ROUGH RUGBY REPORTS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 10

ROUGH RUGBY REPORTS

REPLY BY MR C. S. HOGG PLAYERS DESERVED “ COMMENDATION ” (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 21. “None of us can approve of fighting on the football field in any circumstances, but footballers after all are virile young men who, especially when it is a case of Springboks against All Blacks, give the game everything they have. Beingf human, they can scarcely, avoid momentarily losing their self-control at a time of great tension,” said Mr C. S. Hogg, chairman of the executive committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union, today. He said, however, that it was obvious that highly-exaggerated reports of rough play during the recent test series had been sent overseas.

He thought none would question that the pressure both physically and mentally was greater in this year’s rubber than it had ever been before. Important issues, at least among Rugby men, were at stake, and it is generally believed that two heavier and stronger forward packs have never opnosed each other. “Unfortunately, there have been instances of fighting or of unduly rough play in many Rugby internationals. including those involving British teams. Against that background I think this year’s All Blacks and Springboks deserve commendation for their control rather than condemnation for the few instances in which they lost it,” Mr Hogg said.

“Restore Sense of Balance” Mr Hogg said that newspaper articles sent back to New, Zealand had induced him to make a statement, if only to restore a sense of balance. One London writer had described the tests in New Zealand this season as “a travesty of Rugby” and said reports had reached him from New Zetland describing the shambles that passed as Rugby. Mr Hogg said. “Local critics and also South African correspondents drew attention to instances of rough play in the tests, but nothing that I have seen suggested that the games were a ‘shambles’ or a ‘travesty.’ “I feel that in fairness to the players. even persons who regretted that there were moments when men involved in the tests forgot themselves, should endeavour to place these incidents in their true perspective. “The time spent in fighting during the tests, if added together in one sequence, would scarcely occupy part of one minute of the 320 minutes involved,” s’id Mr Hogg.