RUGBY CONTROL

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1925, Page 3

RUGBY CONTROL

IMPERIAL ADVISORY BOARD

LONDON, September 22. Mr Rowland Hill, the “ Grand Old Man” of Rugby football, has an article in “The Rugby Union Annual,” in which he supports the desire of the Dominions for an Imperial Advisory Boa rd.

“ It is with deep disappointment to me.” he says, “that the international Board has not seen its way to give cfleet to this. I am sure this feeling will be shared by the representatives of the Dominions, but I desire to point out to them that they are ably represented on the R.U. Committee, and I earnestly invite them to send any suggestions they have to them, in the

confident hope that they will at all times he carefully considered hv mv

colleagues. ’• Bevis.” writing in “The Referee,” also touches on the subject. “The Unions in the Dominions,” he snvs,

‘‘have already entered their protest and that protest will have to he dealt with irmly and diplomatically if a rupture s to he avoided, and it should he easy if you can only bring the Scotsmen nto line. Scottish Rugby has always

sought to lie a law unto itself. The Scottish Union has always pursued a curious attitude in regard to teams from the Dominions, but their old time puritanism in matters of Rugby

football must go, and every Scotsman

who plays Rugger knows it. ft is only the old gentlemen who still have the grip on the game o’er the border, who do not. "Anyhow, the claim of Ihe Dominions for direct representation on ihe International Board is insistent, and has to ho admitted sooner or later, and the sooner it is admitted the better it. will he for all of us. and for

the game generally." DOMINION STATUS. It is to he regretted,” says the Sunday Observer,” " that before a new season opened, the home Rugby unions should not have settled a problem which touches interests wider than their own. The controlling bodies

ot Rughv football in South Africa, New Zealand and New South Wales claim representation on an ImjH'i'ial Advisory Board to watch qnd guide the future "I the game. The Home unions, diving. it is understood, to the incomprehensibly rigid objections of the Scottish Rugby Union, refuse to go beyond representation for South Africa and joint representation for New Zealand and New South Wales on the existing ‘lnternational Board.' The Dominions are unlikely to he content with that. ' Dominion status ’ has been as effectively established on the football as in other fields. Until it is acknowledged, there will he growing irritation with the authorities here, and a growing risk that Dominion Rugby will break with the British and amateur traditions.’' ALL RLACKS’ INFLUENCE. “Some people are already beginning to wonder.” says “ Time and Tide,” what signs we shall see in Rughv ionthall this year of the influence of the New Zealand team last season. I doubt if there will he any definite results. and alreadv thorn who watched the Aft Blacks appear to have forgotten that their success throughout their tour was not due to new or improved methods of play, hut to their own excellence as individuals and a team., to their splendid physical fitness and combination—the results of their con-

stant association and eoneentiation on one thing, the playing of Rugby football. But. as was pointed out during their visit, it is to he hoped that we shall take to heart the example they set in hacking one another up. This is nothing new. but it is a part of the game which can and should he improved, and practice and lit ness alone al e necessary to attain a higher standard. Many of the leading players would weh oine the introduction in clult nlay ot longer time. in many elulis i lie ciisioni i*- lo plav thirty-live minutes each way. and the result is that those who are chosen to play in international trials and matches find the longer time a great strain on them.” N.Z. FLAYERS IN LONDON. In addition to Dr A. Berry, the Now Zealand international live-eighths, who will play with London Hospital. and possibly also with lllaekheath, there are two other well known New Zealand players who will also lie seen in London Club Rughv this season. One is ('. R. .McCullough, a forward, formerly captain of Auckland University, who played in the All Blacks' trials, and the other K. R. J. Saxon, the old Cambridge wing three-quarter, who played fur Cambridge in 1919. McCullough will play for London Scottish, but Saxon’s plans are not yet definite.