BIG FOOTBALL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 914, 15 February 1957, Page 12

BIG FOOTBALL

THE BATTLE FOR THE RUGBY CROWN, by Terry McLean; A. H. and A. W. Reed, 16/-. HE 1956 Springboks not only aroused unprecedented public interest in New Zealand; they also posed more baffling problems than any previous touring team. Their inconsistency on the field and some cryptic managerial pronouncements gave local critics a busy winter trying to reconcile incompatibles. Why did a team with so much talent make quite so many mistakes in elementary techniques? Why did it score scintillating tries and yet descend to aimless ineffectiveness in the same match? And why such an epidemic of pulled hamstring muscles? No one is better equipped than Terry McLean to probe into these and other mysteries. In general, he follows the successful pattern of his previous similar book, with very competent brief critical accounts of. all matches, a full statistical summary, pen portraits of all the tourists and other particularly good analytical chapters. He writes with zest, is eminently impartial, but not fright-

ened to take a stand where it seems justified, and has appreciably added to his reputation as our foremost Rugby author. ‘Some dubious puns, a tendency for sentence structure to become unnecessarily involved and a few obvious errors (the test scores on p. 10, for example) are minor defects in a book which will be read with keen pleasure by Rugby enthusiasts here, and no doubt with equal interest in the Union. Many people in this country will sympathise with his conclusion to the chapter on "Controversies and Lessons." He writes: "But when the shouting and the tumult had. died, with victory won and prestige enhanced, a question naggingly demanded an answer: Giving in the glories, which nobody would or could deny, and in which everyone could -afford to feel ultimate satisfaction, was Rugby worth booing and hard kicking and. rough play and denigration of referees and witch hunting of selectors? Surely the game could do without these things and still be a cause of rivalry, based upon the highest principles of sporting friendship, between South Africa and New Zealand."

R. G.

Wilson