RUGBY RULES CHANGED

Chronicle (Levin), 11 March 1949, Page 4

RUGBY RULES CHANGED

Clubs Get Equal Votes And Union Representation

This season's management committee of the Horowhenua "Rugby Union will consist of 15 delegates, in addition to a vice-president, treasurer and secretarv. making an overall total of 19, under a new rule which gives representation to every club in the union. The votin# iuowers of clubs at ihe annual meetings has also been changed to one vote per club irrespective of the errading of its teams. Previously clubs were allowed two votes for each of its senior teams and one for teams of lower grading. , : ' The above were two of the most important changes made to theHorowhenua Rugby Union's rules last night, when a suecial meeting i was held, presided over by the ' president, Mr. A. Gillespie. When welcoming delegates and club members, Mr. Gillespie made' particuiar reference to the pres•ence of delegates from the Foxton and Awahau clubs, which last year played under the Manawatu union. He welcomed both clubs back to Horowhenua and moved that' full voting powers be restored to them. This was carrie'd unanimously. The reason for calling the meeting, said Mr. Gillespie, was to clear i up any -rules which might be caus.ing disharmony, and for this pur-

pose a speeial sub-committee had been formed to make and accept from clubs any recommendations which could be brought forward for discussion and action before the annual general meeting. • - In all 17 propositions Involving the rules were put to the meeting. Many, however, were purely domestic matters which were passed with little or no comment. 'Others, however, promoted lively discussion. About 35 attended the meeting. Reeommended by the management committee, Athletic Club and Horowhenua College, the MPtipn to give all clubs equal voting powers was carried by 23 votes to 11 with one informal, this being the necessary two-thirds majority, Speaking for the motion, Mr. H.

Rippm (Amieucj saia n was oeing proposed bv his club because it believed that all grades should be equal in rights and it would be an encouragement to the yo.unger players, who. after all, were the ones who really counted. Committee Representatio.n Considerable discussion was promoted by the move by the committee and the above two chibs to change rule 13, thereby giving ali clubs representation on the management committee^ This-' waseventually passed by an almost unanimous vote. Here were some of the views put forward for and against:— MT. G. T. Clunie (Paraparaumu and Waikanae) : Supported the suggestion, saying tnat it ' w.as.wrong th'at the senior teams should wield all the power. The smaller clubs also did their share towards building up the union. Mr. C. Johnston (Foxton) : Considered the change would be for the betterment of rugby. His club as well as tne Paraparaumu club had made the suggestion some years ago) . Mr. E. H- "Moffatt. (Rahui) : Opposed the motion. Said he considered the committee would ibe too large. It would evolve into each man being club conscious. Mr. D. Sancls (Shannon) : A man should b'e on the union's committee for the benefit of everyone and not one club. He was opposed to ■equal representation. Mr. A. Gillespie (president) : .Took it that every man elected to , the committee looked on rugby as a whole and not on individual clubs, although it had been said that that was not always so. Mr. F. Juno- (Old Boys) : It was natural for a delegate to take instructions from his club. He saw danger in each club being represented. Mr. C. Anderson (Foxton) : Considered the move was a good one. Clubs would know everything that happened at a meeting instead of having to rely on abbreviated

newspaper reports. No" longer would they have to chase after delegates to put their case before the union. ' Mr. W. Moynihan (life member) : Change would be a retrograde step. All members of the union might not approve of a elufo representative selected by the club to represent it on the committee. Mr. A. Richards (life member) : Move was a good step. All clubs should ihe represented. It was known that block voting went on — at had been going on for years. He felt sure clubs would be careful in their selection of repre'sentatives. Sole Selector Shannon started considerable discussion wits its recommendation that "the senior selector shall be sole selector, and that he be neither referee, coach nor player." This was subsequently altered to read "except that there 'will be two selectors for any divided grade." Much -objection was taken to the stipnlation that a selector could not coach a team, thejmain "argument against this being that it was diffi.cult to find a man who did not have some club interest, and that coaching a team was much different from being a player or a referee. An agreement to drop the word coach was subsequently reached. A recommendation from the management committee that a representative of the committee be appointed to sit on the Horowhenua Referees' Association (Continued on Fage 7)

U.tUIBII^I w Jll I .I.lii I I " \L' ' I.-I..I1I •» II —.1 . , /Continued from Page 4) . appointments board, was also carrie'd. ' For the referees' association, Mr. J. A. Zuppieich said that the association had not discussed this matter yet and he would prefer not to give a personal opinion. Third Grade Age Limit ' College submitted a recommendation which also eaused lively discussion. It was that the age limit for the third grade compedtion be reduced to 19 years and that an age limit of say 22 years be p'laced on the junior grade. An amendment arising out of much diucussion on this point was that the age for the fourth grade be 15 years, third grade 19 years and junior 22 years, and that all the present juniors be classified as Senior B. This was lost by a large majority and it wasfhaally decided that it be left to the management committee to endeavour ,to *bring In a new grade for younger play-. ers. , ,. r Lists Of Team Members The management committee put forward a recom'mendation that before each game began the names of the players should he supplied to the referee by the respective captains and, if this was not forthcoming, the offending ^ub be reporte'd to the management committee by the referee. This was passed with no comment. Late Startina: „Of Games Apparently arising from some trouble experienced last season, was the recommendation from Athletic that Law 14 governing the starting time of matches be altered. When in the past clubs were allowed io minutes gr'ace if they did not arrive on the field at the appointed time ,the athletic club requested that they be given 15 minutes, and where in the past it was stated that after the additional time had ^psed the referee I "may" blow liis whistle and ball off I the game, the club asked that it be |changed to the word "shall," thus , making it obligatory for a referee to do so. It was thought by some that there were occasions when a team was late through no fault of its own, but eventually arrived on the

field. The opinion was also expressed that the championship games would result in chaos if on every occasion a referee was boun'd 1 to stop the match . if a visiting team failed to turn up by the' final time allowed. The motion was lost.