TEST RUGBY Rough play ‘not checked’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 26

TEST RUGBY Rough play ‘not checked’

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. The Wellington Rugby Union’s management committee believes that rough play is not being checked sufficiently at an international level.

This assertion is made in the report to be tabled at the annual meeting of the union next week.

Instances of questionable play at international level made it difficult for provincial unions to impose a standard, the report says. In a section of three paragraphs, the committee discusses its disciplinary system. It says it is concerned that in the 1971 season it had to deal with 21 cases of orderings-off, compared with eight for 1970 and 15 in 1969. An unduly high number of cases came from the third and age-limit grades. “While unruliness and lack of discipline have regrettably been increasingly noticeable in society generally, it has been the aim of the committee, with the co-operation and support of the referees’ association, to ensure that the rules of Rugby are observed at all times,” the report says. “It is considered pertinent

and timely to say, however, that there continue to occur instances of unruliness and questionable play in international Rugby which are not being checked or questioned sufficiently, and which make it extremely difficult for provincial unions to secure complete adherence and acceptance of standards they require at their level,” the report says.