PICKING THE ALL BLACKS

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 10, 23 September 1927, Page 5

PICKING THE ALL BLACKS

--_-_--_ TRIAL GAMES REVIEWED FULL BROADCASTS COMING,

| The sports organiser of the Broadfasting Company, Mr, A. R. Allardyce, thus sums up the significance of next mreek’s Rugby fixtures :- During the next few weeks listeners throughout New, Zealand will have the opportunity of hearing running descriptions of the various major trials in connection with the selection of the All Black team to go to Africa next peason. Most readers will appreciate the diffi@ulties surrounding the selection of a teally representative national side, and the New Zealand Rugby Union are to be complimented on arranging such an ‘extensive series of eliminating games. © Although the trials will entail a tertain amount of hardship on some of the players, especially those who are Weft in towards the finish, the strenuous mature of these games-and the number of them will all be to the good of the ‘eause, and should give Dominion-wide confidence that no one worthy has been overlooked.

Some trial games in Smaller Centres fhave alneady been played, but this wreek sees what is really the serious stage entered upon, for there are trials in Wanganui, Auckland, and Dunedin. (fhe games at Dunedin and Auckland on Saturday, September 24, will be Hroadcast by stations 4YA and 1YA re-

Bpectively. | On the following Wednesday, the @8th instant, 8YA will broadcast the ‘game in Christchurch-South Island Possibles v. Probables; and on October 1 at Wellington we come to the interisland fixture. On the following Wedwesdav, October 5, the final trial ot all New Zealand Probables v. Possibles will be played in Wellington, and as there are twenty-nine players to make the trip, it is reasonable to suppose that the majority of players in this game will be included in the team of

The team, which has to leave New Zealaud early next yeat, will be defihitely selected after this game, and the selection will be anxiously awaited by people in all parts of New Zealand. The selectors have an unenviable task as they have undoubtedly a national responsibility, but as they are all men who have the confidence of players, the public can rest assured that parochial ‘ §uterests will not cloud their judgment. The tour is probably one of the most important a New Zealand team has ever undertaken, as in the eyes of the Rugby world the question of supremacy lies between Africa and New Zealand. The

tour of the Springboks in 1921 proved that they were foemen worthy of out steel, and the result of the tests left honours easy. It is felt that 1928 will be merely a continuation of that duel. The tour outlined is a very strenuous one. Playing under strange conditions at varying altitudes, and on harder grounds than obtain here, the New. Zealand team will be severely tested. The only line the critics have to go pon is the successful tour of the New Zealand Army team through Africa in .1920, and the improvement in New ZeaJand play since 1921. ‘I‘hese factors

tend to make the prospects of New Zeafand’s success fairly bright, and if all the players available can make the tour, we can rest assured of our side being a worthy one. | It is felt that the broadcasting of football generally, and representative and trial games in particular, cannot fail to arouse an added interest in the minds of listeners, and that the general nterest in the 1928 selection will be greater than ever in the history of the game in New Zealand, and that the interest in the doings of the team will be heightened to a greater extent thax hitherto.