FOOTBALL.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17315, 29 November 1921, Page 9

FOOTBALL.

KICK-INTO-TOUCH RULE. NEW ZEALAND GRANTED A DISPENSATION. (feom oca ovnt connEsrosnEST.') LONDON. October 14

Followers of Eugby football will have already received word by cable that a dispensation has been sanctioned to New Zcaiand and Xew South AY ilea in the matter of the kick-into-tonch rule. The question came up at the Rugby Football Union committee last week, and the letter from the New Zealand Union was considered. Mr C. J. Wray. who was recently elected ae the Dominion representative on the itiilish committee, has doubt iess reflected tne insistence of the New Zealand Union bom privately and at various meetings he has attended, and the outcome has teen that «w members of the committee have at las. Jaceo. til At"tnTm n eeUn7Ta*t' week Mr Wray was called upon to explain the proposal set out in the Utter from the president 01 the JSew Zealand Union. Ho said that he could add very little to what his president had written, but that he wished to lay stress upon the faot that every word m tue letter was written in the most loyal spirit, and Jtenuino anxietv for the welfare of Rugby tootbal. He would move formaliv that the rule should be altered in terms of the proposal contained in the letter. There was no doubt he said, that the position in New Zealand waa very serious indeed, and that by standing loyally to the mother union the New Zealand Union had arrived at a point where tliey were in some need o: sympathetic assistance. He assured the meeting that the proposal to alter the rule was not made with any idea of coercion, or of foisting a rule on the Home Unions just because it suited New Zealand and New South. Wales. In New Zealand they simply could not see what else they could do. He felt personally that it was rather muoh to ask for the change unless the proposal commended itself to player* in this country and in Scotland, Walc6, and Ireland. Dr. L. G. Brown, the New South Wales representative on the committee, who is one of the most prominent active forwards in England, supported Mr "Wray, speaking very convincingly from the players' point of view.

The president of the English Union, in replying, said that the Executive Committee had already given the matter their consideration, and had come to the conclusion that they would recommend the Rugby Football Union Committee to give the New Zealand Union and the New South Wales Union power to sanction, tho modified kick-into-fouch rule being played. He hoped that Mr Wray and Dr. Brown would be satisfied with this in the meantime, and not press tor the alteration of the rule just now, as it was a difficult and delicate matter for them to decide. He was not giving away any secret, however, by saying that some of those with whom he liad discussed the matter were in. favour of amending the ru'e. Mr Rowland Hill eaid that the Rugby Football Union had always had the desire very near to their hearts to have the one cods of laws wherever the frame of Rugby. was played. The Executive Committee were very much struck with the proposal put forward by New Zealand, and thty wore prepared to grant New Zealand and New South Wales the dispensation asked' for. They were muoh in doubt as to how it would- work out in this country, but they would be in a better position next February to decide whether the game would be the better for the There would then, he said, be plenty of time to bring it before the committee before the annual meeting, and to deoide whether the modified rule should be adopted. Dr. Brown was unanimously eleoted » member of the Laws Sub-committee.

Flirting with Northern Union Rules. B. H. D. Sewell, a sporting writer, who has the unique distinction in London journalism of writing under his own. name, has something to aay of the dispensation granted to Neiw Zealand and New South "Wales. He had been to see the Northern Union game between England and Australia at Highbury this week. "I went to the game very keen to witness the working of the Jrick-in-to-touohi rule," lie writes in the "Daily Chronicle." "On this showing it is a, ramshackle affair, the main result of which is to cause a lot of profitless galloping about, with here and there a clinking good kiok that finds, a 'legal' touoh, and looks sometimes suspiciously like an awful fluke,-" . . .;.. - "For two years past the Auckland Rugby Union have played a modification of this rule, applying it only to players standing between the two twenty-fives. Last week tie Rugby Union, on the application of the New Zealand Rugby Union, have forgiven the Auckland Rugby Union for this 'cutting of the paint*" - , 1 and have allowed the rule to be played in New Zealand and New South Wales. But, if New Zealand iB the' 'home of Rugby,' that it professes to be, it will return to Its tho JRngby > Union rule as to kicking into touch—in due course."

RUGBY CONTROL IN NEW ZEALAND. (press association telegram.) WANGANUI, November 28. The Management Committee of. tho Waneanui Rugby Union, at a meeting held to-night, agreed to the principle of Mr McLeod's scheme for Rugby control in the Dominion.