HOROWHENUA RUGBY UNION.

Shannon News, 25 July 1924, Page 3

HOROWHENUA RUGBY UNION.

WEEKLY ..MEETING. Tiie weekly meeting of the Horuwhenua Rugoy Union was heid mst Tuesday,■ tiie President, Mr E. Nash, occupying the chair. Also present: Messrs u'Rourke, Robinson, u'Lounor, Rimmer, Hardie, Austin, Dhhuck iiattoaings and the secretary, Mr L. Caimichael. CORRESPONDENCE. The N.Z.R.U. .wrote inclosing an invitation to the "president oi the Union, to the farewell dinner to the All Blacks to -be held in Wellington on Monday, July zmi. PROTEST AGAINST REFEREE'S RULING.

- The Bui Mai Football Club wrote pretesting againsfc the Senior match played against Otaki at Otaki on Saturday tost' Joeing awairdetd to thai" team on the ground that title referee's decision in awarding a try to Otaki was against the rules oi the game, as the ball .had not been thrown in> live yards from a line-out. Mr Buiylhvs, who reiereed the gu..io, wa;;ed 0.1 the Union and stated uiul lire ball bad gone out a good five yards. The man taking ii uau run in and planted the. ball about three yards from the comer. He was quite sure that his decision was correct. A referee had to use his own judgment in these matters, but he was certain of his facts. Decided that the referee's decision be upheld and that the protest lee be returned. GENERAL. Mr Hardie entered a protest against the Levin Domain. ground which wa» not marked out last Saturday when the game against Shannon was played, lie suggested that the Wanderers Club.be written to, asking them to put the ground in order. The Secretary stated that ;he Wan derers complaint was that they oiuy had the use of the ground when they, had an important game. If-any 0 the other feains in the town had an important game on, they got t-. ground find Wanderers had to go elsewhere. •'/This argument was lailaciqus, however, as each club in the town gave the use of its grounds to junior games of different clubs, so that it worked out evenly, some club had to be responsible, lor eaon ground and the Wanderers ■■• might well look alter this one. The ciub was financial and half a day's work would mark out the ground.. Decided to write to the Wanderers Club requesting themi to mark out the ground, as suggested. , PLAYERS EXPENSES. . Tiie manager of the Horowhenua. quota, of the combined HorowlienuaManawatu, team against the. Al/ Blacks was instructed to attend to the collection of players expenses from the Manawatu Union. ROUGH PLAY A.T FOXTON.; Mr Hutchings ,entered a proles, against the manner in which the Fox-ton-Weraroa game last Saturday hat. been conducted. (Several players bad approached him stating that iliey liau come to see a football match and noi a free fight.-. The referee bad had IK , control of the game. He, the speakei,

had never complained oi a roieree Tjerore, TJurnT"mis~ca"se this man was absolutely incompetent. Mr Austin supported this, slating that the game developed into a Dounybrook. Free fights were going 01. all over the field and the crowd weu worked up to such a pitch that the police had, the greatest difficulty m keeping the spectators from invading the field and attacking the players. Mr O'Rourke stated thai the had come to consider the revision o. tlie appointment of referees. A n commendation had been sent in to the Referees Association asking that local referees be not appointed to games y in .which their own clubs were interested, in Otaki a man had been appointed who was objectionable Ho i"< Otaki Club and the same thing had happened in Rahui, where a man well known as a partisan of a certain club had been appointed to referee lour games. The Referees' Associa-. tion had apparently thrown out the suggestion without consideration and it was quite time that the Union too., a hand in running the Referees' Association. The Referees' Association had run the Union long enough and it was time an alteration was made. After discussion of the Foxton incident Mr Austin moved that a recommendation be sent to the Referees' As sedation that the referee in question be not appointed again to control a senior or junior match Within the Union.— Carried. JUNIOR FIXTURES,

Mr Iluitchings asked if Uhe Junior rounds -were finished. The Secretary explained that it was impossible to work in another round. There was one ' more game in the northern end. There wa s then the North v. South game and after that the rep. game against Manawatu to be played. There was the coming Saturday off for the All Rlack game and it would take the game through too late into the spring to have another round. Mr O'Connor suggested that an A and B southern game might be played on the Saturday on which they had no game down there. The chairman moved that the Junior Reps plav Manawatu as a curtainraiser to Hie Senior HorowhenuaManawatu game in Palmerston North. —•Carried. It was agreed to leave the arranging of an A v. B southern game i" \hp junior selector (Mr J. Puti). A hearty vote of thanks to i,fhe chair and to Mr Nash for the use of his rooms concluded the meeting. THE NATIONAL GAME. ALT, BLACKS TN PA.TAIF.RSTON N. TO-MORROW. Tin 1 big interest for the coming Safunlav, is naturally the All Black game :v_Twinst Horowhenua—Manawatu in Palmerston North, when, from all reports a record crowd will assemble on the showgrounds to see the team nn which the country's football repu- . tatfon depends, in action. That the combined team can .hold Iho New Zealand combination is not to be expected notwithstanding the All Blacks' defeat bv Auckland on Wednesday—a defeat which no one, outside Auckland at any rate, taKes very seriously.

At the same time it must ibe admitted that Auckland's Win has given looai supporters considerable heart and a very hard, if not even, gaine may be looked for.

