RUGBY LESSONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1938, Page 2

RUGBY LESSONS

EXAMPLES OF SPRINGBOKS. SOME DIFFERING OPINIONS. A wide difference of opinion on what New Zealand had to learn from the South African tour was apparent when members of the Stratford Rugby Club discussed recently at the annual meeting the question of reverting to the international rules. The delegates to the Taranaki Rugby Union were given a free hand. The Springboks showed that the game under the international rules could be made fast enough for anything in New Zealand, said the chairman, Mr R. Masters. Personally he thought there should be a reversion to the international rules. “I think everyone realises that if we want to get.back to hard scrummaging we will have to play the international rules,” Mr J. Young said. Clubs should be careful in this matter, Mr W. J. Aitken pointed out. Such regulations as no replacements and no leaving the field at half-time were hardly desirable. TYPE OF FOOTBALL.

Recalling the type of football and players of previous years, Mr R. F. Harkness said he felt the game was played under different conditions but that there was not in New Zealand today enough of the type of player capable of standing up to the Springbok type of forward. If the international rules were to be adopted consideration would have to be given to the scrum formation, it was said. New Zealand changed its scrum without attending to the link from the back of the scrum to the backs. When Mr Masters said New Zealand had much to learn from the Springboks Mr Aitken said New Zealand had nothing to learn from the Springboks.

Mr Masters contested' that view. He said the Springboks taught New Zealand that it did not know how to pack a scrum; they taught New Zealand that the forwards had one job to do and the backs another. He pointed out that New Zealand expected fiveeighths to penetrate instead of getting the ball to the three-quarters. “But we taught all that to the Springboks years ago,” Mr Aitken protested.

“Yes,” said Mr Masters, “and we taught England how to play football in 1906, but on the last New Zealand tour of Britain they taught us a lot.” The whole secret lay in possession of the ball, Mr J. Young felt. Mr R. Young thought the changing of the rules upset New Zealand football. He blamed the administrators. “The modern hooker is not a hooker but a thief,” commented Mr Aitken on hooking. The delegates were given a free hand but the effect of the international rules regarding the points mentioned by Mr Aitken were impressed on the delegates.