14 PLAYERS AND RETURN OF 2-3-2 SCRUM ADVOCATED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 64, 3 July 1950, Page 7

14 PLAYERS AND RETURN OF 2-3-2 SCRUM ADVOCATED

Strong advocacy for a return to the 2-3-2 scrum and no wing-for-ward was made by many ex-All Blacks, Rugby administrators and others deeply concerned, with present trends in the game ,at informal discussions after they had watched the displays given earlier by the British Isles and the All Black teams in the second test.

There was general agreement that the game is becoming far too unwieldy and awkward especially round the scrum, that obstructive winging forwards are almost completely spoiling Rugby as a game and a spectacle, and that fiveeighths have little chance of breaking free from the clutches of the spoilers unless the hooking has been exceptionally quick, and they themselves are exceptionally fast. Even in England the idea has been put forward with some force. In 1939 a former president of the English Rugby Union (Mr W. T. Pearce) urged that it was high time to cut down the number of players in a Rugby team. He claimed that spoiling forwards were causing a deterioration of play all round.

Suggested reforms are:— Fourteen men. Two-three-two scrum. Non-offending side to put the ball in scrum (or the referee). Revision of knock-on rule. Replacements allowed. Consideration of kick-into-touch rule. No rucking after a tackled ball. N.Z. First Mr H. E. Davis, a New Zealand Rugby selector from 1923 to 1927, and a Canterbury selector and Linwood Club official at various times, gives full support to the fourteenmen idea. “Yes, I would leave out the wing forward and make it a team of fourteen men. Move ahead with the 2-3-2 scrum, the most effective in the world.” Is it any coincidence that enlightened opinion in South Africa is advocating a change in the same direction? When well-matched teams meet in opposition the whole character of Rugby by defensive back play and strangling forwards. That is the view of Mr H. B. Heartland, South Africa’s best-known sports writer, and he is backed up by Mr Syd Nicholls, of Sydney, formerly of Wellington, who toured South Africa last season, and who toured England with the 1935 All Blacks.

“Reduce teams to fourteen players, seven forwards and seven backs,” they both say.