IS POOR RUGBY SICK?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1098, 10 April 1911, Page 6

IS POOR RUGBY SICK?

IF SO, HOW SICK?

PATHOGENY AND ONE KEMEDY (By Gyro.) "Gentlemen, I tell you Rugby football never stood higher in the history of the annals of the present time, since time immemorial than it docs to-day, (tluar, hear.) I tell you, gentlemen, that those who say it docs not arc traitora to the grand traditions of the crood old game. (Loud applause.) And I cay— and sny it without the flislitcst fear of contradiction-thai it the rank and file abandon the ship and iOiow a disposition to kick over the traces, then gentlemen. I have no hesitation in oayiiig tint the head* of departments will rtick to the old Hair, and by Ocorge—" A voice: •■Eh, what?" (Laughter.)

"I say, gentlemen, that if wo cannot have independent unity and united soparateness of action, then the sooner the grand old game goe3 overboird. nnd is cas,t to the dogs the better." (Loud and prolonged applause.)— Almost any N.Z.H.U. meeting.

The list of things which have lately been noted as wanting in our poor old friend Rugby football is a large one, and the Index Expurgatorius of the things he has, and should not hove, is no less portentous. Ho is (he ".sick man" of (he sporting society and, where all that society is doctor, the pathogeny of his ailments is a deal more formidable than they. A new rule is sometimes added, sometimes out out, and sometimes (he local physicians call in the English Union in consultation. And then the English Union docs something, or does not do something, and looks wise, and goes its way. But the doctoring goes on, and Kugby, who may for all we know be as sick as Abdul Hamid, does not mend. We keep treating him for a cold in the head or a sore finger when, all the time, his real ailment may be cancer, consumption, or general paralysis.

We are very human in all this, and especially human in tho kindly way in which we seek to persuade the patient that he is always "on the improve." When we visit a friend who is ill we do not say: "Oh, poor John Smith—this is your last illness; you will be dead in two. weeks." Quito the contrary. We wear a. theatrical air of assumed gaiety to cheer poor John up and, as long as we arc villi him, we repeat, and repeat again: "Well, my dear old fellow, I've never seen you looking tatter." It is well-meant stuff something like this which is handed out at Eugby I'nions and, when some speaker can work in something about "(lie grand old traditions of. our national game." then, no matter how ungrammatical ho may be, or how much he may mix his metaphors, he is invariably greeted (as we see from the press reports) with "loud and prolonged" applause.

The writer was a Rugby doctor—a coach—to first-class teams for about twelve years, and these teams were successful enough. But every year, as wo reassembled in the old "gym," it struck me with increasing force how entirely unoriginal we all are. We just do what the other fellow does, and believe what he believes, and why we do it and believe it we do not know. Here, for instance, is a great mass of bone and brawn weighing nearly 15 stone—they call him "tho lock man." Everyone knows that he is too big, and much too clumsy to gallop in tho loose, but then, they say: "Look how ho pushes in the scrum!" Does he? Well. I do not believe' that he pushes a penny-weight, and I do not we how he can. Ho has tn leave a track for the ball to come out and, if any violent young Rugby person imagines (hat ho can play the rol? of Hercules with his feet wide apart, let him just stand up and try it. It cannot be done, but everyone will continue to believe in the fat "lock man" because everyone else does, and teams will continue to carry the corpulent passenger as of yore.

Our pathogeny now arrives at tho scrum itself, which is probably as huge n fraud as the lock man. Everyone believes that the-tcrum is a sort of

