CLOSING UP THE GAME

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28926, 20 June 1959, Page 12

CLOSING UP THE GAME

[By WHIM WHAM] This Rugby Football is a. Game If one may dare to give that Name To Something which resembles more A Kind of intertribal War, Presided over by its Priests And with its own barbaric Feasts Or holy Days, when sacred Zeal Inflames the loyal Commonweal: When Frenzy seizes One and All To Cheer or curse both Man and Ball: When sporting Fists are clenched and flung While patriotic Mobs give Tongue: When sacrificial Mud bedecks Our Heroes’ Faces, Knees and Necks. Rugby, this Game, so it would seem, Involves our national Self-esteem, Till national Pride cannot endure The cancellation of a Tour! Then why should moral Scruples cause Our Rugby Potentates to pause? What have our Principles to do With Football? (Sir, I’m asking You) ... We pay Lip Service, as is due, To Man’s Equality with Man No colour Bar, no racial Ban Blots our enlightened Statute Book, Which keeps that smug, high-minded Look. That nice clean Sheet, why must we mar By pushing Principles too far? Why some wild Fool, on some Pretext, Will want to ACT upon them next! Oh, Sir, let’s see that Politics and Rugby Football do not mix Like real All Blacks, if pressed too much. Well dodge, we’ll twist, we’ll kick for Touch'