THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM'S TOUR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12641, 31 October 1905, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM'S TOUR.

THE DEVON AND CORNWALL

GAMES

DETAILS OF THE PLAY

COMMENTS BY PRESS AND

EXPERTS

(By the Special Correspondent to -tine " Auckland Star.") LONDON, September 22. "Eh© amazing victory with which the New Zealanders opened their torn- at Exeter is now a matter of football history. The colossal score, 55 points to i, would tell its own tale to every follower of the game in the colony, and it only remains for me to confirm the impression to which such figures would naturally give rise. It was, of course, more of a walk-over than a match. The pace of the New Zealanders took the home team by surprise, and -very early in the game Devon lost heart and lout their heads. They "took it 'ying do am," as Mr Chamberlain would .say. And tho dasibmg New Zealamders showed them no mercy. The fact that the nomo defence had collapsed made them not a whit less keen ; they played jusi- as hard when th esoore was 50 to nil as they did at the start of tjhe game. Devon were so demoralised that they played far below their proper form—indeed, a sorrier display titan theirs has geldcia been witnessed in first-class football. It was a miserable exhibition on their part They cannot be said to have given battle to the New Zealanders at all. The fuilback ; Gi'lletfr, wore a hat btvroaguout the game, and might have added a sunshade for all the inconvenience it would l?;avf> caused in his play. Tie .toiio'iiud lie ball just twice in the cimrse of the match.! Onlyjon t/Wo occasions vwro tji© Devonians in the least dangerous Tn* first time hesitation on Vivya.Va part threw away, a, chance of scoring, but towards the end of the game Devon got within a few yards of the1')- <-pnon<ent<i' line, and Lillicnap dropped a Ihmu'..-I'ul goal. The pace and dash of Vie vit it- ing forwards were >a revelation to the Devou people, and the home team tvero completely baffled. The latter evidently went on the field expecting something wonderfully, new in the way of tactics, and instead of playing up they hung albout waiting for what was going to hanpen. What did happen was that the colonial forwards " rushed things " from the jump, and g^ve their opponents no time to pull themselves together. Start- , ing off at a tremendous pace, the New Zealand vanguard rushed the ball down inside tlhe 25, heeled out, and enabled Hunter to score first blood within three ■minutes from tihe kick-off. Devon seemed faiirly dazzled by the suddenness of the onset, and with one or two exceptions they never regained their selfpossession. The systematic packing of the colonial forwards wa6 another factor in their success. Their seven men were far more than a match for their eight opponents. They easily held the scrums, and as their front-rankers nearly always hooked the ball the New Zealand pack were able to give their back division abundant opportunities, of wnich ull advantage was taken. George Smith had quite a field day. The hurdle champion simply galloped round his opponents, and placed four tries to his team's credit. Wallace crossed the line three times; and Hunter twice, while Glasgow, Nicholson, and Stead scored a try apiece. Wallace in particular played a brilliant game, quite up to the best international form. The combination of the backs was not up to tihe We^h standard, but the fumbling that marred their play at times was perhaps excusable in their first match after a long sea voyage. From an Eng. lish point of view the only new feature about the colonials' back play was the*" practice .of keeping a three-quarter on guard behind the scrum when the team were attacking. lii this country >>u<s usually sees the whole four three-quar-ters lining out at the side of the sorum when near the enemy's line, with the result that if 'the opposing forwards break through they have a cloar field. " GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME »

" First 4Jie feast, then the pill." The general chorus of praise of the New Zealanders' game at Exeter was marr<yj by one discordant note. With staitluig unanimity the critics' d'soovered ami fastened firmly on "one blot" in the game as played by the Maocrilanders, and one, we are told, that is "against every canon in Rugby Union football." This 'blou is, of course, the work allotted to tihe "wing forward." According to "C. B. Fry's Magazine my poor old friend, Tom Ellison, claimed to have invented this personage in a Rugby team, and held that the "winger" need never tf ansgress the rules if he knew his business. Our English critics, however, condemn the wing forward utterly. They ban him by bell, book, and candle, goalposts, and referee's whistle. In spite of 'the Devonian debacle the crowd—sorely diminished, but still a fairly big one—gave the New Zealanders a rousing reception as they left the field. One point about this memorable game —probably the most memorable in the •annals of Devon football—was the condition of the New Zealanders at the finish. All through both spells they were going at top speed and they stayed right to the bitter end. This evidence' of fitness at the very commencement of the tour suggests that Mr Dixon will find it somewhat difficult to prevent stateness making its appearance among "his men ere they are called upon to tackle the most serious part of their programme, which I fancy will prove to be the serious of matches in Wales, commencing with (the international on December 16 and winding up with the game v. Swansea on December 30. The Devonshire team was as follows:— F. LJMicrtap (Devonport Albion), back; Lieut. Moir (Devonport Albion), A. J. R. Roberts (Barnstaple) E. J. Vivya-n (Devonport Albion), and F. Dean (Albion), three-quarter backs; R. Jago (Devonpoirt Albion) and J. Peters (Plymouth), half-backs; M. Kelly (Exeter), J. Tucker (Torquay Athletic), T. Willcocks (Plymouth), D. Gordon, W. Spiers (captain) and W. Mills (Devonport Albion), J. Huggins (Paignifcon), and W. Knight (Plymouth), forwards. The Devon captain, W. Spiers, is reported as saying that the New Zea'landers were the best team he had ever played against. " What do you think of their coming matches? " queried the reporter. " Why, I think they will beat every tea.ni they meet," was the candid reply.

" They are a grand lot," was the Devon secretary's opinion of the New Zealanders; " and I think they are good enough to meet anything we have in this country." Mr Carter, the ex-President of the D.R.F.U., was equally emphatic. "Out side were like a lot of cowfooys compared with them," he said.