RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Br Arthur Bunn. VII.— FAMOUS PLAYERS. LEONARD STOKES, to whose wonderfully eventful captaincy of Blackhealh I have referred in a previous article, was n«k only the greatest drop-kicker we have ever seen, but certainly had no superior in his consummate knowledge of the game and in aptly applying it at the right moment. Part of his brilliant career was passed in the one three-quarter game, and I never yet have seen a man who could cover the same amount of ground on the field of play. Lithe as a greyhound, with tremendous pace, no matter to what quarter the ball was kicked off to he was there to receive it. A brilliant field at cricket, I never in all the matches I played with him ever saw him muff a catch, or a kick of his charged down. His kicking was of inestimable value for the following reasons : (1) it possessed enormous length, (2) never failed to reach touch — a lost art at the present time, and (3) was accomplished in half the space which an ordinary man requires to wind himself up in". If in the old days our side was being penned we used to say or think, "Well, it's all right. Leonard Stokes, the first time he gets it,- will land that ball in touch fifty yards up the field." His histrionic kick which gained a goal from over the half-way flag at Raebufn Place against Scotland I shall never forget. It was the finest achievement in drop-kicking I ever saw. He was a wonderful snipe runner into the bargain, and without training did two years in succession the quarter of a mile at the United Hospital Sports. Rowland Hill is of opinion that he is the greatest three-quar-ter who ever played, and I should very much liked to have seen the havoo he would have caused if he had had the ready made opportunities which are -given to men in the lour three-quarter game. An excellent cricketer, he played for his county, Kent, and was an adept at lob bowling. He waß born at Blackheath and educated at Bath College. "rotheram's game." Alan Rolherham went up to Oxford in 1881 from Uppingham, at that time not a Rugby football school, but he failed to catch the eye of the authorities as did his fellowfreshmen, Wade and Tristram, until the following year. It was in that season, in the second and perhaps most famous of Vassall's teams, that the player under notice appeared in first-class football. And from his first appearance up to his all too early -retirement in 1888, no English team could have been thoroughly representative if Rotherham was not included. It must be admilted at the outset, without for a moment detracting from his play and head work, that he was distinctly fortunate in the men he played with and against in his work of " developing the halfback game." To play with such men as H. E. Furquam, F. Bansor, and J. H. Payne ; with and against Granl-Asher ; and against Don Wauchope and the Irishmen, Warren aud M'Loughlin, was indeed to feel it simply to be in good company. Then again the threequarters he played in front of ! Wade, F.vanson, Robertshaw, Cane, Bolton, and Stoddart, —what a grand lot ! The great secret of his play was his wonderful grasping of the situation. He could tell more than any man ever seen when and when not to pass. As a maker of openings for his three-quarter, and in his adaptability to his various partners at halfback, he has never been excelled. It made not the slightest difference to Rotherham whether he was playing alongside of Payne or Bonsor, Furquam or Asher, — it was all one to him; and each of the four players named, though with styles of their own, different from his, at once knew that they were playing with a past master at the art of half -bark play. The manner in which he would draw off the attention of his vis-a-vis and thus reduce the ranks of the opposition available was very great. In fact lie may be regarded as the father of modern half-backs. A member of the famous Uppingham family, he figures frequently in the Rovers' cricket tours and is the younger brother of Hugh, the great bowler, and cousin of Arthur Rotherham, who played for England in 1897-98. w. si. c. m'ewan, the Scottish captain of 1897-98, is in my opinion the best forward of the xiresent day. He is brother of the famous "Saxon," and somewhat resembles him. in style. He plays with great determination, albeit with perhaps a trifle too much robustness, but he is exceedingly powerful and very difficult indeed to stop when near the goal line. He is one of the few schoolboys who have gained international honours. He was unearthed by W. E. M 'Lagan, and given a place in a trial match in 1894, and subsequently got his cap against Wales. He could not get away to play against Ireland, but played against England. He is twenty-three years of age and stands over six feet. W. S. BUNTING, one of the English centre threequarters, showed admirable form last season. On going to Cambridge he took part in the Freshmen and

Seniors' match, and in the season 1894-95 he got his Rugger blue. In 1897 he appeared in both the North and South matches, and against Ireland and Scotland. He is a brilliant player "who can field a ball when going at full speed ; is wonderfully quick off the mark ; and a clever interceptor and passer, a snipe-like runner and a fair tackier. He learnt his football at Bromsgrove and Cambridge. w. c. m 'lagan. The name of W. E. M 'Lagan will forever stand out as that of one of the landmarks in Scottish football. There^are those who hold the opinion that he is the best three-quarter back of all time, and on the authority of those who played with and against him, I^am prepared to accept that great tribute, but with prepared to acmfwyp shrdlu etaoin etaoin that department he never had a superior, and I cannot call to mind his equal. Though lacking in pace he made up for it by the amount of dash he put into his play, and 15 yards j from the goal line, was a very dangerous man ! aud took a lot of sio\ ping. ! It was, I think, when still at the Edinburgh ! Academy — that famous nursery — that he first earned international honours, in 1878, when Scotland had hard lines in not winning the England match at the Oval. In those days he figured as a full-back, for third man had not been introduced into the three-quarter line; and with such giants as Ninian Finlay (a younger brother of the learned Q.C., Sir Robert) and Malcolm Cross, there was no place for hiiri in what he afterwards proved to be his proper position. He was never a prolific scorer, but if he did not score tries he had a hand in making a. few, and only too well did his friends, the enemy, know how many he stopped them from scoring. The rise and indeed the present position of the London Scottish Football Club is in a very great inezusure due to M'Lngan. And in this connection I might make mention of the tremendous personal influence he had on the team : he was no respecter of persons. One of his lieutenants once remarked how that: "Bill was wtw;lh his place in any team, even if he never touched the ball." -This is | a big thing to say, but it is true, and he has j been described as the "W-G." of Scottish if | not of all Rugby football. In 1888 Middle-, sex journeyed up to Manohester to play against Lancashire. The southern county had very poor side, and if ever one man won a match by himself, M 'Lagan won that game for Middlesex. Time after time he was down on one knee stopping a phalanx of Lancashire | forwards, and would rise, shaking them off, and find touch 40 yards ahead. Indeed his kicking into tour-h thai day was wonderful, c could not do wrong, and always found touch at the very spot lie wished. The Rugby Union in 1891 sent a team out to South Africa, and M 'Lagan was appointed captain of the fifteen — a most popular selection. The subjeot of these remarks does not copfine his sporting proclivities to football alone. He is an ardent cricketer,,, one of the best that Scotland has produced ; indeed had he the requisite leisure, he was some few years back, considered by judges to be quite up to county form. As a golfer he is well-known on all Scottish greens and many in England, and was captain of the Littlestone Golf Club some time ago. His successor in that office was the Rt. Hon Herbert Gladstone, M.P. No social function in the football world in London- is complete' without his presence, and the Lon-don-Scottish annual dinner, with MTLiagan in the chair, is one of the events of the Rugby season. . * . In conclusion I can only say that to my mind the greatest point in M 'Lagan's play was his versatility and thorough adaptability to the various changes in the game as he plnyecl. He was a man who started his football career playing as a single three-quarter and finished up as one of a quartette ! Can we imagine anyone among the modern three-quarters standing in the breach alone ? or by any equal stretch of the imagination one of the "oldtimers " falling into the mechanical combination of the present three-quarter game ? We can only say, with the worthy Dominie, " Prodigious ! " A. R. DON WAUCHOPE. is one of the many men who tried various positions in the field before arriving at his right place. In the end of the seventies he appeared in the ranks of the Fettes College, Edinburgh, XV., and captained his school in the season of 1879-1880, when he filled the position of centre three-quarter back. The Scotch schools had adopted this mode of play for some years before it was taken up by the English clubs in 'the fifteen aside game, but it was always looked upon with disfavour by the Scotch clubs until a much later date. On going up to Cambridge his form was noticed at once in College c;ames, and if was not long before he armearod for his university in the position of half-back, and set about inculcating a style of play with which his name will ever be associated. If I were asked to mention the most brilliant half-back I have ever seen I should be inclined to name "' the great Don," as his admirers used to call him in the early days of the Fettesian-Lorettbnian Club's raids in the North of England. To him primarily be-, longs the credit of the formation of that faj mous club. 1 As an individual player he was never surI passed ; and now, writing at the distance of I fifteen years or more, I can only say that his play was simply phenomenal. In defence, alike with attack, he was most brilliant, and the stale of the ground never seemed to i trouble him. Playing onro for the "Schools" j j on the Anniesland ground at Glasgow, a veritable swamp, when none of the players could I keep their feet, he electrified every one present by dropping a goal and scoring two tries ! This performance was not against an ordinary team but against that of the Glasgow Academicals which included such giants aa J. A. Neilson (the oldest of a famous family), J. B. Brown. W. A. Walls, and R. C. M'Kenzie. His quickness of turn was the thine; that puzzled his opponents, and though never a level timer on the path he has left the other learn standing. He could kick with accuracy, and often brought off a clever drop at goal. It has often been said that he was lacking in defence, but that is not so ; he could hold his own with any one in that department of the game. His university career as regards inter-vars-ity matches was somewhat broken, for he was knocked up on more than one occasion, and in his year of office he was an unwilling spectator of the game in which the rival seat of learning was victorious by one try. This was Alan Rotherham's first year in the Oxford teamWith him he had a hand in the great evolution of the game, what I might almost term the turning point in the game — the passing system. How well those two players did their work is only too well-known to all football men. Like all Scots he is an ardent golfer, and is a prominent member of the " Honourable and Ancient Company of Edinburgh Golfers." He also has achieved some success in the

cricket field, generally representing the Granj^ Club on their visit to Lord's.