Australians Critical Of British Rugby

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 11

Australians Critical Of British Rugby

THE Australian Rugby x team’s tour of the British Isles and France might not have been the most successful visit by an international side but it certainly provoked more discussion than many others by stronger teams. It is understandable why many British journalists regarded the manager, Mr W. McLaughlin, as the Rugby personality of the year. From the time he took the salutary action of sending home the Queensland hooker, R. Cullen, for biting an opponent in the Oxford University match, he was hardly ever out of the news. For the first time a touring manager took unilateral action and although the Cullen case caused some bitterness, at least it brought into prominence some of the nastier aspects of Rugby and the consequent publicity on rough play in Britain must have helped the game. The bitter attack by Mr McLaughlin on Welsh referees, supported at first by Welsh Rugby authorities and then later refuted, also caused some consternation in British Rugby circles.

At the end of the tour Mr McLaughlin had some pertinent remarks to make and his comments on unadventurous Rugby and referees who do not interpret the rules properly must have brought smiles to the faces of New Zealand administrators. For they were exactly the same charges laid against New Zealand Rugby by officials and journalists with the Lions last year. One of the main themes during the 1966 Lions tour was that New Zealand teams, both international and provincial, were devoid of any desire to play attacking Rugby, and, moreover, stopped their opponents from doing it. Now Mr McLaughlin has said exactly the same thing about British Rugby. Probably Mr McLaughlin is right. Lions teams have earned a well-merited reputation for playing attractive Rugby while on tour but at home there has been a dreary insistence on kicking for touch, on scavenging loose forwards, and on unimaginative backs.

On every tour referees’ interpretations come in for criticism and comment, but it

is disquieting to find that Mr McLaughlin considers that British referees are not even observing the changes in the rules made in 1963—the ones supposed to promote back play. Apparently, just as the Lions found here, the 10yard rule from the line-outs is not being observed and wing-forwards are just as rampant as ever they were under the old laws. And one can understand why New Zealand’s rucking game is often confused with rough play when Mr McLaughlin says that British players will not roll off the ball once they are tackled and also are not penalised for what is a clear breach of the laws. Apart from all these contentious matters the Wallabies did achieve some fame as well as notoriety. They beat Wales against all prematch predictions; gave England a resounding beating and beat the Barbarians in a thrilling match. For a team which began the tour with the humiliation of 30-3 defeat in its last test its international record was quite respectable.