THE NEW ZEALAND PROFESSIONAL TEAM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8499, 31 July 1907, Page 7

THE NEW ZEALAND PROFESSIONAL TEAM.

ECHOES OF THE "ALL-BLACK" TOUR. SOME INTERESTING EXTRACTS. (By "Professional") In view of the fact that it has been definitely decided to send an "AllBlack" professional team of Rugby footballers to England to play against the Northern Union clubs, several extracts from letters to the London Daily Mail, written by members of the Northern Union, at the time of the "All Blacks'" tour in the 0!d Country, will no dcubt.be read with interest. After the match against Oxford University (New Zealand 47. Oxford nil), "G.G.L." wrote a letter to the Mali in which he stated that "the dubs that the 'all-conquering' New, Zealanders are now holding up to ridicule—which they certainly areit must.be remembered are 'no class,' but simply a lot of clubs who call themselves amateurs, and play whom they want and when they want, and whose men train when they want, and who are satisfied to kick off at any time, granted it is the same afternoon as the match was arranged for, just in a lackadaisical way, without any semblance of methoJ, such as was seen in the good old times before the 'death-blow' was delivered, when the best and brightest severed their connection and formed Ihe Northern Union And so it is that all our national footb;!! 'stars' are in the Northern Union, and I say, as others have said, 'the New Zealancers would simply be slaughtered by such teams as they are slaughtering English Rugby Union teams now.' But the pity of it is they eannnot play them, as these men —poor fellows! — are unclean; they would contaminate these colonial friends of ours with that terrible malady—professionalism!" When the "All-Blacks" defeated Yorkshire by 40 points to nil, F. \V. Cooper, of the Northern Union, wrote as follows:—"Had such passing as was seen at Headingley been attempted against, say, Warrington, Broughton Rangers, or Bradford (Northern Union teams), the colonials would have found themselves with many tries against them. .... What many old players like myself would like to see would be a match between a picked Northern Union team and the colonials. J have no hesitation in saying that I could pick fifteen players who would willingly give their ser/iees to play a match, and 1 have little doubt that my side would achieve victory. The wearers of the S Iver Fern have not been defeated, but they have not played the cream of English football. Such men play under the banner of the Northern Union. The men who opposed New Zealand at Headingley are the weakest lot who ever donned Yorkshire jerseys, and the visitors did not achieve arythi. g out of the common when they beat them." The writers of the above articles are now about to have iheir wish for a match between New Zealand and the Northern Union gratified, and to judge from the tone of the letters, the "All-Black" professionals will have to "look to their laurels" when they meet the "cream of English football." It would seem that a combination even stronger than the famous "All-Blacks" is required to defeat the redoubtable "star" players of the Northern Union. However, time will tell.