THE RUGBY ROUGH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1939, Page 9

THE RUGBY ROUGH

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l notice by your report of the annual meeting of the Wairarapa Rugby Union that that body expects to experience a better season than was the case last year. A matter that should receive the close attention of the Union is the steadily growing rough play that it to be witnessed in matches in the Wairarapa. I believe that last year the Referees’ Association held a meeting at which the question of rough play was discussed, one referee suggesting that a player guilty of rough play should be warned and then, if he persisted in such conduct, be ordered off. I know of quite a number of young men who will not play football because of the roughness that is associated with it. I have heard of boys in some lower grade teams being frightened to meet the players in other teams because of the reputation of the latter for rough tactics. A game should be a game and not a battle. Players should be compelled to play the ball and not the man. We all still remember the “Battle of Solway,” and unless the Union takes strong measures to deal with rough play we are liable at any moment to have a repetition of that disgraceful scene. While it is admitted that a referee cannot see all that goes bn in a game, there are often occasions in a match when everybody on the ground can see foul play except the referee! I have seen players who were lying on the ground deliberately kicked by other players. It is a matter for regret that many of our youths have been seriously injured by “Rugby roughs,” the referee being to blame in many of these cases for not having ex-, ercised such control over a game as would prevent illegal tactics. I know of a number of people who have never been to a football match since that notorious ’“Battle of Solway.’ I believe if the Wairarapa Rugby Union cleaned up the “Rugby rough” the general public would, soon, be attracted to the game again. If a referee cannot see the rough play, why not detail two officials off for the purpose of detecting it? They could be accommodated in a structure which would enable them to see the whole of the play, and towards the cost of such I would be prepared to subscribe £l. At the Memorial Park last season we had the spectacle of one player punching another and it was only natural, I suppose, _ that the latter should retaliate, and in consequence he was ordered off—l am, etc., 4 • INTERESTED. Masterton, April 11.