FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 194, 15 August 1916, Page 9

FOOTBALL.

] CAN RUGBY BE IMPROVED ? < , \ THE SUGGESTED ALTERATIONS. > i A SOUTHERNER'S VIEWS. < The sussested alterations to the rules'' of Kugby, advanced in these columns, ;1 with the ooject of making the gaice.s faster and more open, has brought forth 1 i the following expression of opinion from ■ 1 a well-known southern expert, who,; ; however, does not wish to come into ; the argument publicly. It may be mentioned, however, that the gentleman in ' question is fully qualified to express an -opinion, being one of those moat pro-; s .'niinent in advocating the five-yards' j j ■'throw-in, which has proved such aig nualilied success. B J In reference to the wrn<r-forward, the i | (southerner says: "I am quite with you! { 'in tlie desire to do away with the -wing-! ; ■forward. 1 have always regarded hiui'j as an undesirable excrescence, but ] do! c not think you can deal with him other- t '.wise than by penalty. What I mean i≤ > 'that it i≤ impossible to dictate to a * team how the uien shall be placed in the! c field. It is a mere convention that' ■] there shall be so many backs and so I , many forwards. A team might, for all L that" the rules provide to the contrary, ! r •be wholly composed of forwards if, itj T •■■was worth while so to constitute it. j 1 That i≤ to suppose an extreme case, but i , tou cannot, to my mind, interfere with , the disposition of a team in football. i any more than you can interfere with . 'tie disposition of a field , in cricket. Each j side will dispose i:s team in the -way j which it thinks will be the most favourable to its interests. If that be con,ceded, then the. only way to deal with . the wing-forward is to punish his in- j iringements by penalty. I admit that j its possible, or even probable, futility a is an argument against this, ibut I do a not really know how the pest can be j ( conAatted otherwise—by the rules. Of course, I have always held that a strong ? team of forwards, trained to dribble •srell, and to play its o-.vn game, without relying on the backs, as is the cus-1 s torn, can at any time, by bursting! , through the scrum, reduce the wingforward to ijnpotence, and in time pro- , duce his extinction. But that 13 j another story. | • ; "One of the reforms I advocated at a; j meeting of the New Zealand Union was j ( directed to securing that the free-kick ; ■, should be what its name implies. The j ■( term is at present a misnomer. I con-1 j fess, however, that I was a good deal j ( impressed by an argument advanced j against the abolition of the charge, and ) that was that the charge was a test of j < the nerve of the kicker. I think there | < is something in that. At any rate, the i argument weakened my feeling in favour a of the change. \ ■ '-The waste of time by kicking into c touch is frequently deplorable. It j :.argn^^thjnJi,..a^ctsi4nir l iative tad j t Tesdurcefulness on the part of the 1 player. One southern representative's t monotonous kicking into touch became | 1 a by-word down here. On the other i 1 land, an old-timer many years ago \ showed the possibilities of gaining * ground by high punting within the field f and -by putting his men on-side so that * they might charge down upon the op- i ponent who was waiting for'the ball as I it descended. It was a style of play < that always produced good results when i i the kicker was quick in putting his men 1 on-side, but,' unfortunately, we see very I little of it now. ' "I do not see. however, how you can <■ penalise the deliberate kick into touch f except from a free-kick without spoil- c ing what I think should be encouraged, c ■viz, the long drop or punt into touch l by the back : who thereby at once gains c Tamable ground for his side and saves s ihis forwards. "I hope there will be a football revival '' after the war,' , he writes, in conclu- j> eion, "and there seems every possibility cf it. There is one matter I would like ? the Sew Zealand Rugby Union to do, and that is to wipe the slate by reeom- * mending the removal of the disqualifica- ] tion of all players who have enlisted for ' active service—for them only—in respect to their having abandoned Rug-by for the League game." AUCKLAND'S YOUNG FLAYERS. FUTURE PROSPECTS BRIGHT. When the committee of the Auckland feugby Union decided to limit their competitions during the war to playere o under the eligible age, many doubted the - .wisdom of the step, arguing that older s players who were prevented from en- c listing by rarioU3 causes would drift I . out of touch with the game. The step i taken by the committee, however, has j fully justified itself, for during the past, l season the pay has reached a very high I standard, being of the fast and open }, kind that deltjrhts the heart of the -j spectator and bring? out the 'best there I > is in Rugby. This has been largely due j | to the cia&s r>f young player brought j into the limelight by the scheme, and it 7 is safeVto say that the prospects for the game in Auckland -never looked brighter j than at the present time. The match ;. arranged for last Saturday against the t team j rom t j, p 17tH Reinforcements was!-1 considered to be trying the vounSstersL too severely, fur the soldiers nrm much 1j the heavier side, added to which their 1 Teconl was an exceptionally ;rood one. 1 Contrary (0 peDcral expectation, how- ] ever, the heavier team failed to hold E their lighter opponr-nts. and, though the first spell was fairly even, the second I s ..saw the Auckland buys run the soldiers I \ off their legs, and at'the finish the men! ; •■ m khaki were a badly beaten Mdr\ j , Both back and forward the Auckland- j ers came out of thn match with flying] ] colours, and. considering the state of 1 the ground, the game was fast through- '. out; in fact, a "splendid exhibition of : Kugby as it should be played. L s NORTHERN UNION, ' ; EXIT NEWTON. j Tie second draw for the semi-final of < ™c knock-out competition for Roope's Booster proved to -be unlucky for New- ( ton, for, whereas liad the previous round i , I between City Rovers and Ponsonby been ] ! oecisive, they would have been in the > ™al, the redraw dragged them into a . Jitter preliminary test, which proved • ' weir undoing. City Rovers -won by the substantial margin of 16 points against : 5 and the result suggests that the would have had 'very little ™ance had they remained in the final to j*eak a lance with either Ponsonby or . pty. The honours now rest between the ■ teams, and although City -I^. twice disposed of the Westerners, a. , «eh gani e ma y be ] ooked f orwa rd to ! . *m the final is fought out. Whether ;

