THE WING FORWARD

Evening Star, Issue 20511, 16 June 1930, Page 15

THE WING FORWARD

A SYDNEY WRITER'S VIEW REPLY T 0 MU BAXTER The abrupt, outspoken thrust by Mr James Baxter, manager .of the British Rugby Union team, in terming the wins forward as played by New Zealand a. ‘"cheat ” lias not commended itself to nianv Australian sportsmen (writes the editor of the Sydney ‘ Referee/). And possibly those in the commanding positions in New Zealand ring by have a .similar thought on this matter^ Mr Baxter, no doubt unwittingly, overlooks the cardinal and unalterable fact that -in describing the New Zealand wing forward as a cheat he is charging the New Zealand Rugby Union with shutting its eyes to .something that is worse than a blot—that is, to nurturing cheats, and therefore of being cheats themselves. The charge can he construed in hardly any other logical manner by men of judicial minds. Rugby Union football, like cricket, is an English creation. Like cricket, it has developed until it has become an Empire institution. And again, as is the case with cricket, the broad Empire of Sport in every British country accepts its law from the fountain head, with minor alterations made to suit colonial conditions yet sanctioned by tho creative and administrative authority in those laws. Thus wo find the M.C.C. at Lord’s making and amending the laws of cricket, and the International Board doing the same in Rugby Union football. This is fitting for many reasons, and notably to provide for unity in tho game. Tho authority of tho Old Land inmatters of this sort is voluntarily admitted and acknowledged. But when it comes to the ethics of these games, the spirit of sportsmanship, the preservation of ideals in play and in adminstratiou neither Australians nor New Zealanders will ever take off their hats to Englishmen. They would not be true Britishers if they did. T.t ware well for the splendid men who hold the reins in different games in England to realise that this is so, that they have no right to assume that their dictums on the ethics of sport are to hold sway in domains beyond their own, if others just as capable in every direc-, tion of forming conclusions do not agree with them. BRITAIN’S DEBT TO ORIGINAL A.LL BLACKS. Tho Rugby Union game in Gi'fat Britain is under a very deep debt of gratitude to New Zealand. Tho 1905 All Black team, managed by Mr George Dixon, of Auckland, and captained by that gallant soldier David Gallaher,

who laid down his life on the battlefields of France for England as well as his own country, regenerated Rugby in every part of the British Isles. Those wonderful, fascinating, magnificent men of New Zealand showed Englishmen new phases,’new lights and shades in their game. They showed

them that Rugby could be, and should be, the most beautiful co-ordinated game of all for real red-blooded men to play. They were so efficient in all tho finished little arts of individual skill, and so perfect in bending their highly cultivated individualism into the machine that they outclassed a big majority of the teams they met. And what was the reward? These men so gallant in their spirit of adventure, so inspiring in their play, so manly under a tornado of vitriolic criticism by people who could not realise that they were seeing something which they had never dreamt to he possible were targets for abuse.

Some of the foremost newspapers in England published the most ridiculous articles nutting forward ideas similar to these Mr Baxter '’as now after twentyfir© y-ars seen fit to ’-epcat that the w’ng forward is a cheat. ) Tin wing fonv-rd of 1904 was Dave G-'Vh'r, whose shoes some cf his cr ’cs

of the time wore mt ft to •ffiine. whose coreention of the ethics of sportsmanshin on the field of play was flawless, and wbrne conrcr-e in nreserving silence in the face of insn’ts from all angles was heroic. WHAT ALL BLACKS LEADERS SAID IN 1905. At the close of the 1905 tour by the All Blacks Mr George Dixon gave to tho world a very fine book on the tour. In it the captain, provided a retrospect. In this ho said: “The wing forward was another innovation of onr style of play that caused a wide diversity of opinion among British football scribes. Many and varied were the hard names, and_ even insults, our wing forward was subjected to by certain sections of the Press throughout Great Britain. Nothing was bad enough for him, according to some writers. Yet all over the British Isles they play not one wing, but two in the majority of cases, as Heir halves are wiiws, pure and sirapD. ’ “ If ws had only had the forethought to call ours a half-back it would have prevented half tho controversy on the subject.-” ' . I Mr Di;:on himself, a very careful man with a judicial nrnd, in his summing up of the tour said: “The one feature of our game that came in for a lot of adverse criticism was our extra half. The term whig forward is a misnomer. After our first few games in England, however, the critics began to realise that Gallaher was not the heinous offender they had hastily imagined him to be. arid we hoard little more about his methods until we visted Wales, In all my experience I never, knew a player to b© So violently and unuistly attacked as was Gallaher by the Welsh pnners rfter the international match.” • ' ,Tho essence of it all is that if tho Board in its wisdom considers the wings, of He wing forward should be clipped ♦'lie law should be altered in the manner indicated in our Rugby Union cohimn« tn-d"T While tile N-nv Zealand whig fonc-rd. g as close to the laws as afiv other planer on the-field, and the referee sees that t>e vital laws are honoured, it is; w‘th all duo resooct to those who a"ree with Mr Baxter’s views, not wrie. not snevti"g to attack N»w Z-m-hd on‘this matter. The All Blacks twentv-five years ago replaced Ruc-by Vivon foot-hall on the man of Great Br**"’n.rs a great game. They pfet it on th° wid-r man r 1 J -ho wider world even than America, ’’""my h.cln-sd to keep tbs flag flying in Australia, when Gr-'at Britain’s .11" mis were inactive and unconcerned. They shewed that the British’ public would patronise high-class 1 games. : FINANCIAL SIDE IN INTERNATIONAL RUGGER. . They made close on £IO,OOO on their tour,, which has been used in nuturing Rugby in New Zealand and Australia. They took all the risks of that very wonderful adventure, and for their pains were not invited again to Great Britain for twenty years' And even then all the wonderful money naid by the magnificent British public in sport —and. there is no finer public in the world—-was gathered in by the Eng’fsh Union itself! i * A few thousands of that money would have been a wonderful thing for the unions of the Hemisphere, of the South to use in spreading the gospe 1 of their game and of the perfect spirit in sport it stands for. We know Mr Baxter is a great English sportsman with the finest possible ideas on his game. But w? hold that in coming into the open as he has done to attack the wing forward he has been wrong in his views, and not diplomatic. If there has been a genuine cause for this comment it should have been discussed with the men responsible for the game in New Zealand with the president, Dr A. A. Adams an English international), the chairman of the New Zealand Union, Mr Stanley Dean (manager of the unbeaten 1924 All Blacks), and, with the '-Management Committee of the New Zealand Union ■ I