WAIRARAPA RUGBY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1939, Page 11

WAIRARAPA RUGBY

IMPROVEMENT IN FORWARDS E. DENBEE GIVES OUTSTANDING DISPLAY. NEW BACKS WANTED FOR . REPRESENTATIVES. (By “Scrum-Half.”) Although Wairarapa were sadly beaten in their first representative engagement, it is indeed pleasing to know that the forwards are better this year than last. This is at any rate one step up the ladder. No doubt when Wairarapa meets Marlborough on June 17 there will be quite a lot of different faces in the rearguard. If he retains his present form E. Denbee, the Old Boys’ half, cannot be left out, and a good move would be to put R. O'Kane, the elusive Red Star live-eighth alongside him. At present O’Kane is very fast off the mark, but given the ball seconds faster as Denbee would, plus the fact that he would be able to stand yards further away from the scrum, O'Kane would give the best of fiveeighths a headache. It is about time that some of the younger backs were given a try out. It was indeed unfortunate that Brown was unable to jplay against the Bay. This meant a reshuffle in the back line with the result that players were playing out of their usual positions, and, no doubt, a certain amount of Wairarapa’s failure can be attributed to this unfortunate state of affairs. However, that does not give players an excuse to tackle poorly. Perhaps it would be a good idea if more tackling and less, kicking was practised by backs in Wairarapa Rugby this year. Carterton’s win over Greytown and Old Boys defeat by Gladstone now places Carterton at the top of the championship ladder, and on Saturday, Carterton will meet Old Boys the only' team in the competition who have so far lowered their colours. If the Old Boys' backs play like they did against Gladstone last week it will be just too bad. Masterton's first win over Red Stars for a number of years came like a bolt from the blue, and it goes to show that no team in the competition can be taken lightly. A notable feature of Wairarapa Rugby this year is the lack of passing done amongst the forwards of the various teams. This aspect of the game is one that forward packs would do well to cultivate, as many a try can be scored through short passing in the I forwards.

R. Mitchell was a tiger in the loose for Oldißoys against Gladstone last, week. Mitchell is a. player who will be catching the selector’s eye before very long as he is a good front ranker as well.

L. Mason gave an outstanding display of how a loose forward should work against Old Boys. He was always on the ball and when a dribbling rush was in progress his "snowy” head could always be seen in the van. An impressive display was also turned on by J. Bradnock, who packed on 1 the side for Gladstone. Bradnock goes hard all the time and is in wonderful condition. He did great work in the line-outs, especially when the throwin was a short one.

There is nothing outstanding about L. Foreman’s play, but there is no doubt that he is a great source of confidence to the Gladstone team. Only once did he make an error against Old Boys, but the Old Boys' forwards were not there to take the advantage of it. Throwing out long, accurate passes from the base of the scrum E. Denbee turned on the best display of half-back work seen on Memorial Park for some little while. Had the rest of the Old Boys’ backs played anything like a team the score would not have been 13-0 in Gladstone's favour. His general play was also well up to representative standard and he only ran when and where a half should.