FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 296, 8 September 1908, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

« IMPROVEMENT OF THE CAME. (lilt TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Duneciin, September 7. At a meeting of the Otago ltugby Union to-night a communication was received from tlio Now Zealand Union to the effect that a special meeting will-bo held 011 October Ito consider the advisability of amending tho ruks with a view to tho improvement of tho game. The local committee decided to recommend alterations in tho direction of abolishing charging in .the caso of a frockick or kick at goal, providing for throw-in of not less than, say, rive yards from touch, tho imposition of a penalty in.tho event of tho ball landing directly in touch from tho kick-off or kick-out, the imposition of a penalty on a player crossing ah imaginary lino drawn through the back of the scrum 011 his own side while tho ball is in tho scrum, reduction of a team to fourteen players, modification of tho advantage given to tho sido which touches down, tho referee putting tho ball in tho scrum, goal from a mark or penalty counting two points, allowing a player brought to the ground to pass though the ball has touched ground providing it be done immediately, and tho gamo being played in four spells of twenty minutes each. It is also recommended that a copy of the resolutions bo sent to the Nov.' South Wales and Queensland Unions with tho object of securing their co-operation in the formation of an Australasian ltugby Union; and that tho rules as to professionalism bo amended in ,tho direction of paying players for time lost while touring with representative teams.