JACKSON, ALIAS GABE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 426, 20 August 1908, Page 4

JACKSON, ALIAS GABE.

An old Swansea Player.

The Standard of Empire points out that “Jackson,” who toured New Zealand with the British “amateurs,” was in reality Gabe, a Swansea professional. A writer in that journal says:— “English Rugby football is still sorely troubled. The men who want clean, wholesome sport, and will not have professionalism, either veiled or openly advertised, are battling with an extraordinary state of things. You in New Zealand know that among our players now on tour under the guidance of Mr George Harnett, was one ‘Jackson,’ a Leicester forward, and you also know that he has been called home by cable. This ‘ Jackson ’ is an old Swansea player, named Ivor Gabe, who has played with Swintou, members of the. Northern Union, and the facts seem to have been pretty generally known when he was selected as one of the British team. Certain gentlemen who have accused the English Union with winking at veiled professionalism have so clearly proved that ‘ Jackson is not ‘Jackson ’ at all, but an old professional player who had been with many Clubs, that they had no alternative but to order his return home.

“ And now there is to be a general inquiry into the amateur status of many well-known players. What the end will be I cannot say, but there is certain to be a long trouble. I shall always hold that the Rugby Union at home can never live unless an uncompromising attitude is taken against professionalism.

“There can be no half measures. We do not want the paid player, and the present government of the game must be considerably changed. A policy of vacillation which has been pursued for such a long time will never do. The case of ‘ Jackson ’ should clear the atmosphere. Interesting developments may be expected at any moment. “We are too familiar with scandals in the Association world to aFect surprise at anything which happens, 1 The traffic ’in players still continues, and the Football Associations are almost helpless in the matter. Stoke, one of our oldest clubs, has died because of an impoverished exchequer, and their place in the English Teague has been taken by Tottenham Hotspur.”