Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1927, Page 2

There seems to he something wrong with our national field sport—football. In the three codes there are disputes not creditable to sportsmen : The .Soccer branch are squabbling about various details, ohiel of which appears to he lack of confidence in referees. League has not recovered from the sad experiences on the English tour, and now there are the defections of those attracted back to England by large fees. Rugby, the bulwark of New Zealand football', lias been drawn into the disputations. Referees are slighted, squabbling and rowing are rampant, and a drift into professionalism is suggested liv these pre-match camps. The authorities may well begin a searching enquiry into cause and effect, if the grand old game is to lie saved for the good name of the country. It would he a thousand pities wore Rugby football. which has done so much to advertise New Zealand abroad, to remain under any cloud of ill repute. It seems that the desire for " pot hunting.” as the winning of trophies are now described. is taking hold of teams and I localities in quite a remarkable manner. A coveted shield is a special prize to a town, because of the ” business ” it brings to the centre. ATI (lasses contribute to the "cost” of these pre-match training camps, and at once there is the suggestion of professionalism creeping in .in one centre in tlie North Island anxious to see the famous Shield appropriated by its town 11 for business purposes.” we notice that even tlie staid Chamber of Commerce established in that locality is anxious to contribute financially towards tlie ” cost ” of the local camps. This is carrying tlie sport too far, and beyond the range of sportsmanship. When tlie attraction of tlie mere laurel wreath has thus departed, and pelf is tlie primary consideration stimulating the desire to win. then the love of the game for the game s sake is gone, and we are in sight of pure commercialism, which is practically professionalism. The New Zealand Rugby Union shout'd set about taking a firm hold of things to prevent this drift becoming a sheer disaster to the reputation of the game. Football has been played in New Zealand with marked and outstanding success without the aid of these ''camps

and combines. To continue them is to take the range of the play out of the amateur category and place it in a class where it must lose much of its popular flavour with the people as a whole, and budding players in particular. The game is the essential substance in Rugby, and as New Zealand has made it so much her own hv strenuous, straight-forward play, let our players continue to emulate in the game ni'ong the same honest and sate lines in the future, playing lor the game’s sake only.