RUGBY GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 60

RUGBY GOSSIP.

Acoording © the rough balance sheet submitted by Mr Ltargsford, secretary to the Auckland Rugby Union, the A R.U.s share of the profits oi the British, tour amounted to £4j IGs lOd A Northern Un ; on League, known, as the Rotorua Football League, has been form-ed at llotoru? and it is stated that this will result in the R torua Rugby Union losing all of i*i \>2 = L p!syer-. Mr H. S. Turtill, the "=>ar" fu'l oack of the New Zealand Xorthcin team which toured Erg'and a couple of eeasons ago, arrived m London again by the Corinthic. Mr Turtill, who is accompanied by hid wiie, expects to remain for scnic considerab'e l tne, and ruay possibly settle in England. The Welsh Rugby Union has decided) to prc.-ent the pla\ers who piut'cipatcd :n last fc.oi<-on's international's with handsome fouven,r=. the value >x>t to exceed three guineas, a similar henour beir.g conferred upon the comjEiltes, th-e mementoes ranging from silver vd>e-s to cigarette cases and whi=ky flasks. Member^ of the Newtown (Sydney) team who payed all through Queensland under the five yard= tb sow-out from touch speak very highly of it. They consider that its incorporation in the laws of Rugby would be of material advantage to the game, minimising roii'/h and useless scrapping work so often prevalent . Hug-hie Absolum is still able to hold his own on -the footb?H leld, as the following from a Hawke's Bay paper shows:— "Of the winning rearguard Absolum -wa3 undoubtedly head and. shoulders abve his comrades. Hughie was everywhere, and to his untiring efforts can be credited the victory. His advice to his forwards, ' Play the ball and not the man,' c«n bs- taken for an object-lesson by o ( her skippers." Writing of the Maori taam s first matcn in Sydney the Telegraph says: — "Oue thing was indisputably en-own by the game — that w»3, that while the ICew South Wales backs are last and tricky in attack, they are for

the greater part poor defenders. Th© lamentably feeble attempt made tt> stop Asher and Ratete on more than one occasion were reminiscent of schoolboy form, -whilst, on tho other band, the side-stepping of one or two of them m attack was ai times superb." An appreciation of Asher in Sydney: "The sensational items came principally from. Ratete and Asher, otherwise Whaxepapa. Asher is without doubt one of the finest footballers Maoriland has produced. It would be hard to say off head how many years it is since he first donned a football guernsey in a representative team. But notwithstanding all the intervening years of play he is still as slippery as an eel, as springy v as a cat, and full of resourcefulness." The following is from the Sporting Chroi nicle: — "With reference to a Reuter's cablegram of June 24, stating that negotiations are I proceeding for bringing out a, Welsh Rugby team to Aiu&ttralia next year, Mr Walter Rees, the Welsh searetacy, stated, in reply to an interviewer, that he had received the following cable from Sydney: 'New SouiJi Wales invite Welsh team to visit Australia 1910. Writing. — Hill.' Nb negotiations are at* present^ conducted, but Mr Rees states the .matter will in all probability come before the Welsh Union at their annual meeting at Cardiff next week." So far ho reply has been. received by th* N.S.W.RU. j O.R.F.U. COMMITTEE. I The regular meeting of the O.R.F.U. Committee, held on Monday night, was attended by Messrs F. H. Campbell (president), Sincock, Harris, King, Cavanagh, Wilson, Priest, Stuart, Dunne, Hamel, Dey, and Duncan. COSBESPONDENCE j The Ranfurly player who was ordered . off the field in the matoh Naseby v. RanI fu-rly for striking an opponent wrote- | acknowledging the fault, but alleging great provocation and, illegal tackling on the part of the opposing wing forward. — It was decided to forward the letter to the referee, asking for cor ro bo ration. The Vincent County Sub-union reported that accommodation had been made for the Otago touring team. It asked whether a referee was to be sent with the team. — Mr Duncan advocated such a course, as he thought it would improve the quality of refereeing in the country districts. — Mr . Wilson said he thought that some referees I in the districts were quite competent. — Mr i Priest moved, and Mr -Harris seconded, that no referee be sent with the team. — It was suggested that the names of proposed referees should^ be submitted to the manager beforehand. It was decided, to ask the sub-unions to submit the names of suitable referees to the committee governing the tour. The Maniototo Union also advised as to the accommodation of the team. • The Secretary of the Maniototo County Sub-union intimated that the Naseby Pros-, pectors' Football Club had won the banner for the season, St. Bathans being runnersup. The banner, which was forwarded for i inscription, was to bs paresented on August • 26, when the Otago. team was at Oburehua. J. D. Avery (secretary of the New Zealand Rugby Union) forwarded a list of disqualifications imposed by other unions. — Received. v The Union also wrote asking the committee to ascertain f^he names of players on both sides who took ■ part in the Northern Union game played against Southland in Dunedin last year. — The secretary had forwarded the information asked for. Otago nominations for the North v, ' South Island match were requested to be ! forwarded to the New Zealand Union before the 13th inst., as the match would be played in Wellington on August 25. — Referred to the Match Committee. The Secretary of the Union Club wrote that he was instructed by his committee to complain about the remarks passed by Mr Campbell last Monday evening concerning Mr Stewart, captain of the Union Second Fifteen. Mr Stewart had been connected with the Un-ion Club for the past six years" and had proved himself a worthy member, both on and off the field; consequently his committee felt that Mr Campbell's attitude was not only unnecessarily severe on Mr Stewart's character as a footballer, but also reflected on the Union Club. • The committee sympathised . with, the Rugby Union in its efforts to uphold" the dignity of the referees, but thought that in this case Mr Campbell's published remarks had given the public a false impression of Mr Stewart, and in justice to him the committee thought Mr Campbell should withdraw his remarks. — The Chairman eaid that at the time he had 1 made the remarks he saftl he made them without consulting the committee, and he had nothing to withdraw in the matter. He still maintained that a player who thought he had a perfect right to talk to a refaree as this player admitted he did should be censured, and it was not desirable that he should play football, especially as ho was the captain of the team.— (" Hear, hear.") He took it at the time that he was voicing the feeling of the committee in the matter. He felt very strongly about it himself, and was not going to withdraw anything.— lt was decided to reply to the Union Club that the committee was entirely in accord with the chairman's remarks. Graham's case. Mr R. King, the referee in the match" Zingari-Richmond v. Kaikoiai on Saturday \ eek, in which Graham was ordered off for alleged tripping, wrote, in reply to the letter of the secretary asking for fuller particulars: "At the time of the incident I felt positive it had been a case of tripping. My reason for writing that a caution would have been sufficient was owing to the number of adverse opinions that I heard after the match in regard to my decion. I felt when I wrote that I might have made a mistake, and I decided to give Graham the benefit of the doubt. This is all I have to say on the matter." — The Secretary reported that he had asked 1 Mr King to attend, but he was unable to do so. — It was decided that the matter should bb I.*.1 .*. held over till the referee was able to be present. At a later stage considerable discussion rose over this matter, as Graham was wait- . ing outside in accordance with the previous resolution of the meeting. It was stated that special efforts had been made to have the referee present, but the committee had failed to secure his presence. — It was decided at length that Mr King should either decide to attend the meeting next week or arrange to meet a special meeting of the committee during the week at his own convenience; failing his coming to Dunedin, the committee decided that further action would be taken in the matter. — Graham was then called in and the position explained to him, tho Chairman expressing regret that he should be put to the trouble of attending twice without th» inquiry, bsipg gone on with t

