RUGBY

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1930, Page 7

RUGBY

LAWS OF THE GAME

A CONSULTATIVE BODY

LONDON, Dec 23. It is reported from Cape Town that the Sonin A.rkaJi Bugay Boaid has reuuveU tlie following resolution from tue Jnternarional Board, through the hogoy Cnion, with a. recommendation nom the latter body that the 8011th ■ Oilcan Board should accept it: “As a. oooditioii precedent to a considcralkiu ol tlie creation of a consultative "ouy under the supreme control of mis Board, all the Dominions’ should agree to accept the laws of the gaane us framed by the international ■jjoai d.”

1 he South African Rugby Board has seat a copy of the' motion to New Zealand, projlosing that no action he Driven unless there is a guarantee oldie lour Home* unions failing into line and a consultative body actually formed.

“in demanding this guarantee of course,” writes Mr W. j. A. Davies, the English International, in the “Evening Standard,” “South Africa is yuite right, and it will be interesting to see what action New Zealand will take in tlie matter, especially as its rules differ in one very, important and fundamental respect from our own. In New Zealand a player is not allowed 10 kick to touch, except in his own 25. Is New Zealand prepared to alter this rule for the sake of representation, presumably equal with all the other unions, upon a ‘consultative body under the supreme control of the International Board.”

“I lie question, of the representation ol the Dominion in the councils of tlie game has been a subject of keen controversy for many years. As at present constituted, the international Board consists of ten members, four from tlie Rugby Union, and two from each of tlie other Home Unions, and exists for the dual purpose of framing the laws of the game for the international matches and settling all questions arising from an international match, or of an international character.

“It has no jurisdiction over the game as played in the separate countries. I believe I am right in stating that England lias viewed sympathetically the Dominion’s claim for direct representation on the International Board for a long time, hut the intransigence of some of the other unions has invariably precluded anything being done. This was a subject very near to the heart of the late Sir George Rowland Hill, while in later years James Baxter, who is persona grata in Scotland and with the other unions, has given much time and thought to the solution, but no result.”