DIVERGENCIES IN ENGLISH AND COLONIAL PLAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10381, 26 June 1899, Page 5

DIVERGENCIES IN ENGLISH AND COLONIAL PLAY.

After the Qoulburn game, fche Rev. Mr' MullLueux was interviewed, and was reported to have discovered several points of difference between the Rugby game as played in England and in New Soutili Wales, but the cable message was n\>t very. explicit as to the points of difference. W<heii the Englishmen arrived in Sydney, the Rev. Mr Mullineux, in responding to the toast of his team, said that since the visit of an English team eleven years ago, many divergencies in the nature of the play had arisen, and the removal of those divergencies would be one of the results of the present visit, he hoped. His team had been amazed at the ruling in the Goulbum match, as the whole character of the game had been altered. Tihe point to which j special reference was made was concerning the starting of the >ball after it had been "fairly held." Under law 6 the ball may be kicked or picked up by a player "on-side" at any timo except that it "may not be picked up" (b) 'Svhen it has been put down af tsr it has been "fairly held." In the Goulburn match, whenever the ball was put down after being held, some local player would pick it tip .and start a rush, for which the Englishmen were not prepared, as under this law, as interpreted by the Rev., Mr Mullineux, they prepared for the formation of a scrummage. Whether the visiting captain's contention is correct, it is for- the Unions interested to consider. In New Zealand the game is played in a similar manner to that in Goulbum, the object being-to produce a. more open and » faster game than would , happen under a scrummage every time the ball is "fairly held." A few years ago the same interpretation was placed on the reading of the role aa is adopted by the English team at present in Australia, but a scrummage is not now the necessary corollary of a "fairly held" ball. The practice adopfed here is for a player to immediately drop the ball, and tihe instant it touches the ground it is again in play, to be kicked by the player who dropped it, orpicked up by any player "on-side" at the time. A scrummage occurs if the forwards are -handy when the ball is 'fairly -held/ aad a scrummage, or a free kick is ordered, if in holding, the ball the player wilfully breaks the sob-clause of law 6, but so long as the ball is at once dropped, tie game proceeds without intermissKMi, and the "endless series of eerums" which woe once an unpleasant yet prominent feature of the Rugby game in Canterbury, is very greatly modified. On this point at least New Zealand footballers win consider themselves able to teach the English something.