ROUGH PLAY IN RUGBY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27978, 26 May 1956, Page 3

ROUGH PLAY IN RUGBY

The Belfast Rugby Club has little grounds for criticising reports in Christchurch newspapers on foul and illegal play in Rugby matches this year. The publicity given by the newspapers, according to a letter received from the club at a meeting of the management committee of the Canterbury union this week, was “doing Rugby football a lot of harm.’’ The reports were written in the hope that players, referees and administrators will see that the game is played as it should be played—fast, hard and yet clean. In many cases, instances of illega’ play occur out of sight of the referee, who cannot be expected to see all that goes on. Imagined and real grievances among players are sometimes “worked off” in rucks and once the ball is away from the rucks and among the backs, the referees, and naturally the spectators, follow the ball. Players left in the ruck are then sometimes involved in minor fights. Such an incident occurred in the Eelfast-Old Boys game early in the season—a game that was mentioned by two members of the union’s management committee. These two men did not see this incident—it happened on the opposite side of the field from which they were standing and right alongside a reporter of “The Press.” When the ball was among the backs, one player still in a ruck deliberately kicked another player twice in the ribs before he left to catch up with the play. Mr L. G. Loveridge, a member of the committee, said that “just because a Belfast player goes head first into a ruck and lays out one of his own players, I do not think we need to have comment on that.” The player— L. Pateman—was not “laid out” by his team-mate in an unlucky encounter, but by his team-mate’s overenthusiastic boot. Those who were at Rugby Park last Saturday saw a similar incident when B. Trevella was kicked in the back when he went down on the ball. The injury he suffered will keep him out of Rugby for two or three weeks. Week after week forwards can be seen dashing into a ruck that has collapsed, and without waiting to see if the ball is within sight begin a fierce and fruitless rake to the detriment of other players’ arms, legs, heads and bodies. There is one well-known Canterbury forward who still, in a burst of exuberance, jumps on to a collapsed ruck. This type of indiscriminate hacking was once fairly general among forwards in Christchurch, but happily it has now practically ceased. Fiery rucking, when there is a chance that the ball can be won. is to be commended; but such rucking, when the ball is buried under a pile of bodies, is dangerous and unnecessary. Mr V. L. Jensen was incorrect when he said he thought the adverse newspaper reports were on matches at Belfast and were not general. References have been made in -reports in “The Press” to illegal tactics at Rugby Park and Lancaster Park oval, as well as Belfast.