S. Morse; the best three-quarter-back was H. Freeman, who would probably have been no less distinguished as a centre three-quarter-back in the modern game. In our early schoolboy days we well remember gazing with awe on these heroes of the past in their international caps, which were then a novelty, when they came down to play against the school.
In 1874 a challenge was received from Ireland, which was accepted for the following season. They were easily beaten for many years, but in 1882 the game was drawn, and after that the matches were very even, until 1887, when Ireland scored their first victory in what has unfortunately proved to be, for a time at all events, the last of this series of matches.
We have already explained how Mr. MacLaren and others got North v. South made a regular Union match in 1874; it remains to offer an explanation of the wonderfully long string of victories which have been gained by the South in these contests. When it is remembered that county football is very flourishing in the North, and apparently moribund in the metropolis, that they have hundreds of players in the North for every one in the South, and that there are dozens of good Northern club teams for every good Southern club team, the almost unbroken success of the South at first sight appears strange indeed; but if we look into the matter more closely, we shall find that, paradoxical as it may seem, this plethora of good men in the North is the very thing that spoils their chances. Nearly all the good men of the South have hitherto been concentrated in a very few clubs. We are far from maintaining that this is a benefit to Southern football in general, but it has undoubtedly enabled the Southern selecting committee to put in the field year after year teams of men who thoroughly knew one another's play;
