"IMPROVING" RUGBY FOOTBALL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 286, 22 August 1918, Page 6

"IMPROVING" RUGBY FOOTBALL

Sir,—ln an .endeavour to improvo the game of Bugby football tho Auckland Bugby Union has introduced changes in tho method of play which seem likely to have revolutionary effect, The representative game' between Wellington and Auckland provinces, played lust week, was contested under the amended rules, and tho gamo must have been as little liko an old-time game of "good old Bugby" as even tire most pronounced admirers of "League football" could have desired. Tho present writer, on reading the Press Association's report of the match, marvelled at the kaleidoscopic changes which marked the gamo from start to end; and at the time of reading, having iio knowledge of the variations in method of play that had been sanctioned by one union (and adopted by both for purposes of this test match), came to the opinion that New Zealand's standard of Bugby football had deteriorated sadly. For when a Bugby gamo ends with double-figure scores on both sides the truthful inference is that ono side (from the beginning of the game) has felt itself to be inferior to tho other at the tnio test of an all-round, game, and has set itself the task of making tho match fast and open. Such contests were the rule whenever New South Wales and New Zealand representative fifteens met in tho palmy days: tho "Cornstalks" invariably ran up big scores, but almost invariably the truer Bugby tactics nt tho New Zealandors bore best fruit in tho final stages, and wrested victory from the faster, and, in 6ome respects, more brilliant players of tho senior State. It is an axiom amongst students of the true Bugby game that given two fifteens of equally-matched players tho probability is that one or two tries (converted or otherwise) will comprise the whole of the scoring in the match. To this commentator"!! idea, nothing better could bo desired. Closely-contested, re-solutely-played games should be encouraged. Coruscating brilliance by a few specialists is not the true test in sueli matters; tliero is a something for regard wliich is very much more material, and that is the end to which all true sports should be directed: the improvement of tho health and the physique and the manly qualities of the race. It does not —or at least it should not—lie in the « making of a highly spectacular fastfluctuating contesf, in which only the perfectly-trained and the fleetest-footed athletes can compete with success. There is need to-day, more than 'aforetime, to see to it that the games of the pconlo shnll remain popular pnstimo in the truest sense of the word "nopulnr"; but there is a very present danger, mien as well as insidious, of the canker of a business spirit li»in? Uw\l?M' into snnvt to the enduriiß' detriment of what should be the first and unalterable aim of those in control of this country's games. Games ,

should bo played by the multitudej'iiot: by a score or two of perspiring specialists in tile presence, ot ten thousand lookers; ■ / on. Yet it is to this latter end IHat recent experiments are tending. What Rugby football needs (o-day is a safeguarding of its principles; not amendment of ils rules. The rules of ten years ago would suffice well for loday; and,, even as they were then, they tended just a little 100 much to openness of play at the expense of those; equally fine (not to say finer)'traits of: the game which scientific scrummagingvaried by open forward play always afforded to the connoisseur in truo Rugby football. If the modernised need of the controllers of bur national game is to attract the highest possible number of spectators, at sixpence a head,, then the experiment of the Auckland: Rugby Union and its backers, wherever' they may be, will bo justified. But:, there remains, I believe, a great majority of admirers of the old Rugby game, which may bo depended upon to resist: this spirit of the old Roman circus that, is now becoming manifest in New Zealand and elsewhere; and, Sir, it was with very real pleasure that I observed one such majority to be m control of tho game in its highest"* administrative, circle of this Dominion: I speak oFtho New Zealand Rugby Union, and the views expressed by some of the members of its Management Committee, at this week's meeting.—l am, te., G. P. BROWN. •. Brooklyn. '