The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1931. FOOTBALL ONCE MORE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 102, 2 May 1931, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1931. FOOTBALL ONCE MORE.

For the cause that looks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance t For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do,.

To-day the football season opens, and throughout New Zealand thousands of players will be pitted against each other in strenuous conflict while scores of thousands of spectators shout themselves hoarse from stands and touch-lines. There is no sign in recent years of waning enthusiasm or slackening interest in our great national game. On 'this side of the world "Rugger" seems to make a stronger appeal to the multitude than "Soccer," whereas at Home the positions of the two types of football are reversed. But whether the game be "Soccer" or "Union" or "League," it fulfils an important public purpose by providing healthy and invigorating exercise to our young men and helping to build up and strengthen the national physique, and, we believe, some of the best qualities in the national character. Therefore, to all footballers in the Dominion, whatever game they play, we offer our felicitations and our best wishes for the coming season.

So far as Auckland is concerned, with special reference to Rugby Union fixtures, the season promises to be a particularly busy and interesting one. A considerable number of outside teams are booked to play here, and, apart from the ordinary interprovincial games, an Australian team has made arrangements to come across to the Dominion. But, while we have no. doubt that all visitors to Auckland will receive a cordial welcome, we may venture to suggest that the depressed circumstances which are so much in evidence everywhere' just now might very well be accepted as a sound reason for curtailing tours and eliminating all forms of competition that are likely to throw any serious financial burden either upon the players or upon the organisations to which they belong.

There is one special fact that, to clubs and players affiliated to the R.F.U., will make the coming season especially noteworthy. In obedience to a decision reached by the governing body at Home, which has adopted a resolution to the effect that all "concessions" be revoked, the New Zealand Rugby Union has decided to revert to what we have come to regard here as- the old style of play. This means that, the local rules, according to which club competitions have been carried on in Auckland for some seasons past, are to be abolished or suspended, and the game is to be played in strict accordance with the British rules, as was the ease in the matches played here with the British touring team last year.

In Auckland the general opinion is that the' : local modifications of the rules have helped to. iiveh up the game, and have thus increased its popularity with footballers and spectators alike; At the same time, it is generally admitted that there is a great advantage in uniform adherence to one style of play, especially in view of international competitions ; and in all probability the game will not suffer seriously in New Zealand If the old rules are restored, particularly as our experiments with the local rules have opened the eyes of footballers to possibilities which the game did, not disclose so completely or so frequently while the old rules were in force.

But, though our footballers may be well satisfied to revert to the old rules, at least for the time, on the recommendation of the N.Z.R.F.U., it is quite certain that the change would have been accepted with less reluctance or hesitation if it had come in a different way. The autocratic edict of the English governing body, to the effect that all concessions be at once revoked, and that no local modifications of the rules be permitted, was issued in a style hardly calculated to soothe the self-respect or conciliate the sympathies of colonial players. For it forced upon their notice once more the unfortunate fact that neither Australia nor New Zealand nor South Africa is represented on the International Board, and it reminded us that, in spite of longrcontinued protests and appeals, the rulers of the English R.F.TJ. are not prepared to treat seriously . our claim for consideration in this respect. The system is undoubtedly an unfair and unreasonable one, and it' is to be hoped that athletic relations between the Dominions and the Old Country will not. be prejudicially affected by the obstinate refusal of the English R.F.U. to concede us our just rights.