"ROUGH AND TUMBLE"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 145, 16 December 1935, Page 11

"ROUGH AND TUMBLE"

MATCH ON SATURDAY

SOME UNPLEASANT FACTS

(Received .December 16, 1 p.m.) LONDON, December 15. Commenting on the match betweetf New Zealand and Neath and Aberavoa on. Saturday, "The Times" severely; condemns "the crude and rough-and-tumble efforts of the Neath and Aberavon forwards, which reduced the match to the low level of wrestling without rules." Although the paper admits that the All Blacks occasionally retaliated, it adds: "It would be a grave disservice to the finer side of Rugby to, gloss over the unpleasant facts regarding most of the forward play and the laxity of control about the scrummage. If they occurred in the Welsh international, which is unlikely, it would be a calamity, but visitors, especially if they are from the Dominions, are entitled to something better than scrapping, ungovernable mauling, off-sides, and illegal insertions of the ball, which proceeded almost unchecked." ' Mr. Howard Marshall, in the "Daily Telegraph," similarly criticises the players for wasting their energies in whirling their fisfe in private vendettas. "The referee might have had a word to say in that connection," he writes, "and should also have been firmer regarding the scrum laws, especia"ily in view of the fact that when the scrum half puts the ball in under the feet of his own second-row forwards, the game becomes a farce." Both writers applaud the New Zealanders for their play in the loose, and also for their magnificent scoring movements. "The Times" pays a tribute to the imperturbable efficiency of Hadley, which was an example to everybody.

The report of the match appears oil Page 6. .