FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81917, 30 January 1907, Page 4

FOOTBALL.

I'he following clipping from .he "Australasian.'' one of" die leading weekly papers in Melbourne, should be read with interest bv supporters of the game of lingby football. Of late years we have heard a 10l about Rugby being on the decline in public esti-

mation, and .hat i( was oiili a ipiestion of lime when either the Association or Australian name would dethrone il from its hif.li estate. This extract, iiowever, would scon M place the boot on th.. other fool, and at the same time point to the fact .hat l!u--by will yet be Ihe main code of football in (he English-speakbie world. A, it was writ,en in the I ie of tee Ausirnlian game, it will speak for it-

"Al'.hough rcidents in "live out of seven of the Conimonweallli Stales Hold linnly to tee belief thai. Australian football is superior io any other phase of Ihe Manic, il. would b.'folv io shut our eyes to the fact that Rugby is becoming the world's game. The remarkable achievements ie (li.-at Britain of the New Zealand an I South African teams have given llu-bv an importance that il never knew'before. This is the more singular because only in New Zealand can it be said Ilia'. Rugby has complete possession of the Held as a national sport. ''.ln Kngland the Association game is, or was until lately, the more popular of the two. for Rugbv seemed al one time to have touched'the verge of decay, and in some South African Stalcs-nolahly Natal-the Association game is slrougly established. Rugby limls, however, its strongho'd in the Cape and in the Transvaal, and during the late war the Boers ill prison camps at Ceylon and St Helena were always ready to give their guards a game at rugby whenever they wanted it. The South Africans, appropriately known in Great Britain as the 'Springboks.' seem to be fairly representative of the two dominant races, such names as Joubcrt, Mai'sbur", Miirtheze. l)c Villiers, Morkel, [vrigc. l.oubser and otbers being obviously of Dutch origin. "Already the New Zenlanders and South Africans are talking of matches for the Imperial championship; there is a prospect of a team from New South Wales going to England, and lingby has all at once assumed something of the international importance of the Olympian games. Those who think it 'can be thrown from such an eminence luusi have, a pai'licnlarly sanguine temperament. Rugby is also being well establish, d on the Continent, and is evidently capable of being acclimatised where cricket will never thrive.

"In a few years wo may expect lo see Germany. France, and possibly Holland taking a prominent pari in international games, whale, in the event, of the American game being abandancdi because of its dangejrs, Rugby, of which il is a rough copy, j 5 almost certain to take its piacc. Against such widespread establishment coupled wilh the great international possibilities, no other form of football, whatever its merits, can hope to star. Whether we deem it inferior or not. we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that Rugby is, or shortly will be, the world's game in football."