RETURNED HOME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 5, 6 July 1910, Page 8

RETURNED HOME.

NEW ZEALAND RUGBY REPRESENTATIVES. To-day the New Zealand representative Rugby team returned to Wellington by the Moana. The men are in excellent health, and a pleasant trip across was experienced. Budd (South Canterbury) remained in Sydney, and Wilson (Auckland) travelled by a direct boat. The team was welcomed by the Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union at the New Zealander Hotel. In a few appropriate words, Mr. G. F. C. Campbell, vice-president of the union, extended a welcome on behalf of the governing body. He congratu-' lated the manager (Mr. Meredith) and his men on their -good record and exemplary conduct. They would surely not grudge the Australians the win they achieved. Mr. Campbell referred briefly to the professional aspect of the game. Every sport was subject to change, and if such a change came about, let it arrive in its amateur form. The various members of tho team might be able to give some enlightenment on the need or otherwise of changes. In reply. Mr. Meredith thanked the committee for its welcome. Touching on the professional question, no doubt, he said, it had made great inroada on the game in Australia. But there was an opinion prevalent among those followers of the game and the players (Rugby) themselves that it did not attract the understanding football public. Rather, it drew that pleasure-loving class who go out on Saturday afternoon for amusement and recreation — not the true supporters of football. Again, it was a pretty general opinion (and his own) that there was no comparison between the Northern Union and the old Rugby game as a game. He considered that the new rules (recently introduced into Rugby) did not make for better football.