Jan 1952

RUGBY FOOTBALL, 1951 RETROSPECT It was no more easy to select the School XV of the year than it is now to assess its true worth. The winning of five and losing of three school matches would suggest a good average season, which is perhaps the fairest assessment that can be made; yet one inevitably comes to the conclusion that in our own team and our opponents alike, whether victors or vanquished, there has been a dearth of talent this year, and all teams attained only a mediocre standard. Apart from our Captain, we possessed no noteworthy stars, nor, on the other hand, were we sorely troubled by the stars (if any) of our opponents.

The success or otherwise of the 1st XV depended more than ever on the spirit which pervaded them during the match. The School set off to a splendid start and raised our hopes immensely by defeating Durham by 21 points to 3 at Durham, a margin which has never previously been attained. It was, indeed, only the third victory ever achieved at Durham, a fixture which has existed almost continuously since 1882. On the other hand, without detracting from the credit due to our opponents, lack of team spirit was unquestionably the cause of our defeats at Bradford and 'Giggleswick, and no individual brilliance this year was ever likely to carry the School through to a one-man victory. Nor would we wish it so—team work is essentially our mode of play ! Great credit, however, is due to A. N. WyattGunning for fostering this much-needed spirit on so many occasions.

The School pack, of about average weight (11.4), was ably led

by H. W. J. Rigg, but never reached the standard that could be expected of a scrum which contained six old Colours. The back division, however, was singularly lacking in experience, for only D. I. Fletcher remained, and the absence of such stalwarts as M. E. Kershaw, M. G. Goodburn and P. J. Blincoe, was much felt. But as time went on they acquitted themselves very creditably. In defence we were very conscious of our weakness and it is very much to our credit that only two teams registered double figures against us; whilst in attack fresh life was brought to the line as soon as W. G. A. Maxwell was introduced at fly-half.

In the process of team-building and experimenting, no less than 24 boys played for the 1st XV, and will no doubt have derived much benefit from the experience. The pace and vigour of a 1st XV match never ceases to take the wind out of the sails of the uninitiated. For all this, the 2nd XV were below the standard of recent years. The incessant priority calls of the 1st XV were largely to blame for this state of affairs, but they finished in a blaze of glory by defeating convincingly a previously undefeated Worksop 2nd XV. 48