TARANAKI RUGBY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 803, 25 October 1929, Page 14

TARANAKI RUGBY

DIVISION “ONE BIG UNION” NO LONGER From THE SUN’S Special Correspondent NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. Taranaki has long been a stronghold of the Rugby game in New Zealand. Notwithstanding the handicap of a relatively small and scattered population, the provincial team has always been regarded as one of the most formidable in the Dominion, and has been a serious ri\ al for the teams from the larger centres. Though of late years the Amber and Blacks have not.'perhaps, been up to the standard set by tiie great fifteens of the ’’nineties” M lien the Goods and Bay-levs flourish..! there have been signs, thit stock was once more on the rise, an,] that tiie hardy farmers from the shadow of Mount Egmont would be i JI 0 ™ 1 "' a !a ': tor riugby as they were in those days. Naturally enough, the task of administration in such a scattered tlis tnct has been a difficult one. But trunnion has been fortunate in havin'* strong and tactful men in control, and matters nave hitherto run along smoothly enough. During the last two or three years, however, there nave been signs of disruption. The clubs lying to the south of the mountain have long cherished a grievance over financial matters. Taranaki is one of the few districts left in th* Dominion where the clubs are allowed a share in the gate money. This is rendered necessary by the larce amount of travelling to be done bj the various club teams— Patea. for example, having to travel 40 miles or more for some of its matches. Gates rule larger in the North than in the South, and the Northern clubs are correspondingly better off. and their players receive benefits denied those in the South. This fact has rankled, and for some years now there have been rumblings of discontent. The discontent has now come to a head In a Southern proposal that the union

should be divided into northern and 1 southern sub-unions, with the Taraj naki Rugby Union in control, i On the face of it, this does not seem much of a remedy. The gates in the South would hardly be improved, and there is a fear that the rift might widen in time, and finally disrupt the union altogether. Mr. Jas. McLeod, the chairman of the union executive and virtually the uncrowned king of Taranaki football, holds this view very strongly, and is using his very powerful inlluenco to defeat the scheme. Mr. McLeod holds that the expense of administering Taranaki football would be largely 'increased, and that the mana of the province would be disastrously weakened. As an alternative he proposes that the union should be divided into six or seven districts, each district playing competitions in its own area, and that a team picked from each district should participate in a union-wide competition. New Plymouth, as the largest centre, putting in two teams. Mr. McLeod contends—and this is true of places other than Taranaki —that thei'e are too many senior teams a* present, with a consequently low standard. Mr. McLeod’s alternat s ve. however, i is hardly likely to find much support. Club sentiment runs high in New Ply* mouth, where he must find his chief backing, and as one of the three town clubs will lose its identity under his scheme he will possibly meet with opposition in his home town. A meeting is to be held within the next few days, and it would not be surprising to find the Southern proposal adopted, notwithstanding t* l ® powerful opposition of Mr. McLeod anu his followers.