OUT OF BOUNDS?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1939, Page 23

OUT OF BOUNDS?

ATHLETIC PARK INCIDENT

Criticism of some of the report and comment on the Wellington College Old Boys-Eastbourne senior match last Saturday is made by a" correspondent ("Fair Play"'), who refers particularly to the incident in which Burns was stated to have gone into touch before he scored in the second spell and to the note on that player's form. As for the incident, the correspondent regards the statement in the report as "a serious reflection on the linesman, and, in fact, not justified," and claims that he (the correspondent) was in a good position in the stand to see what happened. Allegations of prejudice and unfairness on the part of the reporter are also made by the correspondent, who. in addition to giving the details of the incident as he saw

it, criticises "the tendency of ladling out bouquets to players even if they have played a miserable game," and adds that unfair criticism does harm to the game and is calculated to cause bad feeling amongst players. He mentions, too, that he does not know Burns, but is "interested in him as a consistently steady, heady, and reliable player with great possibilities and. above all, a good sportsman," and that "he and the other excellent winger, Wright, are starved by the individualistic tendency of the centre."

There is little that need be offered in reply except to mention that not even the correspondent viewed the match and the players with a more open mind than the reporter. The opinion that Burns had gone into touch in going for his try was shared by most of the onlookers from the stand, and it is not without cause that spectators demonstrate as they did after the incident last Saturday. As for the player, the question of his sportsmanship does not come into the matter. If all players were like Burns in that respect they would do. As a player he showed great promise, and it is a fact that that promise has not been fulfilled. At one time there were high hopes that Burns was one of the wingers for whom Wellington was looking as a regular member of the representative team. He may yet rise to be one of Wellington's best.