RUGBY MATCH Comment by referees’ head

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32640, 23 June 1971, Page 20

RUGBY MATCH Comment by referees’ head

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON.

Rugby in New Zealand is imperilled if the shameful incidents of the CanterburyLions match last Saturday continue, states the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Referees’ Association (Mr E. J. B. Matthews), who is seriously considering calling his executive together to discuss what he describes as the “deplorable trends.”

Adding that he was horribly upset at reports on the match in Christchurch last Saturday, Mr Matthews had no doubts that if this trend of dirty play continued then there would be no Rugby played in New Zealand within two or three years.

"Schoolboys copy the adult players, and Rugby won’t be worth watching soon,” he declared. Mr Matthews said that he had considered calling his executive together to try and help put the game back on balance and would certainly do so if there are similar flare-ups in the test at Dunedin next Saturday. “Our association entirely supports any member who takes the strongest steps to wipe out rough play by ordering men from the field,” he said.

Mr Matthews expressed added concern at the reaction of the New Zealand coach, Mr I. M. H. Vodanovich, to the violence at Lancaster Park. “Mr Vodanovich’s state-

ment about another Passchendaele was most unfortunate," he emphasised. "I was at a meeting of local body officials yesterday and these men who are representative of New Zealand’s great Rugby lovers supported my view that the statement was out of taste.

"A number of people at the meeting strongly urged that the N.Z.R.F.U. should take action to ask Mr Vodanovich to resign as coach of the All Blacks."