FOOTBALL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12648, 8 November 1905, Page 5

FOOTBALL.

THE " DAILY CHRONICLE'S "

VIEWS.

HIGH PRAISE FOR THE

COLONIALS

United Press Association.—Copyright. SYDNEY, November 7. The London " Daily Chronicle " says, respecting the iMiddlesex match :—Even the magnitude of the score does not adequately express the superiority shown by the New Zealanders over the Middlesex fifteen, who were to expose the limitations of the Ne>v Zealand game. .The Middlesex backs, supported by an equally semi-inter national division of backs, was to resist where other counties had subsided. The hopeful expectation of a sensationally even game drew an.'attendance which, in numbers and spirit, was more appropriate to an Association cup tie than to the {hitherto moribund Rugby game. There were times when the spectators were able_ to exclaim—" Now Middlesex are doing well! " This meant the temporary suspension of try-making on two oocisions. The fact that they $re so readily remembered is in itself an expression of the .general" trend of the play. Middlesex, might have scored once, their failure to pursue the attack to a successful issue being due to their own weakness rather than to the superlative opposition, but, -in truth, the New Zealanders wei*e not in the least danger when the other side had the ball. The certainty with which' they build •order out of chaos, the consummate ability displayed in reversing an attack, the supreme subtlety _in feinting, inexhaustible stamina, perfect application of strength as well as economy of it, and the automatic regularity of their backing up, all these and many other qualities were left vividly impressed on the minds of the spectators. These New Zealanders do not stop short at stifling a rush ; they turn defence into attack with such bewildering rapidity as to prove that the scrummage itself is a mere detail, the outcome of which is of the slightest consequence. The fact that they succeed in the scrum as well as out of it indicates their general strength. There is nothing in the game in which they do not excel. Yesterday's kicking into touch was not quite so.consistent as usual, but, on the other hand, their feinting and passing was perhaps cleverer than had previously been the case. On the occasion of the third try Hunter (one of the five-eighths) writhed and slathered through the Middlesex backs to the utter discomfiture of Maddocks and Godfray. The fourth try— the .first unconverted —was-'the sequel to one of the most consummate bits of .^deception possible to see.* Wallace, getting the (ball close to the touchline, and by shaping to acknowledge his difficulty, actually getting over, though both Hosken and Maddocks were waiting for him. These' Middlesex cracks, who are certainly not without honour in their own county or counties, faded away into abject nothingness. All the cleverness possessed in the pack was stifled at -birth, where the home team were neither so quick . nor so clever as the New Zealanders, who converted this game as much to the exposure of the impofcency of their opponents as to their own brilliance. Even when they were held they were still active, as, for instance, in the case of Stead,, who managed to find touch with a" brilliant long scrum-kick while he was feeing pulled round for the second time. If there was any outeanding genius, however, it was Smith. .