grade team v. High School irse No. 3, at 3 p.m. : Taylor, •ker, Thomson, Deacon, Philpott, J, Linn. Foot, Bird, Rea, Bar- , Hughes. Emergency: Harris, t juniors v. High School B, at >. 2, at 3 p.m.: George, Barnar, McMannus, Pascoe, Jury, ma. Hayter, Evans, McLachlan, 11, Thompson, Short, Govenlock. zEWOOD v. MIDHIBST. nng will represent Midhirst wood, at Inglewood, at 3 p.m. : ad (2), Walter (2), Reid (2), r, Meades, Barkin. Mills, Sangster, Lash, Norton, Jones, Adlam. TARANAKI V WELLINGTON. WELLINGTON TEAM. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, June 30. I A number of changes have been made in I the team to play Taranaki. ’ The following ‘Will go to Hawera: Full-back, E. Brook; | three-quarters, Malfroy, Wogan, Tunnington ; five-eighths, B. Algar, M. Nicholls; half, H. lE.IE. Nicholls; forwards, Fitzgerald (wing), j Standon, Wylie, Troy, Moffit, J. Shearer, I Duncan, Mcßae; emergencies, Whiterod, Udy.

NORTH ISLAND v. SOUTH. THE TEAMS FOR TO-DAY. Auckland, June 30. The teams for Saturday's Rugby match are:— North Island.—Brook (Wellington), Siddells 1 (Wellington), Hickey (Taranaki), Borrell . (Bay of Plenty), M. Nicholls (Wellington), | Byrne (King Country). H. Nicholls (Welling- • ton). Bellis, captain (Wanganui), Calcinnai j (Wellington). McCullough (Auckland), O’Brien I (Auckland), Brownlee (Hawke’s Bay), Cupj pies (Hawke’s Bay), Masters (Taranaki), and Shearer (Wellington). . South Island.—Bell (Otago), Svenson -Wes: Coast), Steele (West Coast). Fitzgerald ; (West Coast). Dickenson (Otago), Fea. cap- ! tain (Otago). Matthewson Otago). Carnegie .’ Canterbury». Goodall (West Coast). Smyth : (Canterbury). Whyte (Southland), Richardson j (Otago), Williams Otago), Turpin (CanterI bury). THE MAORI TEAMS. 1 By Telegraph.—Presa Assn.—Copyright Sydney, June 30. The League Maori team has concluded its tour and sails to-morrow. The Union Maori team will play the third test on the Sth and the Metropolitan team on the 12th. It will sail on the 13th. TO-DAY’S MATCHES. Principal interest to-day will centre in me meeting of Hawera and Tukapa at Hawera, and a great game is expected. Tukapa have hot yet been beaten, but the southerners are confident of lowering their colors. Prominent supporters point out that it is over 8 years since Hawera were defeated on their own J ground. At Patea Okaiawa will meet the [ local team, and will have to play up to their best if they are to avert defeat. Stratford will meet Opunake at Opunake, and Waimate i play Clifton at Manaia. In the B grade Old : Boys meet Eltham at Eltham, and this ! should prove interesting, as should also the J Okato-Ingiewood match at Okato, and the iepper.oti-Star match at Lappartom

| THE REPRESENTATIVE TEAMS. The appearance of the two representative teams was awaited with interest, and there is no doubt that the work of the selectors will be criticised, and they will be both praised and blamed. The A team is the most important. Forward no fault can be found [with it, and with combination the pack will take some beating; in fact, it will be a good pack that will lower its colors. The backs, . however, do not please everyone, though the I selectors, who are probably three of the best men in the province to-day as far as gauging - the merits of players go, should know. Atkins. at half, is playing no better than last vear, when it was considered a younger man I was required. Certainly on Thursday’s play j he was better than Berg in defence, but one i would like to see a half that would open up the game more. Of the five-eighths Coutts i is playing as well as ever, whilst Johnson 1 is a young player of the right type. RobI erts’ Inclusion at centre is the main bone of I contention. He is a great general, but has ‘ had his day, and many would prefer to see I a younger player, say Ennis, in that position. Of the wings Hickey is, of course, right, but VaufSum, though he appears to hare the qualifications, being fast and nippy and sound in defence, has not been tried there, having played centre, where his weakness is in his failure to pass. Robertson, at full-back, is also out of his usual position. He is a good tackler, takes and kicks well, and may fill the bill. The B team is a good one, and should be capable of giving a good account of itself. Many would have preferred to see Sykes included instead of Bell. NEWS AND NOTES. The first round of the senior A competition closed on Saturday, and the result of t,he matches made slight alteration in the position of the teams. Hawera, by defeating Patea, maintain second position, while the latter drop into fourth position. Okaiawa, who defeated Stratford, go into third position. Clifton, by defeating Kaponga, advance a pHice and now occupy fifth position. The other places are unaltered.

