RUGBY FOOTBALL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1929, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL

THE 1929 SEASON,

FULL OF INTEREST

(Wellington Dominion)

The 1920 season will he a most important one in the annals of New Zealand Rugby, as during the present year the Dominion forces will ham to lx? trained and organised to meet the .serious British invasion in 1930.

Those in control of the game in this country are fully aware that New Zealand will have to he tuned up to concert pitch to withstand the challenge for supremacy which Lite British team will make on Dominion playing next year. It can he. taken for granted that the Knglish force for the tour will be strengthened by a lew of the leading players from Scotland, Wales, and Jrc-

.and, and Llie com illation will undoubtedly make up a Rugby hand which will test our powers to the- utmost.

Signs are not wanting that a wave of inthusias.il in ai-.ileius is sweeping the British Isles, and that the. Old l-and is out to regain the virility sliown before the Great War came along in j.9i-! to la .e such heavy toll of the tlower of British manhood.

'the English ei ieketers have just proved ixil.ii at Home and on Australian Helds that' they are champions of the world at the .summer game, and we can ta:-:e it for granted that Britain will strain every ner.e to regain supremecy on the liugny field by conquering those redoubtable rivals, the New Zealanders.

.L has been said that Eu.y is a religion in this country, and the linn hold the game has upon the public is pointed to as proof of this assertion. While this is all very true, it must not he forgotten that the national winter amateur game is fast regaining immense pnpu.arity in Great Britain. A huge crowd oi oO,().<() people assembled at Twickenham recenty to watch the international match between England and Wales. We have yet to see a crowd of such dimensions in this country, hut we do extremely well with our small population as compared with Britain’s teeming millions. The attendances at the internutonul mutches in Britain, however, speak eloquently of me firm hold which the amateur Rugger game has upon public favour at present.

PUTTING OUR HOUSE IN ORDER

An obligation will rest upon the .Management tdmmitt.ee of the New Zealand Rugby Union this season to see tiiat New Zealand players are afforded an opportunity to liit themselves u> meet the British team next year with a hope of success. No one has forgotten the sharp lessons which were taught the All Blacks in South Africa last season. Thei year nefore the New Zealand team was tine to sail for South Africa that wise Rugby general, Marie Nicholls, put forward a motion that the old kick-into-touch rule should be restored to, as it would have to he observed in South Africa. His motion was endorsed by the Wellington Rugby Union, hut it was promptly thrown out when it came cel'ore the annual meeting of the parent body.

One delegate even went so far as to asserji Dial any Rugby player worth his salt could change from the new to the old luck-into-toudi rule at a moment’s notice.

Well, Benny Osier, taught our fellows in the Jirst Test match, that judicious use of the touch-line by an expert was of immense service in gaining ground and in nursing his forwards. The All Blacks managed to come out of the Tests in South Africa with honours easy, hut it was by the very skin of their teeth. No such mistakes should he made in preparing for the British invasion next year. The various Rugby Unions of the Dominion should see to it that wise counsellors are sent as delegates to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union, in order that the most competent officials possible may be selected to guide the destinies of the game during 1929. New Zealand in 1927 held firmly to their faith in the 222 scrum formation, but found it was all at sea when pitted against eight husky Springboks. There are some New Zealanders who still stoutly declare that a 2—3—2 scrum will beat any other formation, if the weight is put in the right pace. New Zealand will never field a more solid pack than they did against South Africa in 1928, and yet they never saw the ball in the first 'lest at Cape Town. It was a narrow squeak, however, and no one wants things to be so desperately close as they were in South Ulrica in 1928.

Jn appointing a sound management committee for 1929, would it not be a wise move on the part of the delegates to see that Mark Nicholls lias a seat on that important body? To my mind there is no sounder Rugby philosopher in the game to-day than the Pet-one man. Much experience is crowded under his cap. Not only did he play in all three test matches in Now Zealand against the Springboks in New Zealand in 1921, hut lie was a member o! the All Black teams which toured Great Britain in 192-1 and South A'friou in 1928. His practical and theoretical knowledge and experience would he ol inesi i'mado servin' in preparing io meet llie British attack next year.

It would he a grand thing for the game throughout- the world if the Manigement Committee of the New Zealand Union tin’s year would decree that the game in this country shall he played as it is in Great Britain and South Africa. This would mean that the vexatious wing-lbrward would he relegated to oblivion, that players would he free to kick into touch irom any part of the field, and that, in short., we would renounce all those special little dispensations which New Zealand alone plays, llie whole Rugby world would then meet on level terms, and ihet-e would he no heart-burnings or reerimillations about unfair and illegal tactics.

It is to lie honed that the Home Rugbv authorities will agree to the conference whb'h it. is proposed to hold in New Zealand while the British team is with us next year. The New Zealand Union proposes |o invite the South \frican Rugby Board and the Australian’Unions to send delegates. With a broad-minded chairman, such as Mr James Baxter, the manager of the British team, such a round-table conference should go far to arrive at uniformity of rules and interpretations.