FOOTBALL

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 48

FOOTBALL

RUGBY. By Full Back. OTAGO FIXTURES July 1. —Otago v. Southland, at Invercargill. July 30 and August 1. —Country Week. August B.—v. Wairarapa, at. Dunedin. August 12. —v. South Canterbury, at Dunedin. August 22. —v. Australia. August 29.—v Wellington, at Wellington. September z.—v. Manawhenua, at Palmerston North. September 5- —v. Auckland, at Auckland. September 9. —v. Taranaki, at Hawera. September 12.—v. Canterbury. at Christchurch; Otago junior representative team v. Canterbury B team. September 19. —v. Southland, at Dunedin. Suggested date Payne Trophy. August 5 or 12. NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITIES’ TEAM. Wednesday, June 3.—v. Combined Australian Universities (if possible). Saturday, June 6. —v. Sydney University (second test). Monday, June 8. —v. Orange, at Orange. Wednesday, June 10.—Combined New Zealand and Sydney Universities v. New South Whales. Friday, June 12. —Leave Sydney for New Zealand.

NOTES After five series of games under the old rules, many Rugby spectators, if not a majority, would vote the football this season as less interesting than last year’s (says the Christchurch Press). Back movements are being limited in number by the use halves are making of the touch line, and the general disposition of some backs is to kick instead of run. If these tactics are allowed to dominate games completely, the man who takes his Rugby from the bank and the grand stand will soon form very definite opinions about the action of the English Union in insisting on a reversion to its rules. A round-the-table discussion took place at a meeting of the Wellington Union on the question of referees being appointed to control games in which clubs with which they had been actively associated were engaged. The question arose out of the appointment of a delegate from one of the clubs to a senior game in which that club was playing. The. referee in question felt that he was in an unfair position, and asked the Referees Appointment Board to allot him another game, and when this request was turned down, he stated that he would not be available. When the matter came up for discussion, it was stated that although there was no suggestion that the referee would favour the club with which he was connected —rather the opposite in fact—it was an unfortunate position for him to be in. It was stated that the same thing was noticed practically every week; referees were appointed to control games in which clubs they had been actively connected with were concerned, and there had been trouble over the matter last season in a deciding match in a lower grade championship. It was decided to request the Appointment Board to see as far as possible referees were not appointed to games in which teams in which they might be interested were playing. It is probable that Mill will lead "Wairarapa against Hawke’s Bay on June 3 at Napier. “ By korry! ” remarked a Ratana Maori to a Wanganui Herald reporter, “ You missed te match of your life when yon did not go to Ratana yesterday afternoon to see Taranaki and Ratana team play for te Mako Shield. Talk about a clash of gladiators and stoush. I never see anything like him. Py korry, both sides did dish him out. Te referee I think he become frightened. In te end some feller get hurt, so with 25 minutes to go him blow te whistle and call te game off.” “ But I thought it was supposed to be a friendly match,” remarked the reporter. “ Oh, friendly enough afterwards, al! right,” replied the Ratanaite. What is being said in Dunedin about the excessive' number of Rugby football tours is not new, but cannot be too often emphasised (says a leading article in the Wellington Dominion). The controlling authorities of the game readily endorse the criticism, and, indeed, something was heard on the subject at the New Zealand Union’s meeting a fortnight ago. It seems, however, that this was not much more than lip-service to a good principle, because the union at the same meeting proceeded to sanction a long list of representative fixtures (all of which will involve touring by at least one side) which occupied over half a column of small print and will extend over four playing months, beginning as -early as May 27. Steps should be taken to prune this list severely in future years, not only to reduce the well-known objections to touring, but to strengthen club football, which is, after all, the foundation of Rugby. Twenty-eight different players appeared for England in its four international Rugby matches in the season now past. There were also various other changes in positions in the team. Little wonder, then, that the team could not achieve satisfactory combination. HOW TO COMBAT THE WINGFORWARD W. W. Wakefield, who was to have captained the British team on its visit to New Zealand, does not hold that the wing-forward is a menace to the game. “ The whole trouble in these dull and dreary internationals,” said the famous English captain, “ is due to the instruction of the International Board that the ball should be ‘placed’ in the scrum and not thrown—this is an instructiorg by the way; it is not in the rule book. * Putting ’ the ball into the scrum leads to slow heeling, with the result that when the ball has come out the scrum half has been immediately smothered. Now, because a wing-forward does his work, and puts a spoke in the scrum half’s wheel,

