RUGBY NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 July 1937, Page 15

RUGBY NOTES

CRAVEN’S DIVE PASS. THE SOUTH AFRICANS’ FORM. (By “Front Row.”) Auckland for the first time saw the famous South African dive pass at its best in the match against tile Springboks, says the Star. Behind the Springbok pack was D. H. Craven, vicecaptain of the team, a master of the dive pass, who, throughout the match, threw amazingly long and accurate passes to his fly-half, T. A. Harris. It lias been said against the dive pass that the man who uses it is put out of action, but Craven’s passes were thrown so far and so accurately that Harris always had twice as much room to work in as D. Solomon. Therein lay the secret of the success of the Springbok back attack. Those who had gone to Eden Park expecting to see traditional South African football—the flyhalf kicking to the line with monotonous regularity—were surprised and delighted to find that this South African team plays football according to New Zealand ideas. Even in their own twenty-five the Springboks!, back line moved into attack with swift and accurate passing bouts that were always a menace to Auckland. Kicks to the line by the Springbok backs, with the exception, of course, of the full-back, G. H. Brand, could be .counted on the fingers of the one hand. Solid Tackling.

One of the most impressive features of the play of the whole South African team at Auckland was its very solid tackling. "Whenever a back or forward was laid hands upon he,was thrown to the earth in no half-hearted manner. If the touring side happens to have the good fortune to strike a hard ground during the tour, then the players in the opposing fifteen will know they have been tackled, and there will be bruises to attend to on the following day or so. A great deal had been written and heard about the famous dive pass of the half-backs, Craven and de Villiers. The speed with which Craven sent the ball out and the remarkable distance and accuracy he maintained were a revelation. This type of passing certainly gave the stand-off half plenty of room in which to work. It is said that de Villiers is equally as expert as Craven, although lacking the latter’s size and weight. Senior At Fourteen.

Everard Stanley Jackson, the Hawke’s Bay forward strongly in the running for All Black honours, was born at Hastings in January, 1914. His football experience began when he was nine years old, after his family had moved to the East Coast. "When only 14 years old he was promoted to senior with the Takararangi Club, and represented the Matakaoa Sub-Union, as a winger, the next year. In 1932 he played five times for tho East Const, ami when he went to' tho Wairoa district two years later he was immediately selected for the Hawke’s Bay team. In 1935 he played for the North Island and last season he played in the two Tests against the Australians, and also for the New Zealand Maori fifteen Otago Touring Team. With tho exception of AYatt, Smith, Black, Gillies, Fookes (backs) ami Horc and Foreman (forwards), the Otago

team for the northern tour, during which it will meet Mnnawatu, is practically the same as that which retained the Ranfurly Shield last year. New players in the backs are Bolton (picked as full-back with Taylor), Churchill (a promising wing three-quarter), Murray and Park (centre three-quarters), Bergban, formerly of North Auckland, and Bathgate, late of King Country (fiveeighths); and Howdcn (half-back), to relieve Simon. The five-eighth line will be Trevathan and Berghnn, with Simon at half, and the three-quarter line Mahoney, Murray and Churchill. The new forwards are Vosailangi (Fijian) and the champion University high juniper Barnes, who is playing in today’s shield game against Southland, and Murdock, who was reserve last year. Quaid, Laney, McDonald, Niven, Green, Murphy and Parkhill are all tried forwards who have led Otago to victory in shield games. Black, three-quarter, and Mahoney, forward, were not available. I High School Matches. Matches in prospect for the Palmerston North Boys’ High School first fit-, teen are those on August 19 against the Napier Boys’ High School at I\apiei and on August 21 against Te Ante at Waipawa. Auckland ’Varsity Forward. Twenty games have been played b\ the ’Varsity forward, L. Drake, for Auckland since 1932. He was not in the team to meet the Springboks, and it says much for his sportsmanship when sympathised with that lie was “glad for the sake of W. Lange,” a follow University player, who was preferred for one of the lock positions. Drake has, in the course of his five years as an Auckland representative, played in every position in the scrummage. In ’Varsity Rugby h 8 lias an enviable record. Beside playing in the three Tests at Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch against the combined Australian universities, Drake played in eight of the nine matches of the Now Zealand universities team in Japan in January and February, 1930. He scored a try for the Northern side when Southern universities won 3L—l4 at Wellington last year, and after being selected for | the 1937 game at Dunedin (again won by South, 20—12) lie bad to decline the honour. Forty Miles To Practices. Mr Paul Roos. who captained the 1906-07 Springboks in Great Britain.

has a university appointment at Stellenbosch, about 35 miles out of Capetown, and he has coached university teams for many years past and turned out innumerable champions, including his own son, who is at present an Oxford Rugby Blue. Mr Roos deserved liis greatness, for if ever anyone earned football distinction he did. Living 40 miles out of town, lie pedalled a push bicycle to and from his farm twice a week to practices, and again on match days. He would leave the farm at 3 p.m., do his training in the twilight—all practice in Africa is between knockoff time of work and dinner—and get home about midnight. Maori Referees. It is rather interesting to hear of the advent of another Maori referee in a year when the Springboks are making their second visit to this country. While the 1921 South Africans were touring the Dominion Mr Tom Parata very ably indeed controlled the

match against Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay, which the Springboks won 14—8, says a northern writer. That was only four days before the never-to-be-forgotten engagement with the allMaori fifteen, also decided at McLean Park, Napier, and which the South Africans won 9—B. There was plenty of trouble during the match and much of it afterwards, in the of a Magisterial inquiry into leakage of cable messages to Springbokland on “incidents” in the game. Now another Maori referee lias arisen in the person of Mr Harry Jacob, of Horowlienua, who had charge of the '"Possibles v. Probables curtain-raiser to the North v. South Island contest at Athletic Park on July 10. He was captain of the Maori team which beat New South Wal6s in the Test rubber in 1922, the same year in which the All "Blacks lost “the ashes” over there. New South Wales vanquished Belliss’s All Blacks B—6 in the final Test, while the Maoris beat the Cornstalks 23—22.