"KEEP IT A GAME."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 230, 28 September 1934, Page 9

"KEEP IT A GAME."

NOT A NATIONAL SPECTACLE. DR. MORAN ON RUGBY RULES. "We should not try to make football a national spectacle. It is not in the best interests of the game. Take, for instance, the recent cricket Tests between Australia and England and the threat of bitter trouble being caused.'' This was the view given by Dr. H. M. Moran, captain of the 1008 Wallabies who toured England, Ireland, and Wales. Dr. Moran is now in (Jhnstchurch at the invitation of the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society. He is consultant for radium at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. Dr. Moran, when he gave his opinion, was answering a point advanced that the new rules had spoiled the game for the spectators. Ho said he had always been a strict supporter of the English Rugby Union. It was better to have complete agreement than to run the grave risk of each country following its own inclinations. "If we did that," he said, "we would probably finish by playing a different game altogether. It does not matter about the public and we should not change for that reason. After all, it is a game." Dr. Moran said that of recent years, although he was a life member of the New South Wales Rugby Union, he had not been able to devote the time to football and was not in touch with the more recent trends. He did, however, see two of the matches played by the All Black team in Australia recently. When the All Biaeks were in Sydney there was a wonderful reunion of oldtime Australian and New Zealand players. All the internationals of fifty years were there. Among them was E. McCausland, a member of the original Maori team. The New Zealand team left behind it a great reputation as a sporting side. In Australia there had been a distinct revival of interest in the Rugby game, and it looked likely to continue.