ENGLISH COMMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1922, Page 12

ENGLISH COMMENT

Some people have peculiar ideas about the game as played in New Zealand, and not a few comments in English papers from time to time have been amusing. That there is still room for further enlightenment on Rugby in New Zealand is apparent from the following extracts from an article written in the Daily Chronicle (London) by E. H. D. Sewell: — "I have received the following letter from a reader of the Daily Chronicle: — 'In the book on the New Zealand system by Gallaher and Stead it-is stated that when they decide to screw the scrum their lock man (centre mair-4n^ their second row of three) 'dips .down and picks the. ball up between his knees.' How is this reconciled with the law against picking the ball up out of the scrum? To a mere theorist without practical experience (who has'become a keen onlooker rather late in life) the advantages of the New. Zealand formation, of seven men (2 3 2) in the scrum ap-

pear so obvious and overwhelming that it is impossible to understand why it has not been universally adopted. The incidental advantage of a wing forward to put the ball in, leaving the scrum half free and in position to pick.it up, appears equally convincing.' The answer is that the present law against picking the ball up in the scrum (Law, 11, section a) was passed subsequent to the publication of GaUlaher and Stead's book. I believe I am correct in saying that the New Zealand practice of 'dipping' and picking up with the knees helped to bring about the drafting of Law 11 (a). It is obvious that the practice is against the spirit of the game as taught, and played at the best public schools. "The seven-scrum formation has. certainly numerous advantages if you. can get the same seven in match after match, and those seven are very strong physically and well adapted for what should be made illegal—viz., special places in the scrum. The best scrum is that wherein there are no specialists, no expert hooker, no expert lock, but in which all can 'hook' or 'lock,' or take the rear-rank fast-breakaway positions, just as the run of the game demands, special positions in a scrum ■ mean, necessarily, that on many occasions opponents must wait until your specialists have got into their allotted positions, and such delay ought not to be permitted by the referee. Times have changed, indeed, since Gallaher and Stead's book was written. It is -a fact that New Zealand is flow contemplating a return to the eightforward pack. This is one result of the smashing they received last summer from the South African eight."