RUGBY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 10064, 31 July 1925, Page 7

RUGBY.

- RUGBY CONGRESS. DOMINION REPRESENTATION. (SYDNEY SUN CABLE.) LONDON, July 29. The “Evening News” states that Mr. Brown, Australian representative at the Rugby Conference, commenting on New Zealand’s request to the English Union to press for Dominion representation on the International Board, said: “We want uniformity, with international control. The various unions at present are at sixes and sevens, .each recognising a. dinerent interpretation of the rules. The English Union is reluctant to support Dominion representation, fearing control of the game will be taken out of her hands.’ ■' , . The following will represent Old Boys’ juniors v. High School on Saturday : Thompson, Scott, Watkins, Berry, Robertson, Simpson, Golfe, Williamson, Neave, Hampton, Murray, McCoy, Whyte, Hav and Foote; emergency, Allan. / OFFICIAL DECISIONS. At a meeting of tho Rugby. Referees’ Association last week, questions relative to the Laws of the Game were submitted and decision given thereon, as follow V Question: A defending payer goes down on the ground to stop a rush, and is unable to get up immediately.

Can the opposing players drag such j player away from tiie ball ?—.Decision: | ft is illegal ro Dandle a player who has not got the ball in his possession. Penalty kick under law 11, section (j>Question: Law 10—Free-kicks. In regard to the words, “must be kicked in tho direction of the opponents’ goal,” does this apply to free-kicks being awarded bv way of penalty, or does it only apply to a free-kick awarded for a mark? If only for the latter, can the ball, from a penalty kick, be kicked back (in the field or play) and taken possession of by kicker’s own side? It is to be understood that the kicker kicks the ball, from a spot behind the mark where the penalty was awarded in a line parallel to the touch-lines, hut not forward in tho d’recticn of the opponents’ goal.—Deci.von : Must be in the direction of opposing goal. Question: Law 11 (n) —A team is in the lead, and wastes time after a force down, thereby causing unnecessary loss of time. Where should the penalty kick ho awarded?—Decision: Extend the time. Question: The ball goes direct into touch on the line from a kick between the 25yds lines, and the opnos'to side (who are to throw the ball in from touch) are penalised' for causing unnecessary loss of time. Where" should the penalty be awarded ?—Decision: Ten yards from the touch-line, where the ball crossed tlio line. Question: Law 7a and 11 (k). —A serum back being taken, and the spot where the hidl was last plnved is between the 25yd l : nes and within 10yds of the touch-line, should the scrummage then he on the spot or 10 yds out from the touch-line?—Bed-sum : Scrummage 10yds out from touch-Mne. WHEN,-FOOTBALL WAS BANNED. A SUNDAY SPORT CENTURIES AGO. Football in its present highly organised form is a quite modern growth, though the origin of the game goes a long way back. It ■ differs so much in its new and old methods that one can hardly recognise the octopus of to-day as the offspring of the rollicking pastime of several centuries ago (says London Tit-Bits). . . The contrast between them is almost fanciful. No one, for instance, ' could really imagine the uproar there would he now if any attempt was made to prohibit the playing of the game; yet. most of the earliest allusions to football actually refer to the strenuous efforts which the authorities made to put it down. The great argument • against it, from the national point of view, was that it interfered with the practice of archery. .. JAMES VI. AND .THE, GAME!. In 1491 James IV. denounced both football and golf as “unprofitable sports,” and yet he doesn’t appear to have practised what lie preached, for among his own Treasurer’s accounts there occurs a payment of money “to buy footballs for the King.”

James VI. hated the game even more than he did the then newlyintroduced fashion of smoking tobacco. In one of his books he commends “such honest games and pastimes as may further ability and maintain health. But from this count I debar all rough and violent exercise, as the football, rneeter for laming than making able the users thereof.” This rabid dislike, it may be noted, was evidently not shared by his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, for she frequently watched the game. This partiality of hers for manly sports was, indeed, characteristic, and need hardly surprise us, for she had far more of a man’s spirit in her than had her somewhat namby-pamby son. in the actual playing of the game there were also wide differences. Before the Reformation it was largely a Sunday sport, even the clergy joining in, if we are to believe Sir David Lyndsay. who makes the parson in; one of his poems boast: — » I wot theer is not ane amang you all, ■ Mail” feirlie can plav at the football. It was always played on church holidays, and, indeed, the old custom still exists in some places on Shrove Tuesday, or “Fasten’s Eve,” as it used to be called in Scotland. N HAPPY-GO-LUCKY AFFAIR. The game itself was a very happy-go-lucky affair, minus rules, referees, goalposts, not to mention nets, and, indeed, with hardly anything about it that would be recognised on a ( modern football field. You could join i in m leave off at your own sweet | will, the sides being composed of all and sundry in the neighborhood, and divided usually into two groups, depending upon the part of the town in which one dwelt. Sometimes, as in the annual football match at Scone, the married men tackled tho bachelors, and their disregard of rules is evident from the j fact that their boisterous play gave rise to the old saying, “A’s fair at j the ba’ o’ Scone.” i Nor is the feminine invasion of sport altogether a new thing, for in times now long past the married fisherwomen at Fisherrow in the Lothians played the spinsters of that fishing village, and, what is more, tradition says that the former always beat the latter at football. None of the attempts made by the old Scots Parliament to prohibit football ever laid the slightest effect, and \vhen archery became no longer a necessary means of warfare this old excuse for interfering with the game passed away. .