WOMEN LIKE RUGBY

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4455, 22 May 1930, Page 1

WOMEN LIKE RUGBY

“BUT WOULD HATE TO PLAY IT'.” KEEN FEMININE CRITICS. “Women love watching Rugby, but they would hate to play it.” That was the opinion of an excited nurse during the interval in the match between St. Mary’s and Guy's Hospital at Richmond Athletic Ground, in England recently. The women supporters were of two types. Some knew everything a bunt the game and were interested in a team as a whole; others knew nothing about the game and were only interested in individuals. A Daily Mail reporter sat next to two of the one.

“Why did you come?” lie asked enthusiasts. “Because it is one of the linest games- iu the world to watch,” she answered with more than a hint of suggestion that the reporter should be playing instead of watching. “And you?” he said to her companion.

“I came because Didk is playing," she replied. “He isn’t playing anywhere just at present; he is at the bottom of that crowd,” she said, pointing to a loose scrum.

Then the second half of the game began, and everything except the game and Dick was forgotten. OUTRIVALLED THE MEN.

The women outrivalled the men in giving vocal support to the two sides, and the modern girl’s expression of her opinion when a player rumbled the ball left nothing to the imagination.

When the women gave their support to a side they gave it wholeheartedly. At one point of the game a player attempted a dropgoal and the ball hit the goal-post and bounced hack. The men observed a discreet silence, but the women cheered loudly at his failure.