IS IT DIRTY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 5

IS IT DIRTY?

SCHOOL RUGBY. HEADMASTER THINKS IT IS. MB. J. N. PEART'S VIEWS. Strong criticism of what he termed "the unpleasant tactics on the field among some school footballers" was expressed on Saturday night at the reunion dinner of the Auckland Grammar Old Boys' Association, by Mr. J. N. Peart, headmaster of King's College, himself a Grammar old boy. Mr. Peart appealed to coaches, referees and others to do all they could to stop such tactics.

"I really have seen more dirty play in school football than in club matches," Mr. Peart added. By unpleasant tactics, he said, he was referring to such things* as obstruction, tripping, charging. He said that when a side row forward broke away to collar the first fiveeighths, how often did the opposing side row man simply get in his way by accident? Or when a forward was following up with a chance of taking his man, it was not uncommon for one of the other side conveniently to be in the way. He had seen tripping when a forward was breaking out of the scrum; he had seen a player held in the scrum by his jersey; and he had not liked it at all. Mr. Peart also expressed disapproval of boys playing before large audiences. If a boy were capable of doing such things as he had described on the football field, he might go into outer life and think that things that were not quite straight were allowable as long as he could "get away with it."