Rough-rugby penalties to be retained

Press, 9 March 1978, Page 6

Rough-rugby penalties to be retained

Rugby players in Canterbury who misbehave this year can expect little sympathy from the men who run the sport.

In presenting his report to last evening’s annual meeting of the Canterbury Rugby Union, the president. Mr R. W. Thomas, made it very clear that there will be no relaxation of the tougher line taken last year with players who engage in foul or dangerous play. Rugby, said Mr Thomas, was at the crossroads and it would be wrong not to recognise it. The sport had taken a fair amount of criticism in recent years, and on the domestic front every effort must be made to maintain high standards. After just talking about it for some vears, the Canterbury union last winter stiffened its penalties for rough play and it would continue to do so as long as a strong line was required, said Mr Thomas. “Whether the union achieved its objective or not is something that can never really be known, but it is important that the same policy be maintained in future years for there is no place in rugbv—at any level, provincial or club—for illegal play. The

game will diminish in popularity unless everybody takes a positive stand on this issue.” he said. Mr Thomas also cited another crossroads that rugby had reached —the threat of professionalism. “I am certain that rugby must remain an amateur sport; any departure will destroy its very character. The day we lose sight of the fact that rugby is a game for players will be a sad one.” He said he would like to see the game continue as it has, and, later, when dosing the meeting Mr Thomas called on the delegates to do their utmost to uphold Canterbury’s proud rugby heritage and thereby help protect the image of the greatest amateur game in the world. Looking further ahead. Mr Thomas said that every effort must be made to provide international touring sides with good playing surfaces. Acknowledging that Lancaster Park was not at its best for the Lions’ matches last year, Mr Thomas said that with all the preparation and goodwill the weather would still have been the victor, although the damage “could, perhaps, have been minimised with a lesser number of games

in such a short space of time.” At the same time, Mr Thomas said he believed the right decision had been made in playing the Catiterbury-Manawatu match at Lancaster Park the week before the second test. The game was entitled to major ground status and on the morning of the match the weather was good enough for schoolboy rugby to be played. The meeting approved two rule amendments, pertaining lo the timing and procedures of the annual meeting, but a third, from the Linwood elub, that the management committee reconsider its decision to extend junior 10-a-side rugby, was lost on voices The view of a number of speakers was that while there had been experiments with the 10-a-side game for five or six vears the format this year gave the chance of a real trial, after which a fuller assessment could be made. The senior officers of the union were re-elected unopposed and all eight sitting members of the management committee were returned, at the expense of seven other candidates.