CHARGE OF FOUL PLAY. Mr R C. Cairney wrote as» follows: — " As a spectator on the Opoho Ground on Saturday, I desire to bring before the notice of your committee the most foul and cowardly piece of play that it has evsr been my lot to see perpetrated, when G. Robertson, a member of the Ravensbourne team, had hi* nose broken and his face otherwise disfigured by a cowardly blow from behind when he had i his hands up to tike the bail on the lineout. I did not see the blow actually struck, but I saw the man fall, and several of the Ravensbourne backs who saw the blow struck' are prepared to come before your committee, .ana give evidence. I am perfectly satisfied that Mr Eyre (the referee) did not spa the incident, as he was going on with .tne. game without knowing ihat a man was injured. I asked him after the match if he -had •seen the foul play, and- he said ' No, I did not. 7 I may say that Robertson took no further part in the match; although the ' incident happened shortly after the second spell had started. Robertson will attend the meeting of your committee to «rive an idea of the injury, and- to see if the committee thinks that it could be- done accidentally." Robertson -was f.lien sho'vn into the room In answer to tho Chairman he said he would definitely chartre one of the Albambra players with having deliberately struck him. The Chairman thpn said an inquiry would j be held, and Robertson ' was asked to attend ' the meeting" next "Monday evening with • witnesses'. THE VOLUNTEER TOURNAMENT. Preparatory to. receiving Mr Cook ?s a deputation in connection with the Volun- I teer tournament* the Chairman explained that thu Volunteers wen? seeking the per- j mission of the union to play its tourna- j ment on the committee's grounds. It happened that one or two disqualified Northern Union players vrero Vcluntecrs, and ' would bo taking part in the tournament, i Of course, any such man could not be al- I lowed to play, and anvonp playinp against him would be disqualified as well. The Volunteexs felt that this was very unjust. They contended that the man would be playiner simply as a Volunteer, and stopping him in this way would be retarding Volunteering,- which was a movement which required ; fostering-. He might say that the**commrttee* had every sympathy with Volunteering, -Imf if-,was bound by the rules with regard to professionr>'ism. Mr Ccok made a'strong appeal that the committee should exercise its discretion by savins: that tho penalty which had been inflicted upon this man. having been enforced for one season, might be withdrawn with regard to this particular tournament. He contended that the iran was nlaying cs a Volunteer, and not as a footballer. The Chairman said the player had been suspended by the New Zealand Rugby Union. an«-l the' disqualification could not be removed by tho Otago Committee. Afu.-r further discussion the Chairman aui-ffested that the secretary should write ' immediately to the New Zealand Union. ! putting the matter before it, and asking it to remove' the* disqualification' for these partirular matches. It was der-ided that this course tho ild be followed