Leaves Of A Sportfolio

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7280, 6 October 1933, Page 5

Leaves Of A Sportfolio

the scries of Rugby Tests l)ctwecn Australia and South Africa, which ended in favour of the Springboks by three matches to two, I lie general opinion among South African Rugby supporters was, so far as it could be judged from the distance away from it, that the South African team this year is stronger than that which drew tlie Test rubber with the New Zealand team in South Africa five years ago. If that opinion is well founded —and it probably is, for this lime the South African side has had the advantage of being built very largely on the team which toured the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1931-32 season in those islands—the Australians have come out of the series with a record very much better than was expected. Their record is, indeed, very closely comparable with that of the All Blacks five years ago. Statistical comparisons may be unfair, and probably are, because it is impossible to have a means of exact comparison of team-strength. 'l'ct they present some resemblances which arc rather interesting.

In the five Tests of this year South Africa scored 50 points to Australia’s 42—an average of 10 points a match for South Africa and 8.-10 for Australia. The New Zealanders played four Tests, instead of five, and in these games South Africa scored 80 points lo New Zealand’s 20—an average of 9.75 for South Africa and (i. 75 for New Zealand. So South Africa’s average margin of points from Australia was only I.GO, whereas against the All Blacks it was exactly three points. The Springboks’ most decisive defeat of New Zealand was by 17 points to 0, in the first of the Test, matches; their heaviest defeat of the Australians was by 17 to 3, also in the first Test. In the two matches in which the All Blacks of 1928 were beaten. South Africa scored 28 points to f>; the two Tests in which the Australians suffered their most decisive defeats gave South Africa 28 points to 3.

The fact that South Africa’s average margin of points this year was less than it was five years ago, and the opinion that South Africa is stronger this year, may lie set off against the fact that the All Blacks drew their Test series, whereas the Australians lost their rubber.

The New Zealanders of 192 S lost their first and third Tests, and won their second and fourth: the Australians won their second and fifth. The All Blacks’ biggest win in the scries was in the last match, which they won 13-5. Their win in the second Test was by only one point—7 to 6. But that second Test was at Johannesburg, and even the onepoint win was very notable, for teams from other countries are tried severely by the effects of the high altitude of Ihat city. Some of the Australians who had been inclined to regard as exaggerated what they had been told about the effects of this altitude arc now convinced that it had not been exaggerated. The Australians were beaten 12-3 in their Test at Johannesburg.

Australia has, however, the satisfaction of having given South Africa the heaviest two defeats the latter country has ever suffered in Rugby. Eight points form the largest margin that

a British team has enjoyed against South Africa, and also the largest that New Zealand has had against that country. In this year’s series Australia beat the Springboks by 15 points (21-6) and 11 points (15-4). This fact, viewed against the background of the tour generally and the results of the other matches in the Test scries, illustrates the mercurial nature of the Australian team. When it has freed itself of the opposing team’s type of play, and imposed its own style of. play on the match, it has won decisively, and has exposed very clearly the limitations of tlie single-track method of play—scrum, kick to the line, scrum, kick to the line, and so on—on which South Africa relies for success.

Although they will return lo their own land with a match-record which, for the whole tour, is not so good as that of the All Blacks of 1928, the Wallabies have done a great service to Rugby—South Africans themselves admit it readily—by showing tlie people of South Africa how brightly the game can be played. New Zealanders appreciate the difficulties they have had to contend with, and. I am sure, are very appreciative of their performances in general.

These notes arc, perhaps, a little too statistical, hut the figures I have mentioned are a useful introduction to a discussion of one or two aspects of the Wallabies’ tour to which I intend to make a little contribution at the next opportunity. A.L.C.