Move To Make Rugby Penalty Less Penal

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 14

Move To Make Rugby Penalty Less Penal

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON. A proposal to introduce a differential penalty kick is to be considered next week by the English Rugby Union’s laws committee.

London’s leading club,! Harlequins, supported byj the Bedford club, has suggested that a shot at goal only be allowed after foul play or persistent infringements. If approved by the laws! committee, the plan is likely' to go before the Internationa] Rugby Board at its annual meeting in Edinburgh next month.

South Africa is likely to be in favour. Its president, Dr Danie Craven, said in London in December that he hated to see games won by penalty kicks, and advocated a points score of two for penalties. Lord Wakefield, a former England captain, said the main reason for the Harle quins’ plan was the high number of laws that had been added to Rugby in the lasi 30 years. A penalty kick was the usual result of a breach of these laws.

| ’ln my playing days a scrum-half just needed to put the ball in the scrum,” Lord Wakefield said. “Now he must consider the point of entry, speed and angle.” The Blaekheath Club may also support the move after its elimination this week from the Kent Cup. Blackheath scored 22 points in a quarter-final match, but a

Welshman, C. Owen-Cozway, kicked nine penalities out of 10 attempts to give National Provincial Bank victory, 27-22.

His only miss was from near halfway, and his effort was well ahead of the New Zealand first-class record of six, held by D. B. Clarke, D. Laurie, who has done it twice, and others.