RUGBY FOOTBALL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 3 August 1929, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL

SLOW BUT HARD

EARLY GAMES j!N CHRISTCHURCH SOME PECULIAR RULES Mr J. I!. Evans was one of Canterbury's best fool bailers during the early 'seventies, says the Christchurch "Press'" in a special Rugby jubilee number, but lie dues not think that the game as then placed was nearly as good as the Rugby of io-day. It was too slow, and in. most rases brute strength was needed more than science. There were far ton many serums, anil these kept on till some player grounded the bail. When a player was running with the ball liis opponent hail the option of collaring him or hacking him over. The same tiling happened in the serums, and the hacking was taken all in goed part, been use ear'll player knew that he would be able to get his own Luck sooner or later. As the result’ 'of such tactics, Mr Evans says that, 10-day, his shin bones are like a saw. lie could play in any position in the field, and so far as lie can remember liis record for any one day was five goals. Of course, the scoring was different in his day. There was a tremendous lot of kicking, but it was all drop-kicking; punting was looked down upon, and tlrrre were very few penalties. The referee used to throw the ball in from 1 1: ni'll. and no player was allowed to

tr.i.cli it until it had reached the ground. Tiie old players used to excel in. drilililinj, but the constant lino-kicking took mill'll out of the forwards. Even then, compared with to-day. so slow was the game that lie had never seen a man lain’ out. Of course, there was a limit on the speed which could he introduced into the game as played to-day seemed to have about reached that limit. Before the Rugby Union code was first adopted in 1876 the real game could ne! be said to have been played in Cliristi'liurch. Mr Evans was a member of the Christchurch Club, and he play oil in its first game with the Rangipr.i Club. Unfortunately the two clubs found themselves at variance over the rules, so the difficulty was overcome by playing one spell under the Christchurch Club's rules aniL the other under the llangiora Club's rules. Mr John Anderson. captained the first Canterbury team which toured the North Island. It lost

■ts opening match with Auckland by one point. Rani/prevented the fixture with Taianak and the team went on to Nelson, when! it sen-red an easy win. The match with Wellington that year was played at the Unit, Canterbury again winning Alter , V, la > home and homo matches with Wellington and Dunedin were instituted. How Many Better? When the All Black teams are chosen to meet England next year, how many players better than, those in Porter's present contingent will the New Zealand selectors find? asks the. Sydney ‘Tlcrald.’’ -Australia can rest assured that when the team is published it will be a different otic to that which took the field at Sydney last Saturday. Rugby Giant. Tlie biggest man playing against the All Blacks in Australia; is Jack Ford. When, lie weighed recently with clothes and overcoat on lie tipped the beam at 16st. 21b. 2oz. Father and Son Halfbacks. E. T. C. (“Tiny”) Leys, who was sent to Australia to assist the All Blacks, learned liis football at Wellington College. He played for the college second fifteen, of which he was captain in 1522. In that year liis team headed the list* of learns on the sixth-grade ladder, scoring the phenomenal total of 575 points, while one penalty goal, representing three points, was the only score against it. Rushbrook and Carlson, who have reached the status of All Blacks, were also included in the Wellington College team referred to. Leys’s father, well-known in the North Island as “Jimmy” Leys, represented Wanganui from 1888 to 1891, and on transferring to Manawtitu, represented that district in 1892 and the following year. Like liis son, lie was a halfback, and in the match against Stoddart’s team, in 1888. he scored Wanganui's only try in the last match of the tour, which was drawn.

A Spectator Who Helped. In the old Rugby game there was no dead ball line and a player could run as far ns the ground allowed before lie touched down and a try would he awarded. Mr E. R. Webb, who played in the ’eighties, remembers an unusual incident in a match. East Christchurch v. Eastern. One of the East Christchurch forwards had dribbled hard over the touch-line. The opposing full-hack had only to force down, when the Eastern forward gave an extra hard kick. The Tiall was caught by a small bov in the crowd and thrown by him back to the Eastern man, who touched down, the umpire awarding a try. The opposing side were somewhat nettled