NEW ZEALAND RUGBY TEAM

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 27, 1 February 1924, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND RUGBY TEAM

SCOTLAND'S ALOOFNESS

(FROM ODR OWN COKJtESPOKDIXT.)

LONDON, 20th December. The "Evening Standard" to-night discusses the proposed visit, next year, of the New Zealand Rugby team, and remarks that a great deal of interest has been aroused over the publication of the arrangements for the tour, while "no little comment has been made over th-?i aV sence of any visit to Scotland. It ■will be doubly unfortunate if, as is quite possible may be the case, • Scotland prove to be the champion Home country this year. It does not require a lot of reading between the lines to realise why Scotland are standing aloof, but it would certainly be interesting to know whether they declined to join in before they knew what the financial arrangements were to, be. "The_ plans made by the Eugby Union would seem to leave.no loophole for any shadow of a suspicion such as has existed in the minds of the Scottish Union in earlier tours. There is not even the daily allowance cf >3s for small, casual expenses, which offended the sense of amateurism beyond the border when they were last here. . . . Thare is no question at all of any financial loss being incurred. Football such a s the New Glanders can- provide us with will prove a great draw anywhere. They diew large gates wherever they went when they wore last here, and the intereit in Bugby in this country is at a greater height than it ever was before. "Is Scotland likely to carry her attitude of aloofness to the extreme? If so, ws may see the Scottish members of the two leading Universities forbidden to play for Oxford and Cambridge when they meet the New Zealanders, in the case of Cambridge 'on 12th November, and in the case of Oxford on 20th November. Ory-to a go a step further, may we expect a ban placed 'upon all Scotsmen in England, Wales, and Ireland against going to see the tourists play?"

18-YEAR-OLD GRIEVANCE,

The attitude of the Scottish Rugby union by declining the invitation has created a stir in the Rugby world.nTlio invitation was sent to Scotland by \he sub-committee of the English', Rugby Union, equally with that to the other Home unions, as far back as last July, but, without stating their reasons, the Emergency Committee declined, and replied: "So far as we are concerned, we do not wish to have any fixtures allotted to the Scottish Union." The Emergency Committee met because the members of the General Committee were away, and it was not possible for them to get together.

To quote aeain from th« "Evening Standard": "The Scottish Union has more than once been the storm centre in Rugby controversies, and their recent action in suspending Neil Macpherson, the Newport player, will be remembered. Scotland's trouble with New Zealand goes back to 1905, when the All Blacks last visited Britain. Then, on the ground that the New Zeakndcrs, in accepting a travelling allowance of 3s a day, had infringed the rnles against amateurism, the Scottish Union went so far as to decline their share of the gate for the match between the All Blacks and Scotland, amounting to £3CDO. It is understood that the old sore :ttill remains, despite the fact that the financial arrangements are entirely in the hands of the English Rugby Union, who have expressed themselves quite satisfied, and that the New Zealandets are not receiving a penny from the proceeds of the tour, not even the travelling allowance of 3s a day." Mr. C. J. Wray (representative of the New Zealand Rugby Union on the English Rugby Union) is extremely sorry that this should have happened, for he is sure that Scotland's action will cause very deep resentment in New Zeal.snd. "If there were some real or imagiined grievance between the two countries in football matters nearly 20 years a'o siiiely what has happened since shculd have healed the breach," he remarks.