that will he on Saturday or the following week yet remains to he decided. There is some talk of trying to arrange one of the popular soldiers' fixtures, which doubtless would prove a considerable attraction. One result of the playing of soldier matches has been to eliminate much of the exelusiveness in the different codes of football, the representatives of which have been playing side by side. The League—patrons" will be pleased to hear—has gladly given its consent to several of its senior players participating in the forthcoming game under Rugby Union rules 'between the Seventeenths and a team representing returned soldiers. A WILLING GAME. The conditions were all against the attendance and the game on Saturday, for a heavy shower of rain falling half an hour before the advertised time of starting was not calculated to lure football supporters from the fireside, nor to add to the attractiveness of the play. Notwithstanding this, a crowd of 2500 assembled, and the contest was carried out at a willing pace, and was by no means uninteresting. At the outset Newtou showed a ready disposition to attack, and gave promise of throwing out a strong challenge to the champions. The defence, -however, was impenetrable, and ultimately the Newton onslaught slackened and the Rovers took up the running. From that time onwards there was really only one team in it—not in the sense that Xewton were overwhelmed, but that City were playing the master hand in every department of the field. The score was slowly piled up, and tho end came with the Rovers leading by 16 points against 3. Newton died hard. Again and again they returned to the attack, only to be hurled back by the stalwart defence of City. At one stage of the game their forwards did magnificent work in tbe serum, and the backs willingly took advantage of it, and pitted their speed and nimbleness against the stolid weight of the City defences. THE TICK OF THE MEN. The non-success of Newton's early onslaught may be attributed mainly to the reliable work of Fitzgerald, tbe city fullback, who on Saturday enhanced his reputation as the best all-round full-back in the League. His fielding was an object lesson in coolness and judgment, and in kicking and tackling his play was almost equally irreproachable. "Opai," that sturdy old veteran, who, according to all the laws of physical progress should have done his dash years ago. was another fly in Newton's ointment; and once again he demonstrated that, in spite of all his shortcomings in offensive methods, he can still be relied upon to hold his post in the defence unto the death!. " Opai" was a very real asset to his side in coping with the swift and unexpected attacks of the speedy Newton backs. Davidson again showed resource and versatility in attack andjWence,, and, jf,the .form he has displayed this season is maintained, and an occasional inclination to hug the ball severely repressed, his place will be assured for the representative games when they resumed. The other backs were all good, and tbe whole of the forwards infused tireless dash into their work. The Newton backs did uncommonly good work against heavy odds. Biggs waa probably the most resourceful of them all, but his work was very nearly equalled by that of Williams on the other wing, who used his speed opportunely on several occasions when the last defence had been passed by tnc City forwards, and brought off several fine saves. It is true that on several occasions hfi seemed to miss glorious opportunities of breaking through, but in nearly every case those who closely observed the incident saw that it was sheer bad luck when he failed to take the pass. and that men of lesser speed would have failed to get anywhere near the ball. Farrant and the brothers lies were also conspicuously good, while the forwards, headed by Bennett, if outplayed by a better pack, worked manfully to keep the situation in hand, and did exceptionally good work in the scrum.