A STUPID RULE

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 6

A STUPID RULE

Mr Baxter’s latest contribution to football conversation is the declaration that in future teams must remain on the field during the intervals. He does not pause to consider the wisdom of the rules demanding this, and in this he is justified by his view that- the rules must be obeyed. There are, however, some points of considerable interest raised by his announcement of the British team’s attitude, and among these is the extraordinary carelessness displayed by the Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union in leaving so many questions of vital concern to the players to bo settled after the arrival of the visitors in the Dominion. Mr Baxter would not be unfair if he complained that such questions as the colours to be worn in the Tests and the behaviour of the teams at the interval should have been determined before the team left the Old Country, and in neglecting to settle these matters in good time the governing bodies, but particularly the New Zealand Union, were very remiss. Some piquancy is added to the discussion by the fact that when New Zealand met England a few years ago the All Blacks left ■the ground at the interval, while the British team remained. In this country it is believed that to keep men, heated by forty minutes of strenuous play, standing on the field for five minutes on a cold day is to expose them to unnecessary risks, a view that medical opinion supports. Custom in this country ordains that the players leave the playing field, and we think the popular opinion will be that the international rules perpetuate a piece of folly which should have been discarded years ago by intelligent men. One serious illness having its rise in this old practice will be sufficient to make disobedience a virtue, and we think that in this matter coinmonsense rather than conservatism should prevail. Mr Baxter is entitled to sympathy in that he finds this '.wkward question at large after his arrival

in New Zealand, but a compromise should have been possible after a brief talk in private.