RULES OF RUGBY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 51, 29 August 1921, Page 8

RULES OF RUGBY

AUCKLAND AMENDMENTS

WILL ENGLISH R.F.U. SANCTION.

(By " Dropkick.")

The amended rules of Rugby, under which the Auckland Rugby Union ha& been playing for more than a season, have not yet received the sanction of the English Rugby Union, which holds its annual meeting next month. - Probably .the matter will'be discussed then, and ;the .request of the Council of the ;N.Z.R.F.U. for leave for Auckland to play .under its amended rules decided one, :way or another. It :is quite clear to anyone who has i visited Auckland that the local , players and public are wedded to , : the , variety .of , game brought ab^uf'by the practical penalieation. of kicking into touch. The experiment was. also tried, in Taranaki to improve- senior club football, where it had become almost a practice for a team to . make every ' effort early in the game to establish a- lead and then tb' play out time by finding the line. This was con- , sidered to be ruining- the game in Tara-' naki, and to put an end to, it the Auckland amendments were put into farce one week-end and kept in force for six weeks. A reuiarkable improvement in' the game resulted, arid players were so pleased with the change, which led ,to some of the teams low in the .championship winning against the leaders, that when the union went back to the old rules they objected strongly. It is understood that this feature of the , game in New Zealand, with other arguments in favour of the general adoption of at least the kick-to-touch amendment throughout the Dominion, will be sub; mitted to ,the English Rugby Union at the annual meeting. It is pointed out that the present state of affairs, with different luloa in vogue in the Dominion, is not satisfactory, and as Auckland will not agree to dispense with the amend-' ments, it,is desirable in the interests of Rugby in New Zealand that the amend-' ments approved by the Australasian conference two years ago should be univer-, sally adopted in the Dominion. Should international visits take place, there will be no difficulty in playing under the unamended code.