FOOTBALL AND SCROLLING POINTS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18194, 3 October 1924, Page 10

FOOTBALL AND SCROLLING POINTS.

TO TE* EDITOR CT "MX **!»«■" ■Sir,—l have read with interest your leader on Rugby football and the comments of the present rulers of the game in Christchureh. With regard to tlie try which you think is not a part of the gamp. My "interest go® B back to sixties, when I iirst At that ifme the game was not scored by points, but by goals. So matter how many tries might be obtained, tii pame was not won unless a goal haa been kicked Hence the try, 2 *; which was allowed after the hall ha b<_>en touched down over the opponents line "was most important, otherwise a goal could only be obtained by a drop-kick, or a free-kick from a marK. Logicallv you would object to the 1» ter also. But it is evident that the try at goal was an integral part o the Rugbv game. I think vre . better at "both place and drop-kicKin., than the present players, because o the supreme importance of the goa , without which no game could be w ?"- On the other hand, I quite a*re» witb you abont the penalty kick. It see unfair that some quite umntentionai infringement of the rules should be tno means of losing a game, and even t best of referees makei mistakes. 1 the penalty were simply a kick it wou still be severe enough. A high kick in the defending territory well followed up, would, in a considerable propori of cases, result in a try. hut there would be an equal c-hanoe for the defending side which at present tiiere is not. Of course, if any intentionally unfair plav occurs, the referee may, and should, allow a try. . A which you did not refer, is the claiming of 'penalties by the players which leads to Dointing and general unpleasantness. The game is entirely in the hands of the referee, and he should not be influenced bv the players, hut at present he frequently is. This could be avoided bv a simple rule: Any player claiming a penalty would cause it to be automatically lost." THns would do away with much of the pointing which at present exists. In my young days uo to '72, the matter was managed quite simply. The two captains were the referees, no other player was allowed to interfere. If a captain, and his team generally followed his example. was argumentative, snd kept on claiming points that did not belong to him, the team was quietly dropped. The next, year they found that none of the clubs had vacant days, and they dropped to a lower igrrade. _ln this way among the top clubs discipline was easilv maintained, and the game played in a much better spirit than, in onlv too many cases, it is now. But, of course, Rugby football, especially m New Zealand, has ceased to be a game, but is a pursuit in which the win at all costs is all that matters. — Yours, etc., , ~ VETERAN.