On Wednesday a trial game between the Possibles and Probables of the Manjawatu-Jlorowlienua footballers now in training in Palmerston North, was played, but it is understood that ■the final selection of the team will not be made.until to-night. In'the meantime the whole of the 23 players continue in training under Trainer Ryan, wiio is putting them through some very strenuous' preparatory; work for Saturday's match. NOTES ON THE PLAY.

Otaki's win over Hui Mai last Saturday practically leaves only Otaki and Wanderers in the competition, with, possibly, Weraroa as an outside chance. Hui Mai's defeat, after having (beaten Wanderers the preceding Saturday, Wanderers in turn having soundly" beaten Otaki earlier, came as so'uiething of a surprise and is a further illustration of the fact that in ■football,, as in other isports, paper form goes for very little. The game was ';\ hard-.'on got one right through and was mi fortunately marred, by some rough j lay, which resulted in two of the players, one from each side, appearing before the j Union at Tuesday's meeting, with the result that they will have a- Saturday off to consider (he matter. HOUGH PLAY. Saturday was apparently a bad day for football tempers.. The Weraroa— Foxton match iri Foxton was described by one of the Rugby Union, officials who was present, as a "regular Donnybrook, where players fought each ' other in couples all over the field, with only the slightest interference from the referee, and where the spectators were only prevented from adding to the. general disturbance by the strenuous efforts of the police.'' Opinions differ, as is usual in these cases, as to whether the bad behaviour of the players worked the spectators up to a state of nervous excitability similar to that of the Irishman who inquired as he watched a fight, whether "this was a private matter, -or if anyone, could join in. it," or whether the "unsportsmanlike conduct of a large section of the crowd, who hooted the decisions of the referee, and the..effoH« of some of the players, induced" vicarious retaliation.

Whichever was tba reason, it is not the spirit which is either expected or desired either in a football crowd, or a crowd of footballers. Hiow much the referee was to blame is another question. The Rugby Union in their rather hasty and ill-considered motion, .apparently considers that he Was solelv to blame, and whilst it must be granted that a firm stand early in the rfamo might have effected an improvement, the circumstances were unusual. That, however is not the immediate concern. What does concern us at the moment is the .rough play which is apparently growing in the .Union,,and which is responsible, to a large extent at, least, for the large total of serious accidents sustained by players this year. Much has been said—mostly' at football smoke concerts, admittedly, where the ideal tends to sit -precariously- enthroned, on the insecure foundation, of temporary enthusiasm—of the: characterbuilding influence of 'Rugby; of its imposition of restraint : on the field under the provocation of hard Play, etc. Like many other ideals, *how(wef if. would appear to be as the una!tain-able, and to be allowed to go at that. No. one will deny ihe immense satisfaction of getting one back on the other fellow—of, instead of turning the other cheek, returning the kick, but surely it might be "saved up and settled off the, field, the institution of a "Court of Honour." where such affairs would be argued out to. their logical conclusion, would perhaps he the -best means of insuring their discontinuance. Whatever may be said of the culpability of the players, who admittedly have often great provocation, nothing can bo said for that section of me public who, standing on the security of the line, urge players to* rough play, and by hooting Hie referee and playeis, tend to stir up trouble. Except that they are a nuisance to those of more sporting instincts,. they are hardly worth 'eo.nsildejring, " ipossibly, and being generally in -tho unlhidged stage, may be hoped at least, to grow .uiu of their folly. Syd. Smith, oi the Wanderers, who injured the tendons of his knee a fortnight ago, is still out of commission and will probably not play football again this season. His accident was paiticularly- unfortunate at this time as he would almost certainly have gone into camp with the All Black opponents at Palmerston North.

Stoker, the Wanderers' full back, played five-eighth for Rovers in their game against Shannon on Saturday, and although showing a. tendency to get out of position, played a sound game, being head" and shoulders a'bove the Rows' standard. With Tatana, who played in the forwards, he did a lot towards holding Shannon in check. Stoker would make a good five-eighth and is worth further trial in the position. SCHOOL FOOTBALL. The Levin School sustained another defeat on Wednesday, when the Otaki College registered a substantial score iigainst them. It is greatly to he regretted that some football enthusiast does not take the local 'boys in hand and endeavour to mould them into a team. That they were outweighted in Wednesday's-game is admitted, but that they were outclassed is undeniable. The material is available in the .school, and it seems a pity that one of the finest mediums for inculcating pride in their school—a successful athletic record—is being missed, to say nothing of the loss to. local football, which, must result from the absence of early training. The Schools of New Zealand are the cradle of future All Black teams, and in this case, something {more is necessary than merely keeping the cradle full.

THE ORIGINAL ALL BLACKS. MOBILISATION IN PALMERSTON NORTH. Mr. J. Hunter, whose play created such a furore lu England nineteen

years ago, is the first All Black to show up on the horizon for Saturday. Definite advice has been received that lie will be present in a journalistic capacity, at the New Zealand v. Man-awatu-Horowhenua match.

it is almost certain that other members of the famous side of 1905 will pay their respects at the farewell game to their 1924 successors. Thope expected are: Messrs W. S. Glenn, M.P., W. J. Wallace, Fred Roberts, H. D.. Thomson, F. F. Glasgow and J. J. O'Sullivan.