RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

TO EACH HIS OWN

There is a Rugby test being played by South Africa and New Zealand at Cape Town today. When it is all done, thousands of words will be written about the winning and losing of tight heads, the duration of the rucks, the quality of the cover defence, the personal idiosyncracies of the referee. It would be a refreshing change could the whole thing be reduced to pure logistics. “Getting there fustest with the mostest” is a military maxim revived ■ recently in the wide field of United States politics, and it certainly to Rugby Such a change in the sportswriters’ approach

might lead to a more tolerant reception being given individual performances. It should be remembered that each player is responsible for the defence of about 260 square yards of turf, a task which is amplified by the persistence with which half the players in each team refuse to do their share and cling grimly to each other long after the ball has left them. If the players in today’s - game average abopt 14 stone, each of the scrums should be able to §xert a pressure which, could it only be-converted to the proper medium, would very likely light the suburb of Sydenham for the whole of its late night 4

shopping period. And when some unfortunate is buried with the ball beneath the rest of the forwards, he has to bear a weight of almost 30001bs. This is considerably more than the ton of bricks used in everyday speech. It is, in fact, the * equivalent of 420 7-lb bricksfrom the wreckage the player is expected to crawl, and a moment later run with the fleetness of a gazelle and the cunning of a hare. Yet his moments beneath the heaving mass of humanity can not have done him much good, or have increased his zest for living. So little wonder, then, that Rugby players are forming long queues, waiting to become Rugby writers,