RUGBY IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 885, 20 July 1956, Page 5

RUGBY IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir,-Your interesting interview, "Looking Ahead to the Tests," requires strong comment with respect to statements made by Mr. Lance Cross and Mr. Winston McCarthy. Mr. Cross alleges that for a team to open up the game is an invitation to be beaten. On a priori grounds, why should this be so if it has a worthy line of backs to exploit open play? Presumably the reason why so many teams today do not "open up" play is because they lack this worthy line of backs. . Without any doubt the chief reason for this lack is the widespread illogical Rugby philosophy in New Zealand today, expressed by Mr. McCarthy in his statement, "You would be a fool to throw the ball around if you haven’t got control of the match." These words might be paraphrased thus: "Do not use your backs unless the opposing team is clearly inferior in all departments of the game, under which circumstances open play cannot lose the match, anyway." The absurdity of this view, which makes the seven backs redundant, is

self-evident. Men who play as backs regard. their part as co-equal in. gaining control of the game, and so winning it, by translating into points scored the untiring work of the forwards. The very nature of the game implies handling and running with the ball, the essence of the evolution of its form familiar to us today. ‘My complaint with the attitude, as expressed by Mr. McCarthy, is that it leads to over-emphasis on forward play and submergence of the art of back play. We are, today, observers of the gradual disappearance of the techniques of straight running from a steep lying formation of backs, "drawing your man," quick passing and drawing the wing into position with plenty of room, to say nothing of sidestepping, swerving and dummying. Our football has degenerated to the point that not only is it usually boring to watch, it is not proper Rugby, the game of skill amongst forwards and backs, that we know it can be. Mr. McCarthy’s remark, implying that spectators are of little importance in the world of Rugby, comes strangely from one whose job, carried out with great success, is to bring the radio audience in its mind’s eye to the exciting reality of the football field. There must be almost millions of man-hours spent every year in New Zealand by Rugby followers playing, watching, discussing and dreaming about the game. Let us produce, therefore, a style of play which merits at least some of this incredible expenditure of time and human energy.

J. E.

WEBLIN

(Wellington)_