RUGBY FOOTBALL RULES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 166, 29 May 1940, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL RULES

, A REFEREE TALKS !•''■ Recently two talks .of importance to footballers were delivered over the air by Mr George Bradley, of Wellington, Chairman of the Executive of the New Zealand Rugbv Referees' Association. As tlie talks were informative and probably miss ed by the majority of footballers in the Bay, his material is summarised in the following discussion: First point made by Mr Bradley was the necessity for tolerance among spectators, and tolerance especially among spectators whose knowledge of the rules is insufficient to warrant criticism of the referees' administration of the games. He argued that players themselves were shockingly ignorant of the rules, and compared New Zealanders unfavourably with recent visitors, such as the English and South African touring sides. To illustrate his arguments he gave hypothetical cases of the application of the offside rule. Argument about points raised in the talks decided a group of bush lawyers that the whole question could be clarified in the statement that ino player can be put off-side by an opponent." His Own Fault. A good deal can be read into this statement, but it means, simply, exactly what it says: a player can only be put off-side by a wrong action on his own part, or by the actions of other members of his team. There is a duty on the player to place himself where lie should be, but, assuming that for some reason he is justifiably behind his opponent's field of play, and some action by those opponents gives him the ball; then he can accept it and play it. For example, a player may accept or intercept a pass back by an opponent, provided that nothing his own side has done has put him offside. Extreme cases in the application of this rule sometimes make it seem to spectators that a player ;standing yards ahead of his own team, and playing the ball, is offside and should be penalised. He maj r have run up with a kick and over-run the bounce. If the ball is accepted intentionally by an opponent and then comes to him as a pass or a mfs-kick, then he seems to be standing off-side but in reality can accept the ball and score from his advantageous position if he wishes, or can. Getting On-Side. Whiic an opponent cannot place a player off-side, he can in several ways put him on-side. Mr Bradley listed these methods: By carrying the ball five yards in any direction. By kicking the ball-. By intentionally touching the ball, but without catching or gathering tt. Players who are off-side may approach within 10 yards of the opponent who receives the ball without penalty, and are on-side to play the ball or tackle the opponent as soon as he has done any one of thesp things. But these circumstances do not apply to a player who has fully remained within the 10-yard limit. Players outside the 10-yard circle may run up to it, and should do so in the event of a member of their OAvn team kicking over theii heads. By doing so they place themselves in a better position to defend when the opponent's action has placed them on-side, and the fact t;h)at they do not approach more closely gives the opponent sufficient time to make his defensive play. Whether they are in front of or behind opponent they may still approach to within 10 yards of him, and may still be put on-side by him when he runs 5 yards or kicks the ball. If the opponent accepts the ball, kicked, say by tlie player's full back while the player is even actually