FOOTBALL

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1928, Page 13

FOOTBALL

NEW ZEALAND REFEREES CONFER ASSOCIATION MEET'S AT NELSON. Bj Telegraph. —Press Association. Nelson, April 9. The annual conference of the New Zealand Rugby Referees’ Association is being held in Nelson during the whole of the Easter holidays. Mr. D. McKenzie, in the course of bis presidential address, said there was no business of startling importance to be brought before the conference. The rules were carefully considered and, as the result, several recommendations will be made to the union. On 'Saturday the delegates were accorded a reception by th© Mayor. The annual report stated that the executive felt that all eligible and capable referees should be given an equal opportunity of controlling big fixtures. This could only be done by the appointment of a board of the Ne-w Zealand Rugby Union to make all appointments from lists forwarded by the different Rugby Union's and Referees’ Associations. The next conference will be held in Palmerston North. A motion to remove the headquarters from Wellington and to make it movable was lost -by two votes. The election of officers resulted:— President, Mr. D. McKenzie; executive, Messrs T. A. Fletcher, J. 11. Frances, L. Servers, G. Bradley, A. M. 'Sims and H. J. McKenzie. The position of honorary secretary and treasurer was left to be filled, Mr, Sei vers, who has occupied the position for the past lo years, refusing nomination. He was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his services to the association. A PRINCE OF FORWARDS. MAURICE BROWNLIE’S RECORD. CAPTAIN OF M2B ALL BLACKS. Two of the greatest secondary schools of the Dominion and two of its greatest Rugby rivals, have contributed the captain and vice-captain of the 1928 All Blacks. St. Patrick's College, which taught Maurice Brownlie his football, is just across the road from Wellington College, where Mark Nicholls developed his genius as a Rugby tactician. There are some amazing coincidences in the selection of these two players to fill the important posts of catain and vice-captain on the South African tour. lor one thing, Maurice Brownlie is the second Hawke s Bay sheep farmer to be called on, within a few months, to lead a New Zealand side on a great tour. The other was T. C. Lowry, whoso ancestral homestead, Okawa, is about thirty miles from Brownlie’s upcountry station, a property called Rocky Hill. Then again, Nicholls and Brownlie are members of the only two families which have both given three brothers to 4 11 BJack teams. Mark Nicholls, “Doc” Nicholls and Ginger Nicholls have all worn the All Black colours, and so have Maurice Brownlie, Cyril Brownlie and the lesser of the massive

, A DUAL CELEBRATION. ; One day in 19-24 the boys and the i staffs of St. Patrick's College hap- ; pened to gather for some sort of a coni- ; Lined celebration of more than usual . importance. News of New Zealand’s great victory over Wales, wiping out an old score, had just come through, and one of the speakers was thus able to make timely observations. , It was signally gratifying for both , schools, he said, that in the Welsh I match the first try had been scored by , Mark Nicholls. The two men are great figures in , Rugby, not only in New Zealand, but also in the ’ world-wide application of the game. After the All Black tour of 1924-25 Brownlie was hailed as one of the greatest forwards of all time, and Nicholls as one of the greatest backs. Outside New Zealand, Brownlie’s only contemporary rival at the time of his greatest triumphs was W. W. Wakefield, the English skipper, who has. paid generous tribute to the New Zealander in his fine book on the game. There is now another claimant to the same rank, in the person of J. A. Ford, the giant Waratah forward; and perhaps a rival may be discovered in South Africa. But it is only on the evidence of homeric performances extending, as Brownlie’s have done, over a long period of years, that admission to his class can be conceded. A son of James Brownlie, a man of the same colossal frame as his three sons, Maurice Brownlie was born in the early [fiirt of 1898, and is just on 30 years of age, Cyril being a year older. The brothers were eighteen and nineteen respectively when they got to Egypt with the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, and it was there that they saw their first serious football along with Jock Richardson and ' J H. Parker in matches for the historic Moascar Cup, which got its name from the base camp where the matches were played. TOWARD DAMASCUS. For a time, in the campaign consummated when Allenby reached 1 Damascus, there was more serious I work LLfcn Rugby afoot, but on their return to New Zealand the brothers I threw themselves with zest into Rugby i and came down from their Puketitiri < sheep run to assist the newly-formed t Hastings club. < Their play at first was extremely 1 crude, and not until 1921 did Maurice, i who was improving rapidly, get a e game for Hawke’s Bay. In that year 1 Laurie, the third brother, was at the f

i top of his form. He got a game for • the North Island and a game for New [ Zealand before a knee injury put him ; out of the game for good. Meanwhile ( Maurice was coming into the limelight, : and was studying the game with such • enthusiasm that he already showed his ( champion class. He captained Hawke’s Bay-East Coast in the game against i the Springboks (Tom Heeney played : in the game), and in the next year represented the North Island with such success that he was chosen to go to Australia with the team captained by “Moke” Bellis. While this tea: i was absent, Hawke’s Bay descended on Wellington and lifted the Ranfurly Shield. The following season Brownlie stepped into the captaincy, and his influence was a great factor in the Bay’s run of success. Hard-case footballers became unexpectedly docile when Brownlie was captain, yet the iron hand was well hidden in the velvet glove, and the big man’s popularity and personality were such that an endeavour was made, in 1925, to induce him to be a candidate for the Napier seat at the Parliamentary elections. He is a serious student ot world affairs, a capable speaker, and a man of great strength of character. No one in Hawke’s Bay will be surprised to see him turn to public life when his football days are over, and few are better qualified to enter it. As captain of the All Blacks Brownlie 'brings to his position the resources and social qualifications of a man of substance, plus the playing skill of a forward whose play has occasionally been little short of super-human. As captain he may perhaps be too austere to be generally popular, but he will be sincere in his job. Off the field he plays » fine game of

■ tennis, hitting with .a power the writer bas seen equalled only in that other great sportsman, A. P, F. Chapman, and he is also a splendid swimmer. In a bathing costume Brownlie is a magnificent figure. Six feet in height, and fourteen stone in -weight, and a man of prodigious strength, he is perhaps the finest physical specimen that has ever represented New Zealand. In international games he has scored seven tries, and altogether he has scored 148 points in big football, a remarkable record for a forward.—Auckland Sun.