"scientific" affair out of which you can, if you are clever, set the ball going, like n cannon shot, to the backs. This belief, however, is merely our unoriginality again, and our refusal to look at things as they ore. There are fourteen men in a scrum each -weighing (on the average) thirteen times fourteen pounds. Half a ton is pushing against half a ton and, under that great crush, men can do little more than keep (heir feet. The liall merely takes its chance in the jumble and, if it emerges ;\t all, it is with no very spry gait, but rather with the gyrating, uncertain, wobble of a half-tipsy man. When Auckland met Wellington at Athletic Park two years ago, I kept a tally of what happened with the scrums, and found that Auckland got the ball once, Wellington twice, and there wero thirteen other wild affairs where nothing happened but a jumble, of jerseys, and the second spell was very much like the first. And this is a very good average for all matches unless one side, hapnpns to be very much weaker than the ot'ier.. There arc too many men in the liucby scrum, and it does" not matter what hooks, crooks, blocks, grips, patent shoves, formations, or anything else arc used it will always be the same. Let the New Zealmd Union, by way of experiment, get two good teams of'forwards in a hall and try it. It would make them very niufh wiser men. They would get perhaps ten per cent of "heel-outs," and ninety per cent of nothing at all. A friend, who does not play football or go to see it, exclaimed "Allah be praised!" when I said to him, two years ago, that I thought that there must come a change in our Rugby, or it must go. I do not share Hint view, holding it lo be one of our manliest games, but I hold also that our football doctors must stop giving the poor creature physic, and use the knife. We must hack oil' some pieces of him, or he may die on our hands, and wo shall be responsible at the inquest. Not only are there too many men in the scrum, which is a very important part of tho body corporate of Rugby, but there are also too many men on the field, for, I suppose, that it is not too much to say that, for every passing rush which gets through, mere than twenty are driven into touch.

Indeed, it :s when we come to the question of passing rushes that we touch the sorest and weakest spot in Rugby. That part of tho 5.11110 is far easier to stop Ihaii lo play. When two teams which arc good at. passing meet there is usually very little passing, because, in such a case, the "Iricks of the trade" are too well understood, siiul every move is nipped in the bud, and never gels a chance to sprout. Given proper concert of action between vour winger and your half and thero is no trouble in smothering the opposing half, even if he happens (0 be a world's wonder. As for the vcsl, you "mark down" the other backs man for man, and that is the end of it. if two teams thoroughly understand the passing game, there can be no such thing as a passing rush. Then the line-out! It is probably the greatest "fool show" in Rugby. John, who is a very poor player, is placed li inches distant from Jim, who has a world's reputation, as reputations go. Yet, as we sit 011 the bank ready to clap and eiieer for Jim us soon as "he comes to light." we notice that humble John smothers our terrific friend every time by the simple expedient of wrapping his arms . auiv.l him, as soon as he gets tho ball. And what Jim and John are doinir on one part of tho line, other Jims and Johns are doing all along its fatuous ]pn"th, so that every good nlaycr is forced to do the very wnysf thing dial a forward can do with Ihe bill on (he line-out—lake it with him ti Hip ground. And when the oilier forward- ariive on the spot, and, tumble pell-mell a-top of him, Hip "line-oiil" i« cmunlei*.

Yes, messieurs, if the time is not to come when our once robust Rugby shall vanish, a< the Germans say. into the ewigkeit. "trailins clruds of plory," then one is inclined to think that we must stretch him out on the table, Ret out our antiseptics, lotions, bandages, and knives, and perform a surgical operation. And. when we have chopped him down, and reduced , his fifteen lumbering members to thirteen or so, then quite a number of f-econdnry symptoms which are now plaguing him will depart with the main cumnlaint. The accomplished "pafsonRor," "walker," and who saves up for his one spasm of piay per match 50 that it shall occur in front, of the grandstand or the pre-s box, and rests unEeen iu the ruck all the rest of the

'lay, will have no part in the regenerated game, for lie will ho tnn. So will llm hulking fellow who strikes another, ami only (lio fust and good phyer wlio can "gallop" from kick-olf to no-side will remain. That will be wonclrously stirring football to look at, and the reTeree—the poor, hardworking s!avc of a terribly complicated rule'buck—will have a simpler code, nnd a belter chance of seeing what is going on. At present Iho best referee going probably makes from thirty to fifty mistakes- per match. reforms come slowly. When the Now Zealand Kugby Union meets, it is quite likely that the discission of Rugby's real sickness will bo .shelved or t'ho doctors will differ, or (hey will gel on to jho subject of professionalism, or something else which has little to do with (ho enso. There will also, no doubt, bo a mass of platitude not greatly differing lroin (ho specimen piece given at the lop "i this article. But, however long it takes, one is inclined to believe that the tiny is approaching when we must play our Rugby with thirteen men nsido, or not play it at all.