RULES QUESTION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 11

RULES QUESTION

CALL FOR CONFERENCE

WITH OTHER EMPIRE UNIONS

DISCUSSION AT N.Z. UNION.

The new Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union held its first business meeting last night, with Mr. S. S. Dean in the chair. Members took the opportunity of stating their views with regard to the improvement of the game and the necessity for holding an Imperial Rugby conference to determine a common policy and a definite code of rules to hold good for Rugby universally. It was agreed that there had been too much tinkering with the rules of the game in the past, and the time was now ripe to get down to bedrock. Mr. E. Little referred to the express wish of delegates to the recent council that an Imperial conference should be held. This he considered very necessary, and he also urged that the committee should not hesitate to go outside the personnel of the committee to secure the very best nian to represent New Zealand on that conference. They were sent • there to promote the best interests of amateur Rugby. Mr. W. S. Glenn, M.P., confessed to grievous disappointment at the decision of the council to retain the amended rule, but he was prepared to "bury the hatchet" and abide by the expressed wish of the majority. Mr. E. Wylie (treasurer) said that he believed in no change being made in the Rugby code unless it was worldwide. He had been the first to advocate an Imperial conference, and he had continued to advocate it for a number of years. The game of Rugby had stood the test of time, and what they wanted to aim at was to maintain the spirit of the game, apart from the principle of merely playing to win. They would find the rules of the English Rugby Union quite sufficient and good enough for them. (Hear, hear.) The necessity for an (Imperial conference was becoming more imperative, said Mr. Wylie, as there were now several nations playing Rugby. It had shown tremendous growth in the outlying portions of the Empire, and the younger countries were evincing more liberal views than the older ones: These younger countries were entitled to representation on the International Board, and the deliberations of the conference, should be ".directed in that channel, rather than towards a. breakaway from the rules of Rugby. (Hear, hear.) Although he had always opposed the new rule, he would be the last to support any "piebald" game in New Zealand. Efforts should be made to bring in those unions that had attempted to legislate away from the rules, and to prevent the possibility of having a different set of rules for. different provinces. "We are far too small to break away from the Rugby of other countries," said Mr. Wylie, in conclusion. "Let any change come from the parent body in England, and let it be world-wide." The following resolution was unanimously adopted, on the motion of Mr. Wylie :— "That our representative on the English Rugby Union be written to, advising him of the desire of the New Zealand Union that an Imperial conference should be held, and> asking that the English Rugby Union take up the matter; that New South Wales and South Africa be asked to support us in the matter, and that the conference be held in South Africa during 1924, when an English team will be touring that Dominion." v