MOVE WELCOMED

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 22

MOVE WELCOMED

A correspondent ("2-3-2, etc.") writes:—"l was delighted, as no doubt were all followers of Rugby football, to read in Monday's 'Post' of the possibility of a reversion to the 2-3-2 scrum formation. It is the only move that will save Rugby football in New Zealand from becoming a mediocre game instead of one with plenty of quick movement. The great trouble with the present scrum rules, apart from the fact that they spoil the game for the spectator, is that the players themselves are not certain which way a referee is going to interpret them. I have played under both the 2-3-2 and the present formations, and from conversations with numerous other players find that under the present one none of them is certain from one game to another just how the referee for the succeeding game will interpret the rules. "'Drop-kick' states that it is not certain what should be done with the wing-forward. He also mentions the 'imaginary line' rule as was used in Auckland with much success. This rule, when described, may sound rather difficult to put into operation, but I can safely say, with the backing of anyone who has seen it played, that' such is not the case. The chief beauty of it is that a player knows that if he overruns the ball while it is in the scrum, he is off-side. He can have no doubts whatever; Another point is that it gives the half-back a reasonable time to execute his duties, and-you do not find him waiting for the ball to emerge from the scrum, with /a semi-circle of forwards around him, most of them off-side, as is the case at present. This was the case with forwards of the 1930 British team in particular. "Once these rules are adopted the referee's task would be lightened enormously. And it would not .be asking too much for them to put the ball into the scrum, because—and here I wish to cast no aspersions on any particular players—even our leading half-backs are trying, fair players though they are, to beat the referee and gain as much advantage for their forwards as possible. In support of' this statement one can see for oneself in a game where there are two evenlymatched packs that it is invariably the side whose half-back places the ball into the scrum which gains possession. - , .■■■.■' "Finally, to make things to everybody's taste, reintroduce the kick-into-touch rule, which tends to keep the ball in play far more than is' the case at present. It is absolutely senseless to continue with rules that are to the detriment of the game, and now that New Zealand has given other countries' methods a fair trial and found, them wanting, as have other countries themselves, the only thing for New Zealand to do is to make the change and ask the others to give their method a fair trial."