Coast Urges Rule Changes
(From Our Own Reporter)
GREYMOUTH, June 26. Delegates from the West Coast Rugby Union will sponsor three remits at the special meeting of the New Zealand Union, to be held in Wellington next month. Two of them emanate from the West Coast Rugby Referees’ Association. The first deals with the scrum rule which, it is contended, should be altered to read: “All feet in either front row be 18 inches from the centre line and no foot be raised until the bail is clearly in the scrum.”
The president of the association, Mr A. Fong, a former Wellington, West Coast, and South Island representative, and later a prominent representative referee, told members of the union at its weekly
meeting that the referees were of the opinion that stating a distance was the clearest way of keeping the feet back. He said that at present all feet were back as far as a clear passage was concerned, but that they were up as soon as the ball left the hands of the half-back. Members of the union favoured the alteration with the proviso that the distance be reduced from 18 inches to 12 inches, and a new remit along those lines will be framed by the Referees’ Association.
The second proposal of the association was that when the ball is taken back over the goal-line by a defending player, kicked or carried, the scrum should form on the exact spot where the ball
was picked up or kicked except in the case when the ball was more than five yards from the line. Then a fiveyard scrum should be formed.
Mr B. Watkin. a member of the union and formerly sole selector of West Coast representative teams, was strongly of the opinion that the no replacement law for international matches should be changed. “There was an instance to the test m Christchurch this month where a player was injured and he stayed on the paddock because he could not be replaced,” said Mr Watkin.
He moved that a remit that this law be changed be sent in to the special meeting and this was approved.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19630627.2.188
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CII, Issue 30168, 27 June 1963, Page 19
Word Count
358Coast Urges Rule Changes Press, Volume CII, Issue 30168, 27 June 1963, Page 19
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in