EXPELLED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 727, 30 December 1933, Page 7

EXPELLED

ALL ENGLAND FULL BACK , CAST OUT OF RUGBY UNION ALLEGED PROFESSIONALISM ' London, Nov. 117 The Rugiby fojotbfall wtorld was istantled yesterday when the secretary of the Rugby Union made the following announcement: As a result of an inquiry, tne Rugby Union Oommittee have expelled Mr. T. W. Brown,' of th'e Bristol Rugby Olub, for contrayention otf the Union rules as to professionalism and their byUaws. A public announii'cementt of this kind ■ by the Rugby Union is unprecendenited, but the lauthordies decline to give any explanation of their aotion. ilnterviewed yesterday, Brown) "wbo is the Bristol and England fuy-back, said he had received an intimation from the Rugby Union stating that ihe had committed ,a.n act of professionalism, and that he must donsider | himselfv expelled from the Unionj "I -regret very deeply being cut off i ■ so suddenly from active association 5 i 'with my Rugby friends," he added, | j "but I am in no way depressed, and | will, in all probability tuna my aittention to Association fcotball for the I Bristol Aeroplane Company, where I am employed. "I have no intention of leaving Bistol, and I am not in the least desirous of joining a Rugby League Club." Two Players Approached The "act of professionalism," Brown is judjged to have committed coneerns, The Daily Telegraph understands, a visilt he paid to Manchester some w'eeks ago, f ollowing . an offer made to him in Bnistol on behalf of Broughton Rangers, the Rugby League oiub. Early in the season, Rugby League icgents approached two of the Bristol club's best players. D. W. Burland was offered £750 to turn profassional, and the induicement itio Brown, it is understood, was £600 down and £4 per match. Burland at •once rejected the overtures. A proposed business appointment was included in the offer made to Brown, who subsequently declined it. Capped Five Times Mr Howard Marshall writes. Brown's expulsdon will come as a shock to the Rugby football world, and it is without qusstion a misfortune for the igame in England. It does prove, however, that the Rugby Union authorities are ruthless in their determination to stamp out any suspicion of professionalism- ( Brown, in his owri quiet, unobstrusj ive way, was a great full-baclc, peri haps the greatest England has had ! since the war. He first represented ! his courtry in 1928 when he replaced j IC. A. Sellar for the match against i Scctland. Since then he has been j capped five times, and, bnt for a head injury, would undoubtedly have apI peared regularly in the England side.