Rugby Reminiscences

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 11

Rugby Reminiscences

Past and Present

TxV the following article, Mr. W. Cunningham, of 1005 All Blaclc fame , recalls some entertaining experiences of olcl-time Rugby , interspersed with shrewd and witty comments on present-day happenings in the Rugby world.

T HAVE been asked how it is that A nowadays there are so many accidents during a game of football. Well, to be candid, I must say I do not know, unless the game is so much faster, or the tackling more vigorous. As for the latter, I cannot name a player of to-day who tackles more vigorously than the late “Dick” McGregor did. When Dick brought a man down, it was good and hard; not rough, but simply good, robust tackling. The player McGregor tackled usually got up, shook himself, and walked away looking back at “Dick.” Any Saturday now. if it is wet, you will see the game stopped for a few minutes at least half a dozen times during a game, while the referee digs a few pounds of soil out of a player’s eye. If the job is too big, he calls Mr. “Zam-Buk.” In olden times if a •man got any portion of the paddock in his eye, he had to carry on the best he could till it dropped out of its own iccord, or else was pulled out or kicked out by an opponent. NOW AND THEN The cause of so many accidents I do not think is due to rough play. The game is not near as rough now, «. say. 20 years ago. I remember Playing in a match. City versus Graflon. I was playing for City, and three Grafton’s men had been laid out, and in each case was replaced by a fresh Then a fourth man was put °ut of action. Grafton’s skipper asked skipper, “Bubs” Tyler, if he would sllow them to put another man on in ’k® injured one’s place. “Oh, yes,” said “Bubs.”

“Well,” said the City man who J** responsible for all the ‘‘accidents," “that’s no good to me. here am I laying the men out, and you allowing fresh men to come on in their place. That’s no good -o me. From this on I play the ball!**

When I played we had no first-aid 55°• I was playing in a match at ''aitekauri (long since wiped off the ™*P), and a very prominent player kid out, and we carried him off the He “came to” for a second, °<*ed round, and saw where he was, ur *a said: “Take me over to the other the field.” Then he went off 10 dreamland again. 1 might state an *S ther side of the field was where -ii the girls of Waitekauri were seated nine in all. Now, if that man Pkying these times, when we have men, I venture to say he ouid be laid out at least 12 times nn S each game. A “JIMMY” HUNTER MEMORY wi£i y .u once do * remember a game ona , re wore so many injuries as u- a _ t , B * n Present-day games. That i , ma t c fi between Auckland and cars at Otter’s Paddock some v, s In those days, long grass s ach «r° W ns on the side lines, and as draJLikmnaki man go t hurt, he was ovpf to . °ne side and left to reth« eoJ?® est way he could, while Set went on. The last man to ’JiffitJ. “ ut , was the one and only > Hunter (of cork-screw run

fame). “Hello,” said Chris McMillan (who was playing for Auckland), “another man for the long grass.” PLAYERS IN CAMP I notice in the papers that the New Zealand Rugby Union takes exception to teams going into camp to train for an important match. I do not hold with that view. I think it is the only way for country players to gain combination, and so be able to make a decent showing against the city teams. Country players usually do not see one another from the time the game finishes on one Saturday till the following Saturday. On the other hand, the city players meet twice a week in the training shed. A friend of mine told me the other day that he knew a player who used to drive a few pegs in the ground and used to practise side-stepping them —a very good idea, too. Now, some years ago 1 went to a place called Whangamata. A football match was coming off on the Saturday, miners versus surfacemen. I was asked if I had ever played. I said “No.” “Well,” said the surfaceman selector, “I will show you a few points and you will bo put in the team (only 15 surfacemen there all told) for Saturday.” The points he showed were never forgotten by me. After tea he took me up the creek about half a mile, out of sight of the miners. “Now,” he said (after he had tucked his hand up under his armpit, holding an imaginary ball), “you run straight and fend like this.” With that he fended off a punga tree, then side-stepped a clump of ti-tree, and touched down behind a flaxbush! The match took place on the Saturday. It cost me £1 4s as my share of the dinner we played for. My friend, I do not think, was ever invited to coach the “AM Blacks.”

At a place where I was once. Raglan, we had a team, most of whom were Maoris. A new man came to work at the mill where I was. He

had a great reputation as a threequarter (as a matter of fact, nearly all Maori players are either threequarters or fullbacks). I asked him if he was fast. “Oh, yes, me very fast,” was the reply. “S’pose I get te week’s t. lining; pai korry mete full-speed man.” I just mention this incident to impress on the reader the value of training. . That little incident in the vvaiia-rapa-Hawke’s Bay match, I see, has been let drop, as though it had never happened. I say that the referee must have been a very strong man to take the step he did. in ordering two such prominent men off the field. I am inclined to be on the referee’s side in this case. ome say the two men , concerned on y looked at each other. Well, it that’s all they did, they must have looked very very hard indeed at one another. Mr. McKenzie Is a referee with a great reputation. His brother, Ted, was also a good reteree. I P|ayed under him in a match. Weliington \. Auckland, and had a tew " or^ 3 wl “ - him (very few, mind you) and lie "T'prominent referee once tolti me •hat when he came off the field after i match and heard uncomplimentary remarks from both sides, he always felt satisfied, because he maintained *W=.S»i= fereeing. but that tch in fact it myslK many a time. Only said it "2 i "fL? e ° "nly allowed to referee' then o*n matches, what a

glorious game it would be. An opponent would always be offside when he touched the ball. The ball would always be unfairly put in the scrum when p.it in by the other side. The ball never would be thrown in straight if the other fellow got it. and every game would end in a draw. Well, that’s what is going to happen if men of Mr. McKenzie’s calibre are not backed up by the unions controlling the game. All referees, like selectors, are very “bad” men. The referee sees the wrong things and the selector picks the wrong men.