FOOTBALL

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 48

FOOTBALL

RUGBY. By Full Back. OTAGO FIXTURES August B.—v. Wairarapa, at Dunedin. August 12—v. South Canterbury, at Dunedin. August 22.—v. Australia. August 29. ; —v Wellington, at WellingSeptember 2. —v. Manawhenua, at Palmerston North. ’ September 5-—v. Auckland, at AuckSeptember 9. —v. Taranaki, at Hawera. September 12.—v. Canterbury. at Christchurch; Otago junior representative team V. Canterbury B team. September 19. —v. Southland, at Dunfed Date to be fixed.—v. Southland, at InVcrcargill. • * July 30 and August I.—Country Week. Suggested date Payne Trophy, August <5 or 12.

NOTES In the Hawke’s Bay Rugby competition, Hastings this season has a strong team, with Bert Grenside, A. E. Cooke, Camphell, and Anderson (an ex-Canterbury representative) to give them a lead. Left out of England’s Rugby team against Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, after his return Home, TL-S. Spong was chosen for the last international match of the 1930-31 season—the match with France at Easter. Bell, the versatile Southland five-eighth, wing-forward, etc., has joined the ranks of the referees. Transfers are becoming a bugbear In Wellington Rugby, and at a recent meeting the Wellington Rugby Union had the matter ventilated with a view to warning the various team and players. Up to the present over 100 applications have been made and granted. Southland will be the first South .Island province to send a Rugby team on tour this season, and indications point tc the southern province being represented by a formidable pack. AN UNUSUAL INCIDENT An unusual incident was reported by a referee to a recent meeting of the Referees’ Association. Before the commencement of a junior match a lad came to the referee and asked him if he could stop his brother from playing, as he (the brother) was at present under the doctor’s observation. The referee replied that he had no authority under the rules to prevent the boy from playing. After some discussion the association decided to inform referees that under similar circumstances, although they had no law to govern the point, the referee was morally bound to take some action, and he should call a lad and bis captain together and point out to them the danger of playing football under these circumstances.

COMMON SENSE Mr V. G. Cavanagh made a very wise Remark at a recent meeting of the committee of the Otago Union. An inquiry was . being held in regard to offences by junior players in a match decided at the Oval. One of the offenders •—the captain of the team—said the whistle had been blown, and then their opponents went on and scored a try. He had then asked the referee why he had not stopped the game when he had blown his whistle the first time. The referee said he had blown his whistle only once, and the suggestion was put forward that perhaps another whistle had been blown at the Oval. Mr H. Harris then stated that at another match he had heard that a whistle on an adjacent area bad been blown. One team had stopped, and the opposing side had gone on and scored. “How would you rule in a case like that? ” asked a member of the committee of the union. “Common sense! ” tersely replied Mr Cavanagh—a very important thing which nowadays seems to be in danger of being lost sight of by referees and also other people connected with the game. It may be added that the Otago Union has decided to supply referees with different sounding whistles. TAKING A MARK A letter on the subject of the “ mark ” has been received (says the Wellington Post) from Mr D. M'Kenzie, chairman of the executive of the New Zealand Rugby Referees’ Association, as follows:—“ At last week’s meeting of the Wellington Rugby Referees’ Association, at the invitation of Mr D. Calcinai, the president of that body, I gave a paper on the laws of the game of Rugby as issued by the Rugby Football Union. Amongst the points dealt with in my paper was the ‘mark.’ I made the definite statement that to be awarded a fair catch a player tr, must be standing on both feet when he caught the ball, making the heel-mark with a deliberate action after doing so. I was not present at this week’s meeting, but I am told that my statement was challenged by a. member of the New Zealand Rugby Union, who is also an active referee. He surely must have forgotten a decision arrived at by the governing body of Rugby in the Dominion, an extract from a communication by the secretary, dated May 1, 1930, reading: ‘Define a Fair Catch.—Ruling: A fair catch can only be allowed to a player who has both feet on the ground and claims the fair catch by making a heel-mark.’ It has ever been my endeavour to have authority for any statement I make regarding the laws of Rugby, and from the above it will be agreed that the New Zealand Rugby Union is of the opinion that a fair catch cannot be awarded to a player who is standing on one leg when he catches the ball.” THE SPRINGBOKS’ TOUR English Rugby critics are regarding the Springboks’ visit to England next season with apprehension, in view of the fact that the season just concluded has left the England fifteen spread-eagled on the

field, without a single victory to their credit. The Leek and the Thistle triumphed over the Rose as never before, and the culminating blow came when a side comjiosed almost entirely of the English players selected to meet Scotland was beaten in a trial by a county fifteen. Following the imriiemorial custom, -the critics have begun scalp-hunting among the Selection Committee, whicK is being shot at from all sides on the “ sack the lot ” principle. It is admitted on all sides that there is no outstanding personality in English Rugby at the moment, though there must be an enormous amount of solid Rugby talent going to waste somewhere in a nation of over 40,000,000. On the other hand, visitors from South Africa bring fearsome tales of the prowess of the Springboks’ fleet-footed, heavyweight pack, and scrum-shaking frontrankers and the slippery Osler tribe.

Percy Rodd, in the News-Chronicle, points out that none of the members of the Selection Committee has played Rugby since the war, and that they may justly be suspected of old-fashioned ideas. He awards to the Selection Committee the major blame for England’s reverses, stating that they panicked when Wales drew at Twickenham, and made no less than seven changes in the team which met Ireland.