A DEED OF AGREEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 405, 13 July 1928, Page 7

A DEED OF AGREEMENT

Rules Under Which The All Blacks Are Playing

WHEN the All Black Rugby team arrived in South Africa, interpretations of tlie rules under which games were to be played throughout the tour were agreed upon at a meeting of members of tlie South African Rugby Referees’ Society and representatives of the New Zealand team.

The rules were drawn up in the form of a deed of agreement, and signed by Messrs. J. D. de Villiers, president of the South African Referees’ Society. A. E. Hewitt Fox, Orange Free State delegate, L. D. Oakley, Griqualand West delegate, W. F. Hornig, All Blacks’ manager, and Maurice Brownlie (captain) and Mark Nicholls (vicecaptain) of the All Blacks. The agreement was: SCRUM (1) In a scrum a player may hook with either foot, provided the ball lias passed both feet of a man on either side, and tine other requisites with regard to “fairly in the scrummage” are fully complied with. (2) The front line of the forwards is the line formed by the ordinary normal stance of players in the front rank. (3) A player in a scrum may lift his foot from the ground before the ball is fairly in the scrum, provided he does not advance such foot beyond the front line of his forwards. (4) Packing should take place alternately, man for man, and two or more players are not allowed to pack with their heads together. For a breach of this rule the referee shall order another scrum. (5) If a player is putting the ball into a scrum, he shall be given a reasonable opportunity to get on-side. The player who puts in the ball is considered a scrum-half. (6) The ball shall not be put into the scrum until the scrum is square and stationary at the spot where the scrum was ordered. (7) When a scrum is ordered players shall go down without undue delay: reasonable time. however, being allowed for any player who is making a legitimate effort to get up. TACKLE (S) It is accepted that, in the ordinary course of events, when a

player fields or catches the ball and opponents are charging him, he may turn his back on them and fall down with the ball between himself and his own in-goal. This is allowed, provided when he is “tackled” he immediately rolls away from the ball or gets up. If he is prevented from doing so by opponents a penalty kick shall be awarded against the opposing side. In all other cases such a player shall immediately put clown the ball between himself and his opponents’ goal-line. FORWARD - PASS (9) When players are on the move and a confrere in front of the passer takes tlie ball from a forward pass, it is ruled as a forward-pass and not as off-side against the recipient, provided the ball is not handled forward. in which event a penalty kick is awarded for off-side against the recipient. OFF-SIDE (10) A player who is standing offside is penalised for off-side immediately he receives or attempts to play the ball. LINE-OUT (11) In the line-out, a player is offside when he stands between his opponents’ forwards and his opponents’ backs. The penalty shall be inflicted the moment the ball passes the five yards limit. There is nothing to prevent players of both sides standing in single file. (12) A player may run into a lineout to receive the ball, provided he runs into a gap and provided he does not come in contact with opponents standing in the line-out. If two players from opposite sides running for the same gap come in contact with each other, it shall not be considered as an offence. FAIR-CATCH (13) A player making a fair-catch need not claim it orally, but he must