WHO WAS THE BEST FULL-BACK?
Mark Nicholls Has A Tactful Answer
T’S an old game picking the best World ] Rugby fifteen, but it seemed at times during Mark Nicholls’s first talk about his preferences as if he might have a new answer to the first question, "Who was the best full-back?" He obviously liked W. E. Crawford, who played for Ireland against the All Blacks in 1924, and will be remembered by two New Zealanders particularly well: Gus Hart and Jim Parker, whom he brought down with tackles now written into Rugby history. "He was the only full-back who played as well as Nepia. It is, in fact, a question whether he was not a shade the better," said Nicholls. And the speaker obviously liked the Springbok, Morkel, who played in his ninth year of first-class Rugby in 1921. Crawford was 33 years of age when he played against New Zealand, and Morkel was 32. Nicholls suggested that all really great players retained ~ their ability over a long period. Others listed were Kingston and Dave Lindsay (All Blacks), Johnson (Wales), Brough and Bassett (England), Ross (Australia), Tindill, Morkell, and Brand (South Africa). Nicholls said he thought Brand’s kicking superior to that of any other full-back. He ranked Brand with Morkel as the two best full-backs ever to visit New Zealand. About Nepia he had more to say, but nothing so illustrative of Nepia’s ability as this story of play in the Dunedin test against England: From play on New Zealand’s goal line, Nepia found touch at halfway. From the lineout he was given a penalty kick and found touch two yards short of England’s goal line. ith a wet and heavy ball he had covered ~ the length of the field with two kicks. Nicholls believed that others might have been more consistently acdurate, but Nepia’s kicking covered such great distances that no return could hope to make up the ground he gained. Who was the best full-back? ‘a Nicholls was tactful, and not so revolutionary after all.
"If I were an Irishman it would be Crawford. If I were a South African it would be Morkel. But since I am a New Zealander, I say it is Nepia."
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 September 1939, Page 51
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368WHO WAS THE BEST FULL-BACK? New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 September 1939, Page 51
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