DISPERSAL

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 21

DISPERSAL

Not all the problems of maintaining the peace in body-contact sports are confined to the international, provincial and senior grade levels. There was an under-Bst 71b Rugby match in Christchurch recently which provided an interesting passage of arms. A flank forward in one team was a particularly good player, and he was fast enough to catch the opposing first five-eighths in possession pretty regularly. As he accompanied these successes with hard, low tackles, the first fiveeighths felt that things were not going his way that day. After he had been thumped into the ground for the umpteenth time, he made his feelings

known. He told tbe forward that if he did that again, be, the back, would let him, the forward, have one. The forward, more eloquent than some of his kind, remonstrated gently and said they were there to play football, not to have a punch-up. But the back insisted on his rights. He invited the forward to see him, after the game, at the distant goalposts and there they would have it out. The forward somewhat reluctantly agreed to this course.

Soon afterwards, it was half-time. Just before the game resumed, the coach of the backs’ team came to the coach of the forwards’ team, and asked if it would be all right to put

on * replacement, because his first five-eighths had disappeared. “He didn't say a word to me—he has simply gone,” he explained. But one of the other players in the backs’ team put in an explanation. He pointed to the forward who had been Invited to fight. “Some of the boys were saying he’s a good boxer,” he said. Which certainly explained the absence of the first five-eighths. It would have been amusing, if this had been deliberate rumour-spread-ing to obtain a good effect In fact it wasn’t The flanker has shown extreme aptitude for the manly art over a fairly wide area of New Zealand. Which was even better.