FOOTBALL

Hokitika Guardian, 1 November 1930, Page 6

FOOTBALL

THE WING FORWARD. NEW ZEALAND TACTICS DISCUSSED. LONDON, September 10. Mr Trevor C. Wignall, who writes the Rugby football notes in the “Daily Express,” thinks lie must be getting ancient or something, for it seems to him now that the Rugby football of to-day is not what it was when he was a youth. He says: “There are infinitely bigger crowds for the international matches, and although there are still plenty of outstanding individuals they do not appear to be of the same brilliant standard as were the men of a quarter of a century ago. This will sound to the younger generation like the whiskered plaint of an okl-timer in a bathchair; but have we a scrum half like Dicky Owen, centre threequarters such as John Birkett and Kenneth McLeod and Basil McLear, or custodians like E. J. Jackett or H. B. Winfield P BANNING THE SKIRMISHER. “Quite recently a British team toured New Zealand and Australia. Rugby enthusiasts have told me repeatedly that it was a representative side, and that it included some of the cleverest individualists of the present day. That may be so, but no one will claim that their record is a satisfactory one. My own belief is that Rugby in New Zealand—l am not so sure about Australia—is of better class than it is in Britain, hut I am also of the opinion that in New Zealand obstructionist tactics are far too often employed, and that Wing-forwards are given too much rein. If I had my way I would ban the sllinnisher, chiefly because he is more often than not a sheer spoiler. “Yet there were many of them when I was a trifle younger than I am now, and when a match between well-known teams would tempt me to walk miles if I had not the fare for the railway journey. Dave Gallagher, of the All Blacks, was probably the most skilful hut there were also J. M. B. Scott, C. M. Pritchard, Ivor Morgan, and C. H. Pillman.

'“My complaint against the wingforward is that he seeks and secures too much latitude. He does on occasions open up the game for the hacks, but his main aim is to smother the scruffi-half, and the natural consequence is that he is more often offside than onside. Purely as an experiment I would, like to see a return to those times when forwards were picked foi their scrimmaging, and when they bent their heads and pushed for the sole purpose of wheeling or heeling the hall. Rugby has not been aided by the introduction of two or three wingforwards in a side. ,

“It has long been a theory of mine that scrum-half play has fallen off because the unfortunate man in that position is not given a proper chance of doing his job. How can he gather and' whip out the hall when on the. fringe of the opposing scrum there are usually two or three passengers waiting to pounce on him ? Great serum work ers like Owen and Brnithwaite and Jago \Vere often bothered by wing-for-wards. but not to the extent that is common to-day.

STERNER PENALTIES ADVOCATED “I am no advocate of tinkering with rules, but much could be done to improve Rugby. A regulation such as that now in operation in the Rugby League, which benefits the scrum-half in that it protects him in some measure from the attentions of the skirmisher, would be definitely welcome, but I fear it is too much to ask the rulers of the amateur ggme to cony anything produced by their professional brethren Sterner penalties for obstruction, which can be witnessed in almost every match played, and for wilful legs-up in the scrums. : are badly required, but first of all I would limit the activities of those men who are neither forwards nor backs. I may be wrong, but I do not think there was so much whistling for infringements in times gone by as there is now. But there were fewer banjo-strummers then. One in a team was considered quite enough. Would it not be for the good of Rugby if clubs again selected seven honest workers and only one skirmisher? I fancy it would.”