FOOTBALL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8110, 3 April 1906, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

Mr "Dicky" Owen, the Welsh international scrum half, appeared on the stage of the Swansea Palace of Varieties the other night in the unusual role of lecturer on football (says a Home correspondent). The subject of his address was "Why Whles beat the New Zealanders." Mr Coutts, ttie manager of the Palace, in introducing the noted footballer, stated that JVIr Owen did not appear for any pecuniary ga»n but simply aa a favour to him (Mr Coutts.) Mr Owen was enthusiastically received by the audience, and stated that though not an orator, he would "do bis best in his own sweet way." He said Wales went on $/? B®s 9? Wflfictenoe in their ability to make their doughty opponents "go all the way to win." He olaimed that W. Joseifb, of Swansea. an internation«l forward, had planned and carried out a method by which the Welsh pack was enabled to send the ball out of the scrum quite as often as the agile New Zealc.nders, and this considerably alterod tlio aspect of the game which the "All Blacks ' had been playing with monotonous regularity. Instead of frequently initiating attacking movements of "apparent brilliance," New Zealand had a taste of play which was aggressive, opportune, and methodical, and which they needed all tbeir skill and force to combat. In the lecturers' opinion, the capital movement which led up to the winning score was the only real opportunity offered to Wales, when two of the New' Zealand threequarters were lured on to the blind aide of the scrum, only to find the ball had been shot across in the opposite direction and their otherwise well-conceived defence pierced.