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I: ANYBODY'S GAME."! I

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I: ANYBODY'S GAME. I I » DEFEAT WHICH CARRIES NO DIS- CREDIT. T I SWANSEA BEATEN BY CARDIFF MUD. (By" PENDRACON,") I Some people would have us believe that uie thing which we call luck exists! tralv in tho imagination. They toil us that skill always dominates over chance in football, which is tantamount to saying that the better team must neces- garilv win. We who have speci.alised in euch matters are, however, ready enough to admit tliat under certain con- ditions llugbv can become & game of i chance, rather than an exhibition of; skill. There was a case in jroint at| Cardiff on Saturdav. when Swansea lost bv a try, in weather which made foot- ball about the most di-sagreeable pastime imaginable. He would be a bold man I who wo%ld venture tho assertion that the better side won. As a matter of fact Swansea were attacking nearly all the time, only to be beaten. in the end bv \a super-abundance of Taffside mud| and" a deluge oc ra;n. It was a most.! disappointing result. and the more one; ponders over it the more is the convic-1 tion brought home that it would have: been better if the game had been abandoned. 1 am not making excuses, j I am merely stating facts. ) Farcical Football. j The game will go down in the records j as a triumph for Cardiff, but in reality the winners never shaped like a side capable of beating the All Whites on a line day. They won because Birch 1Jad the good fortune to charge down a kick by Dai Williams in the first few minutes. Call it opportunism if you like, but the fact remains that the try was gained more by accident than, design, and would probably never have been scored at ail under proper football conditions. 1 cannot remember ever having men the Cardiff ground in a worse plight. Portions of it were practically under water, and the whole enclosure was 6° treacherous that it was no novelty to see players skidding along at lull tret.ch for yards. The rc- feree had a mud bath through a, collision with Tom Williams, but fortunately for ( him'he manage-> to retain a hold, on his whistle. t I Some Humorous Positions, T here were some humorous situations; created as time went on. So completely disguised with mud were the majority of the players that it was impossible to tell to which. side they belonged. On a couple or occasions men were actually tacklod by their own clubmates! There were stoppages too, while some of the players had portions of Cardiff Arms Park rcmovoo from their eyes. And the ame is to be treat-ed seriously, even though full time could not be piayed, the sccond half being curtailed! For nearly the whole of the time there was a torrential downpour so that the blunders which were made from time to time were easily excused. Bancroft's Understudy. The oiit-;tkndn^ feature was, by com- ijvon consent, the play of Dai Williams, .at full-back for Called upon to doput iso KancrcTt at the eleventh hour Williams played what was easily the game of Ji • iife. Those who [..1. !him help the Whites to beat the South Africans, but who did not witness the I Cardiff match, will, no doubt, leel that no full-back could possibly have eclipsed the yre £ weather performance of the Glyn-Xeath man t I-tlvo months ago Jast .Boxing Day. Against the Africans Williams trxlded Avith a fearlessness which w?s astonishing. At Cardiff be not only did this l<ftÙ idntil condi- tions: he uiso 1,;C-! m&rreHous length, and ncldcd in a way winch woie times wljen the crowd literally ruse to him. His one mistake—if it coidd be called a mistake—was overshadowed, arid wherever football was talked about in Cardiff or. Saturday night it was to Wil- liams that tite lion's sha-re of the praise went. The i-wt of the fcjGks on both sides were troubled by the state of the grottad and the bail. Laming of Players. Kicks were charged down repeatedly, the ban being very difficult to rise aiidi quite as dimcult to handle. Leg injuries were also very frequent, but th)s lammg of players was not due to any ex:;s of I ngour. but to the condiHons. Swan- sea had a big pull at forward and at full- ¡ back. To my mind Harry Moulton was easily the best forward on the field. I liked the way in which McLean shaped at inside-half for Cardiff, but I was not so much impressed by Clem few-is, whose tendency to fly-kick was rather strange in a player of his class. The de- feat of Swansea under the circumstances carried 'with it no discredit. For on .such a miserable afternoon it was "any- body's game. Rubbing It in. They are still nibbing it in to Ban- croft up Cardiff way: Here is an ex- tract from the official programme* cir- culated at Cardiff Arms Park on Satur- day:- "So well did the Welsh te:1.m play last Saturday that there seems little prospect of any other Oaixiiff man be' Ûdc. Clem Lewis getting into tho national side this year. Still, Bobby Williams is most certainly a better full-back than Bancroft, anil ought to receive preference over the Swansea veteran. W. A. Stewjirt would not! have had such all easy journey to the line last. Saturday if Hobby had been there. Ho would probably have found himself enchained in an octopus-like grasp. I wonder whether the writer of the above saw any merit in the Wg'y in which Dai Williams overshadowed "Bobby" of that i:k? The Swansea Trip to Paris. After next Saturday's match with Neath, at St. Helen's, the All Whites will proceed to London, en route for Parjs. The team, it is understood, will not be at full strength. Stade Francais are to be played at the Park do Princes on Shrove Tuesday, and the return jottrney is to bo undertaken on the Thursday. Swansea, by the way, will not be playing at home for a month, after the match with ineath-not a very palatable arrangement., bearing in mind the fact-that the All Whites have not operated at St. Helen's since Jan. 3111t, when Leicester were here. International for Swansea. Following the Schools Rugby trial. East v. West, at Burton-on-TVent on Saturday, the following team was chosen to represent England against Wales at Swansea, in April:—Hancox ( Coventry), Ca-ri s (Birmingham), Hughes (Gloucester), Harris (Leices- j tor), Brown (Gloucester), Missen j (Leicestor), Gibbs (Birmingham), Ban- ner (Birmingham). Rklgewav (Burton), Hough (Coventry), Clench (Rugby), Newton (Coventry), Oram (.Bristol), Boyd (Bristol), Kllesmore (Glonccw I ter). Reserves: Dagley CBurton), Cleve- land (Gloucester).

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