CORRECT IN EVERY WAY

NZ Truth, Issue 1239, 29 August 1929, Page 16

CORRECT IN EVERY WAY

College Rugby Is Model For Senior Players

GAME PLAYED FOR G^MES SAKE

There is an Americanism, "give 'em the works," which. can well be used m describing the main features of the Rugby game to-day. "'_ ■ .;'

BlS.the game.a club one, a meeting of inter-provincial teariis or ;'an inter-

sponding .to the strings as they are pulled.

Thus the weakening is started, but the ending— where?

national fixture New Zealand; foot-" ball is very much like the Negro— much of the same color.

"Like the day, there is too much standardisation; arid, . synonymous with standardisation, is" mass V production. That — mass production-— perhaps '■ explains the decline m the National Game. .-..-. ■'■"-'

And .'in saying there is a decline m the- Rugby standard "N.Z. Truth" ejipepts to be accused of raising an old parrot cry, "the good old days." •

'Tis said that comparisons' are odious, but- when anybody "with more, than a fleeting knowledge bf Rugby ' history takes the time^ to make a calm, survey of the position he will be forced to the. conclusion that comparisons: are odorous with the "odor" attached to present day standards. ,

Where m days gone by there were two and,, three, te'ams.y of genuine All Blacks, these, days it is difficult to field fifteen and the necessary* emergencies.

Being, m addition to« age' of standardisation it follows, naturally, it is an era of speed and it has been this cult of "stepping on it" that has developed and reared a healthy but quite obnoxious, child

Just where this weakening influence is. entering into New Zealand football is not difficult to find — at least "Truth" formed an opinion after witnessing a series of games during the past week.

Inter-collegiate tourneys., are being staged throughout the country and iri Wellington, m particular, four of the schools of learning met, and what football they played!

Representatives of Nelson, Wellington, Wanganui and Christs' Colleges showed that though the prospect may be dull and dreary there were still rays of sunshine.

Rugby is a- game Tor fifteen aside, with a. referee to administer the rules — but not to teach them — and each player has a set position and a definite task to carry, out, to , the very utmost of .his ability. And so should the game be played.

But how often? To-day the set position is still there, and also the particular task, but the gentleman may be able to fill the boots, but not the job. Not so m Col lege Rugby, y

The boys are rightly termed the All Blacks of the morrow and what a team they would be if lessons learnt at school were not thrown to the four winds when they enter into club football.

Each rise m grade sees this fundamentals instilled at school abandoned..

, They find it is not the game as was taijght them find, to make the grade, the good is dropped for what is thought to be as good, and real footballers become more or less automatons, re-

Back to the inter-collegiate tourney. It was a sight to gladden the heart ' to witness a team playing as a 'team. There '. were' forwards and -there were backs, the two units making the whole, but neither attempting to usurp, the role pf the

other,

To the referees, who were appointed to [control the games-, it must have been an ; undiluted joy.. It is said that refereeing" is •- ay labor of love, but the whlstiers who give their time m helping the game reckon they know more of Love's Labor Lost.

Features of present-day play cover a wide area, but the efforts of the referee to detect and scotch the "clever" stuff,' as practised m the "best circles" these days • -"would, call for that poor official having as. many eyes as • the centipede has feet— and then some!

But /college Rugby, how different. T'he boys are ; - there to play the, ; game for the game's sake, and for the 'honor of the School.

An offender would .find his teammates down on him should he commit a breach '"that 'is not' Rugby" quicker

than any referee. Talk of the unwritten law. ■ ..."..■

TJie^cpnn^aJidment, ;-."PJfLy the G?arne. for the' ..vGante'^.. ''Sake, 'M-Js an integral part pfy the-^ college, catechism, and 1 to the ■ very., lei ter ["was it" played up to In this week's' tourney.v ;,, '

That.'there should; be the. need ;'to.

adviseytße senior, player, to take'?a leaf "from the book of the. college player is a sad commentary,, but, nevertheless, one of the times. •

Striplings are showing, the manner m which Rugby should;, and can, be played and it is by no means local.

Throughout .New Zealand it is the same, and across the Tasman the public schools attract and delight Sydney attendances.

Correct football, model Rugby., are two -' descriptions of what VTruth" saw during the tourney and. that, is more than can be said of any other game this season, Shield holders and club champions notwitnstanding. -'■'-