FOOTBALL

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1930, Page 5

FOOTBALL

DROPPED PASSES

AY hat a tremendous number of dropped passes there are! Many old players are surprised and pained to notice that so many players have tailed to master what we may call the technique of tlie Rugby game, writes Tommy Vile in the ‘•Dominion.'* How often, it has been said that the all round Rugby player, whether lie is a forward or a full-back, a half, or a three-quarter, ought to he able to do everything.—punt, drop-kick, run, tackle, and give and take passes: and when we see passing movements 'break down—as it seems inexplicably—we naturally ask why it should be.

Sometimes, too, we are tempted to ask why it is that combined movements do not seem to develop with thd certainty and ease which marked so many of the passing movements of an earlier time, and though we know that combined defence has developed, and that “spoiling work” has been made a fine art, we are not prepared to admit that trie whole of these frequiQtiifc failures in combined passing are thus to be explained. TOO QUICKLY.

There is a tendency to-day, I think, ] for players to give their passes too quickly" There is not one of my read- 1 ers who has not seen a man pass 1 when he is three or four yards from < the player who is his natural oppon- < ent—the player who naturally would 1 be expected to tackle him iif he is j tackled at all. The result of passing : too soon is that he does not even 1 draw—or hold the attention—of his , own man much less draw—compel at- j ( tention—of the player who is -suppos- ■ ed to be watching and waiting for , the next man in the line of attack. The proper thing for the man who ( has the ball is to run up and draw his opponent toward him, possibly bv bearing a little in the opposite direction to that in which he means to pass, and at the last possible moment lie" should look at the man to whom he is going to pass and make his transfer. If the man with the ball does this, he makes his opponent actually take him absolutely confines his attention so that he does not get a chance to go for the man to whom .the ball is to be passed, whereas if. A pass is: given when the passer is; three yards away from the would-be tackier, he. is enabled to dart across to the man who received the ball. The other day it was stated in the report of a match that a well-known international centre tackled two men •in succession—what really happened was that the first man, fearing a tackle, passed early enough to allow the tackier in. question to follow the ball and pull down the man who,received ft. Of course, the great weakness is that so in any players run across the field instead of. running ptfraight. ai'tt the tackier and the attacker are running on practically the same line, so that, when ..the attacker passes, the tackier is moving) along a line which naturally intercepts. the line followed by the next player to receive the ball. In the old days you continually saw the centre with the ball run straigh at the opposing wing, compel him to tackle, and at the moment he was within striking distance the pass wont out to the uncovered attacking wing. THE CORRECT AY AY.

Now let me try to describe the correct way to pass. The ball should be held with both hands, the fingers well extended round the centre, with the point of the oval ball outward from the body. ion a pa,ss is given the ball must not be thrown —it must be passed by means 'of turning the body from the hips with the hands well extended at the height of the hips. If a pass to ie right is intended, the pass must actually take place as the left foot is going to the ground. , , Footwork is of importance in Rugby football, and I am afraid quite a lot of players have never thought ot the effect of passing on the wrong foo . If a man who means to pass to the right passes with the right foot Upward, the tendency is to swing the ball hack to the left, and so it is completely hidden by the body from the man to whom it is intended to

pass. . If yon pass to the right with the

left foot forward, or if you pass to the left with the right foot forward, the ball is kept, in sight of the taker all the time; but if the pass is given ou the wrong foot, almost inevitably the passer will draw the 'ball back till it is bidden from the taker, and it is so difficult to take the ball when it eames in those circumstances that very often it is missed. j have in mind an international match in which a once-famous centre was very severely blamed for missing, passes; but I hold-—and still hold--that he was unjustly blamed, because continually the outside half was passing from the wrong foot, with the swing of his body he hid the ball, the centre was momentarily unsighted, and the result was that he failed to ake the ball when it came, to him.

WITH SWING OF THE BODY

The pass should he given with the swing of the body from the hips with the ball always in view of the man for whom it is intended, with the right foot forward if the pass is to the left, with the left foot forward if the pass is to the right. The pass should lie given from the level of the hips, and should rise slightly to the level of the taker’s chest. It should be taken slightly in front of the taker, and as it is given a slight turn of the hands leaves one hand on top and one underneath the ball, which enables the passer to give equal impetus with both hands, and

good direction, with a pass in which the ball does not twist. The reason, why the hall must be thrown slightly in front of the takes and breast-high is to enable the man who accepts the pass to get his ejes on the opponent in front of him almost at the same moment that lie is in possession. If the pass is low oi a little .behind the taker, to the right or left, while he is looking for thr hall he must lose sight of the tackier he has to elude; but if the ball is not in front of him he is necessarily slowed up, and perhaps put out of his stride completely.