RUGBY NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4580, 8 June 1917, Page 7

RUGBY NOTES.

(By “Drop-kick ”)

The third set of games in' the Sheri ratt Cup Competition were played on the Domain on Saturday last in fine football weather. The attendance of spectators" showed an increase on previous Saturdays. That interest m the competition is awakening is evidenced by the fact that there has been a steady increase in the takings at the gate since the opening of the seasop, though there is yet a long way to go to reach The numbers that used to attend matches in pre-war days. •

Chief interest centred in the meeting of Old Boys’ and High School, and some fast and exciting play was witnessed in this game. The scores on both sides were the result of fine dashing play by the backs. Much to the surprise of followers of the game the School side notched a win by 6 points to 3. The game was played in the proper .spirit, and was much appreciated by spectators.

The same cannot be said of the fixture between No. 7 Company and Kaiti-City. Early in the game both sides allowed a good deal of bad feeling to be in evidence. Both teams suffered from “talk,” and the game sounded like a gathering of magpies. Incipient “scraps” were the order of the day and the referee finally clinched matters by ordering off a KaitiCity player for striking an opponent. The referee also had cause to caution players in regard to the bad language which was in evidence, and as a residt the second spell was a; decided improvement on the early stages of the game. Play was devoted to the forwards and .was hard and strenuous from start to finish, Kaiti-City winning by 11 points to 5.

The Rugby Union will need to use a firm hand in dealing with the younger spectators who congregate upon the lines during the progress of matches on Saturdays. Last Weekend the nuisance was very bad. The language used was far from edifying, and seeing it was mere lads who were the chief offenders shows Jack of control on the part of the Union. For the sake of the game it is necessary that a firm stand be taken by the Union in regard to the matter. lii past years a constable has alwaysbeen stationed on the ground, and it seems to me that the same procedure should be adopted again this season.

During the next two Saturdays there will only be one senior fixture on the Domain, in order that the High School byes may be disposed of before commencing the second round. * * *

The Seven-a-side Tournament held on King’s Birthday was one of the best held locally, some really good goes being witnessed. Local players have hardly grasped the correct methods to adopt when playing seven-a-side, and still adopt the more ciimbersome methods used when playing fifteen men. Captains of teams should plan out a campaign with methods suitable for the number of players taking part. If- they follow out this idea they will find play more interesting both to themselves and the spectators, in addition to which they will readily grasp the advantages between the several schemes when brought into touch with cleverer opponents. *

The gate at the Seven-a-side Tournament was hardly as big as was expected, considering there were no counter attractions on the day in question. Presumably spectators have lost the liabit of witnessing sports of any kind, and will need a good deal of coaxing to again give their support. The fare proviced mi Kino-’s Birtlulav included both P.ugby and°ladies' hockey, and deserved a much bigger attendance than was present.

Roy Eaton may consider that he was dealt with very leniently by the Rugby Union at their last meeting. A fortnight’s suspension may well be considered a light punishment for striking another player, the offence for which it was inflicted. In addition to this it is not the first time this plaver has been up before the Union ‘for an offence against the rules.

There was a very sarcastic article about the famous Grove Park A..S.C. football team in the Daily Mail, of March 9. It began as follows: “There is a confident expectation in the Sydenham, Catford and Bromley district that the summer will see the crushing defeat of the Kaiser’s army. It is founded upon the belief that the Grove Park Army Service Corps football team is about to proceed to the front. There is no unit in the British Army with such glorious traditions of victory. They have played twenty matches this season and have won every one of them. They have shot no fewer than 182 goals, have scored 79 additional tries, and have accounted for no fewer than 993 points. Their own casualties have been extraordinarily slight as compared with the awful slaughter they nave inflicted. Hardly a man is missing from the team, which at the beginning of the season they lined up against the foe. Commenting on this the Sportsman says: “We have no fault to mid with the moral which the Mail seeks to convey. It is, however, typical of our contemporary that it employs on the task a writer whose qualification is smartness rather than knowledge of his subject. Fancy ‘shooting’ goals in Rugby football P #

\ writer in tlie Winning Post 68-3-’17): “At the Old Deer Park, where hockey used to reign supreme, there was a rousing game between a team of New Zealantfers from Hornchurch and another team of New Zealanders from somewhere else. My hat! but it’s a game when two New Zealand sides get- on the move against each other. No wonder the ordinary New Zealand onlooker at our Rugger is a bit apt to criticise our slowness. I was only able to see the last ten minutes of tins game, and the pace was just about as fast a-min as the first ten minutes of an English and Scotch on Inverleith of a crisp March afternoon, with the cast wind whustlin’ roon the plajeis lu<rs. I missed genuine scrummaging, and this is a decided weakness in New Zealand Rugger as we see it. They are apt to make it too much or a game between 15 three-quarters aside. But the pace of the running, tiie passing, the field-kicking weio grand to watch —and now that it is rumored rather freely that the New Zealand Trench team will be over here after all, this season one hopes that if such is the case the best team of New Zealand in this country will oppose them on a fine afternoon on good going. We shall then see the pace which really deserves to he called a cracker.” * * *

Another Scottish Rugby international. Captain F. A. Nelson, the old Edinburgh Academy _ three-quarter, has been killed in action * * *

Scottish Rugby has suffered a further loss by the death m action <of Lieut. A. D. Flett, secretary and treasurer of the Scottish Rug iy Union. Educated at Leys School, lie played in the cricket eleven and the fifteen, and played forward for Edinburgh Wanderers for a number of years. He was one of four sons of Mr D. Flett, a writer to the. Signet in' Edinburgh, all members of the Wanderers fifteen, two of whom —H. W. Flett and J. E. Flett—have fallen in action the remaining one being A. B. Flett, the old Scottish captain.