It was generally thought that Patea, on their own ground, would extend Hawera. but the latter were always too good. Patea had several opportunities in the first spell, but their backs did not make the best use of them, and when the spell in which they had the advantage of the wind closed without score that ended their chance of success. Hunt, Crompton and.Spratt were the pick of the Patea pack, and Sullivan and McKenna of the backs, thcugji the latter was too apt to get in front of his (man. Of the Hawera pack West played a great game, his footwork being particularly good. Fogarty, Sutherland, and Murphy were also prominent. Osborne, at wing forward, played a solid game. Hawera backs, though somewhat disarranged, did good work. Wills getting the ball away well. Robertson was solid in defence, but spoilt his attack by holding on. Anderson played in the three-quarter line and shaped well. Wilkinson was not given many opportunities. bu 6 scored a nice try. The Patea people are to be congratulated on the improvements to the ground and its appointments. They now possess the best appointed ground in the province. A feature is the splendid building which has been erected as a gymnasium, and is equipped with hot and cold water, etc. This should prove an invaluable asset to a team that takes the game seriously and trains properly. The Clifton teara has pulled itself together of late, and of the last four matches has won three, being defeated in the fourth by Okaiawa by a narrow margin. Okaiawa had a narrow win over Stratford, who were without the services of Vaughan. Dick Roberts is said to have practically played the whole of the Opunake gained their first victory by defeating Waimate, who had a weak team,' somewhat comfortably. There was little alteration in the position of the B teams, the three leaders gaining wins. Lepperton, however, somewhat surprised Inglewood, who just got home on the call of time. The match between Inglewood and Eltham will be re-played, the appeal council upholding Elthaun’s protest that the placer and kicker must not be the same man. Under ordinary circumstances the disallowal of the goal so scored would have meant a draw, but as the referee had allowed both sides the same privilege on several occasions, thereby committing several breaches, the council decided the match should be re-played. It is surprising the lack of knowledge among even leading players of the place kick rule. On Thursday, after being awarded a no charge, •the man about to kick interfered with the ball, and so lost his kick. This was right in front of the goal, and probably prevented the game ending in a draw. The proposal adopted at a aieeting of the management committee of the Rugby Union on March 31) to curtail the second round of fixtures so as to finish the competitions prior to the representative team touring the South Island, has raised a storm of protest. A special meeting of the union is to be held on Friday night to discuss the matter, and if the clubs wish it the full second round will be played. The management committee have no feeling in the matter, and acted in the interests of the clubs as a whole, and not of any one club in particular, as has been asserted. If the second round is to be played right out the competition matches will have to be continued on Saturday. A list of fixtures will be published early in the week so that clubs may be prepared to take the field in the event of the proposal being carried.

It will be a good thing to have a definite understanding on the matter. In the past when the cup final has been delayed until well into August, there have been serious complaints that the southern country teams were handicapped owing to the fact that their farms claimed their attention. Again, the playing of matches while teams were on,.tour was objected to, as it was held that the leading teams, whose men were taken, met the teams who lost no men at a disadvantage. There was sometimes a difficulty that a man was apt to place his club before his province, which after all must come first if Taranaki is to retain its position among the first-class provinces. However, the decision on Friday will be taken as a precedent in other years. Juncal footballers will take keen interest in the North v.- South Island match at Auckland to-day, and all will hope that Hickey and Masters will be at top form and earn their New Zealand cap, though they will be missed by the province. THE ASSOCIATION GAME. NOTES ON WEDNESDAY’S PLAY. Although Taranaki suffered defeat by the Australians by the large margin of 6 gaols to 1, they are to be congratulated on the excellent showing they made against a much superior eleven, both in combination and in training. The Australians are in good condition, and their short passing gaune was a treat to witness. Taranaki lost manj’ chances by their hard kicking and wild passes, and also through one or two of the team apparently suffering from stage fright. At least it would appear so, as they have played much better games in ordinary club matches. Given the same team with some practice together and training they would give a much better account of themselves. Great things were expected from the New Plycnouth centre forward, Fitzgerald, but he st-med to go to pieces soon after the game started and as his position is the most important one, especially in attack, the wings were not fed as they should have been. Woodhead. (New Plymouth), for a young player, showed great promise, and should develop into a first-class player. Freakley (Hawera), as usual, played a sterling game, and the goal he scored was easily the best goal of the day. Davis (Hawera), at outside ' left, played a good game as long as he last- | ed, but age will tell and against the Ausj tralian fliers he had no chance, but he did j his best. Thompson (Stratford), at outside , right, played a fair game, but had very little i opportunity ‘to shine. All the halves played ■ a solid game and saved the. situation time • and again. Jones at back outshone Barker, I his tackling and kicking being of a very high order. Johnston in goal appeared to be nerijuus and bad a bad UaWt leaving bit goa£

exposed. At. least two of the goals scored against hi-m might have been saved. For the Australians Bryant in goal had very little to do and what he did do. he did well. The backs were very safe and were never bustled. The halves played a good breaking up game.- and their passes to the forwards were always well judged. The forwards were a fast lot, especially the outside left (Thompson), who showed a. rare turn of speed. Dane, at outside right, was always dangerous, and the centre. Brown, was responsible for most of the goals. In fact, the whole team used their heads and feet to great advantage. They are a well balanced team, but it will take them all their time to win the third test match at Auckland on July S. Mr. L. C. H. Dawson, New Plymouth, is to be congratulated on being selected to referee this match. '

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