FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 91, 7 October 1911, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

. HONEST FOOTBALL. ARCHDEACON HARPER'S REMARKS RESENTED. Auckland, October 4. Commenting on a statement made by Archdeacon Harper at a Yorkshire dinner in Wellington, at which he said he doubted if one could be sure of seeing straight football, and making derogatory reference to the Auckland v. Wellington match, Mr. M. J. Sheehan, chairman of the Auckland Rugby Union, who accompanied the team on tour, says that during the whole of the tour he did not believe one member of the Auckland team had had a wager of any kind, and I to allege that the team which had secured a victory in .every match played had been open to bribery to play a losing match was as unwarranted a statement as ever lie had heard in his life. It was true that in Dunedin a bookmaker had approached the captain of the Auckland team and asked him what he would take to play a losing game against Otago, but the offer had been instantly refused with contempt, and the Aueklanders had played a rattling game, and won, as they deserved to win. During all the years that he had been associated with amateur Rugby, he had never known of an 1 incident which would justify Archdeacon 'Harper's sweeping assertion. He had | managed previous touring teams and been connected with the visit of many southern teams to Auckland, and he was convinced that never at any time had | there been anything of a nature which 1 would warrant an allegation of corrupt | practices or eut-and-dried games. Amai teur Rugby was the national game of ' Nejv Zealand, and he believed that the pulilie at large would refuse to take Archdeacon Harper's remarks seriously. In,regard to the Wellington-Auckland match, which had been particularly mentioned, was it likely that Auckland woiild have'allowed Wellington to score nirje points in the first spell, and then •sal y forth in the second spell confident of pulling up those nine points and a fev more besides? The very idea was absurd. Wellington in the first spell had played a superior game. During the inter pal the position was discussed and rente Hal measures suggested, and after a desperate game Auckland did pull up in the second spell, and did eventually win, but it was not as the result of any ,prior arrangement that Auckland came (.out victorious. No monetary consideration, directly or indirectly, had a bearing on" the' game. It had been hard fought from start to finish, and to infer , a,nythin& else was a'gro.ss libel on both . „t«alß>e.'