BRITISH RUGBY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19462, 8 November 1928, Page 9

BRITISH RUGBY.

IMPORTANCE OF, ESSENTIALS.

ALL BLACKS BETTER CRAFTSMEN

(FROM OUB OWK COBEESPOKDENT.) LONDON, September 21. Because there is to be no visiting Rugby side during this winter, manypeople, in tho view of a Eugby football contributor to the "Birmingham Post," will feel inclined to describe the coming season as "humdrum,"

"Still," he goes on, "we should do well to refrain from grumbling. Visits from the All Blacks, the Maoris, and the Waratahs in eight seasons is not at all bad going. These invasions irom overseas, with their Test matches and the excitement that accompanies speculation as to whether the challenging side will manage to escape defeat in each successive encounter, are like so many cocktails that give pleasant stimulation to the enjoyment of the ordinary Eugby feast. But constant recourse to cocktails is not to be recommendedand it is no bad thing that we should be given an opportunity to simmer down, and. resect our position, as the gunners phrase it.. Lessons Prom Overseas. "Have we learnt anything from our overseas friends? Is British Eugby football any the better for these visits, apart, of course, from the pleasure afforded by fraternising with the sportsmen from distant lands, and the knowledge gained from them that the old game is making steady progress iu places so many thousands of miles away from the spot that saw its birth? One is not quite sure that, if we were perfectly honest with ourselves, we could give anything but the vaguest of answers. If our visitors had anything to teach us (and it is assumed that they had), have we assimilated and applied tho lessons? I have not yet met with any sign of it. Was English Eugby football any better last season, for instance, for the tour of the All Blacks in 1924-25? If so, jn what respect? He is a clever man who would answer those questions.

There is a good deal of loose and exaggerated talk on .the occasions of these tours, especially if the visitors prove to be unusually successful. The cry goes up that there must be something wrong with Kugby in this country, and that we should set to Work at once to copy the methods of the conquerors. Wo have not commenced that copying process yet; and that is nothing to grieve about.

■■' If there is to be an improvement it must come from within, not as a result of imitation. If there is to be a change m the style of the game, it must be a natural development, and not the result of something forced upon us. Many people say. 'Why should we not imitate the New Zea-j-ffi i s? What is the difficulty ?' The difficulty, of course, i s that New Zealand is not Great Britain—a fact at once so vast and so simple that thousands of people cannot nerceive it.

Conservative Eughy. "Rugby men' in this country are exceedingly conservative; they are also very jealous about anyone laying hands on their beloved code and attempting any fancy tricks with it. Those are two answers straightaway to the people who are impatient for change, and cannot understand why we do not model ourselves upon other folk. . .'"'. ''The New Zealanders showed us their five-eighths formation twentythree years ago. , The number of English clubs who have exploited it since can be regarded as negligible. Leicester gave it a trial for several seasons. Then they dropped it; and they are now playing every bit as well as they used to do. ,

"It has been urged that we should ( at least adopt the All Blacks' principle , of encouraging the forwards ' to be . three-quarters as well as scrummagers. s It is a good idea. The Coventry pack < are proceeding with great success on ] those lines; although whether or not they got the idea from the All Blacks, ' one cannot say. This I do know, that quite a while before the memorable '• 1905-06 visit of the All Blacks the Welsh Union had come to the conclusion that the old heavy type of forward who could do little but scrummage was out of date, and that what was described as a 'general utility' tvne of forward who could join in with the backs when called upon must be evolved, and George Boots and J. J. Hodges were regarded as the ideal results of that policy. "When the All Blacks arrived. Boots had ended his international career ard i Hodges was on the point of closing his, although he played in the great game at Cardiff which Wales won by a try. The idea, you perceive, was not a new one; and it had been erasoed inthis couritry before the All Blacks arrived. The fact that it has not been more crenerally encouraged is a matter that rests" with the individual clubs. That is the whole point. You will not get a general improvement in the standard of plav unless it is a natural development from inside the clubs themselves. Certainlv. you will not eet it by advocating the n Iteration of rules or grafting nnon the nresent style some new formation of play. Some Words for Players. "Some innocent individuals still believe the All Blacks beat out halfbaked scratch sides because of some macical quality in their formation. J can assure these good folk that they are entirely on the wrong track. The formation adopted by the All Blacks had almost as little to do with their successes as the fearsome war yell that they were expected to deliver at all their matches. The success of the New Zealanders was entirely due to the fact that they were a good deal more expert in the. essentials of the game than the sides that met them in this country. By that I mean that they were far better technicians; or, to put it another way, they had grounded themselves thoroughly in the rudiments of the game, and then proceeded to make the natural development that is based upon sound technique. The whole thing seems so obvious to me that I am surprised at all this talk in past seasons of the need of a change, if not in style, then in the higher strategy. The All Blacks beat us, not because of their formation, but because they were better craftsmen—if one may use such a terra in connexion with an amateur Half-baked Backs. "Marking and tackling are among the things a junior should learn before he ventures into first-class football. They are of the rudiments of the game; ' yet, if I were to say that 75 per cent, of players in first-class Rugby to-day were not thoroughly grounded in the rudiments, people would accuse me of being insulting. "Again. Do you, as spectators and i 1 old players, realise that most of the j men placing in what is called first-. ! j class Rugby have not yet firmly grasped > 'the elements of the game? Year in I and year out I have to keep on urging ! the importance of things that, are in the very primer of Rugby. Let us be quite frank and admit that a considerable numbef of players in what is called first-class Rugby have not really equipped themselves for the game. } The game is all right; it is the standard of skill on the part of the players that is lacking. "As a concluding example: Take the* art of kicking Many a back thinks

himself well equipped if he can manage to propel the Vail into touch with one foot (generally the right). He is a half-baked person. His captain is quite entitled to demand of him (1) that he shall be able to kick equally well with either foot; (2) that he shall be a good dropikicker ; and (3) that he shall be able to put in a screw kick when necessary (a priceless asset if a man has to effect a save when running back for the ball with fast forwards in pursuit). "This may seem to be asking a lot. The Dominion. clubs do not think so. Perhaps that is why they make us look small."