THE RUGBY MENACE

Northland Age, Volume 6, Issue 33, 7 May 1937, Page 9

THE RUGBY MENACE

Penalty Kick Mis-Used Misleading the Umpires Wilfred Wooller, the extremely brilliant Welsh centre-three-quarter, has been in trouble at Home recently because of an incident in a club game between Cardiff and Newport. Cardiff, Wooller’s side, w-as awarded a penalty in a handy position, and Wooller taking the kick, motioned the touch judges to go behind goal for a place-kick. Apparently, he abruptly changed his mind, short-punted the ball ahead, and almost scored a try. The suggestion was made that the practice is frequent in Welsh Rugby, but D. R. Gent, who played for England against Gallagher’s 1905 All Blacks, and who is nowadays an acknowledged critic of the game, refused to believe it. In the “Sunday Times” he said : “I cannot help thinking Wooller forgot his intention to take a penalty shot.—But I feel so strongly about it that I think attention should be drawn to the statement that it is sometimes done deliberately. If that is so it is sheer trickery, is not even clever, and is absolutely foreign to the spirit of Rugby football. If I were the referee and a player did this, I should blow the whistle at once and order a scrummage, not even allowing the kicker to have his shot at goal.” AMENDED RULE Advantage Claimed “After years of experience, it is my opinion that our going back to the international law will not make one iota of difference towards bettering the New Zealand team,” remarked Mr. Harry Frost (Auckland) during discussion at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union on the question of reverting to the old kick-into-touch rule. “It is not necessary to play the international rule even in the trial matches. However, that is my opinion only. I do hope delewill not seriously consider the of altering the rule only because the South Africans are coming, xhe amended rule has met with approval, and I believe that if we went back to the international law now it would have a detrimental effect on our football rather than be a help in our coming games with the South Africans.”