you must not blame him for ruining the game. “I agree that the .rule governing hooking needs redrafting. It is a mathematical impossibility to say when the ball has passed both feet of the outside men. The ball is really fairly in the scrum as soon as it is in the tunnel. If fhe ball is thrown in hard and the outside man follows it in with his foot, the result is a quick heel, and then no wing-forward or scrum-half on earth can prevent the ball being got away to the backs." Wakefield, who is now refereeing, said that if he were in charge of an international match he would stand by the rule book, and not by the instruction of the International Board. “ I would advise the scrum-half," he added, “to throw the ball into the scrum as hard as he could. I am definitely against any suggestion altering the law which would restrict the opportunities of wing-forwards. If you made them keep on their own side of the scrum until the ball is out you would be encouraging elow and slovenly heeling, and surely we don’t want to do that."

REPLACING AN INJURED PLAYER At the present time there appears to be some confusion as to what rules we can play football under in New Zealand, and there also appears to be some danger

that we will, as the saying goes, soon fail to see the forest for the trees —that is to say, that the rules will become of greater importance than the game. There is no doubt that a great deal of confusion exists in the Dominion regarding who are the controllers of the game in Britain, and where we actually stand in connection with the rules. As 1 understand the position, the International Board is composed of four representatives from the English Union, two from Wales, two from Ireland, and two from Scotland. It has the control of international matches, and has the power to revise the laws of the game at the request of the four Home unions. The board has, however, no control over the game as played in the separate countries. While the International Board has the power to revise the laws of the game when requested to do so, any resolution by the board has to be carried by a tlireeJourths majority. As the board is constituted, if the English delegates were opposed to any alteration their voting power would prevent it being carried. This means, in effect, that the English Rugby Union has a dominating position on tire board. So far as the New Zealand Union 'is concerned, however, it is affiliated to the Rugby Union of England, and the English Union, therefore, controls the rules we play under. It may be added that if an Imperial Board is ever set up, it should take precedence of both the International Board and the Rugby Union of England. This brings one to the point regarding replacing men during the course of . a game. Many, of the Referees’ Associations are asking for a direction on this matter —can men be replaced or can they not? The answer is simple. It is a fact

that the English Union has withdrawn the dispensation regarding giving the dominions the right to play certain of the amended rules. However, the English Union has never said anything about forcing the dominions to desist from the practice of replacing injured players. For this reason, that it has never interfered with the practice, and the question is not controlled by the rules. If the Dominion desires to replace men it can do so, provided the captains of the two teams so agree. In England injured men are not replaced, in international games, at any rate. . Mr H. Harris, manager of the Maori team that went Home, states, hojyever, that men were replaced in matches against the Maoris in France. It seems to me that Referees’ Associations are anxious to play too great a part in the actual game. Repeatedly we. hear of referees wanting a ruling on this’point and that point, when, by the exercise of common sense, they could decide the matter for themselves. The book of rules is really beginning to dominate the play, but I know at least two of the very finest referees we have had in Dunedin who would, without doubt, have failed in an examination on the fine points of the rules. It is not a new story, but it is very apropos. A player in a game had kicked the ball into the top of a high tree. There was only the one ball, and no ladder

was available. All attempts to dislodge the ball were unsuccessfid. and at last one of the players angrily remarked: ‘’Never mind about the blanky ball; let’s get on with the game.” There is hardly need to explain. Never mind about the finicky points of the rules; let’s get on with the game. •’KNEEING” THE BALL While watching the junior match at Carisbrook on Saturday with Mr Alick Downes, the very fine Otago and Alhambra centre three-quarter of the ’eighties and nineties, the conversation turned to methods of play, and the lost art of “ kneeing ’’ the ball. Now this was an art “ Pat" Keogh had developed to some purpose, and he could use it with effect. Running up to an opponent, and with no one to pass to, Keogh would bounce the ball on his knee and follow it through. Mr Downes pointed out, and very truly, that by kneeing the ball a player could control its direction and not lose contact, far better than by “ putting his boot ’’ into it, to use a common football expression. It would be interesting to see some of our backs trying this move in present-day football when the - passing across field is being blocked and not gaining ground. Properly carried out “ kneeing should come off more often than an attempt to cut in. At anyrate it is a plan of attack well worth trying. Of course a player would have to use judgment, and see that there was no defender backing up in a position to take a mark.