RUGBY

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 April 1925, Page 9

RUGBY

NOTES. Aquestion brought up recently by the Referees’ Association is the rule for free kiciis. At present the Jncaer cannot place the ball for himself, and the association maintain tiiat this should be altered. It will no douibt bo discussed by the New Zealand Union. In the opinion of a Southern paper, the English forwards compared favourably with the New Zealanders, but the backs lacked initiative, and only attacked when within the New Zealand twenty-live. He predicted that at the next tour the English would show a maiked improvement in their standard of play. Reade Masters, the big All Black lock, lost no time getting into it after his return with the All Blacks. His club (Albion) held their opening practice two days after he got back to Christchurch, and the big lock was there right in the thick of it. Walters, the brilliant Stratford forward, is getting into form. He has only to improve a little (says a correspondent) on last year to he in the team for Australia.

SATURDAY PLAY. The drawing of the fixtures last Monday has given an air of proximity to the serious business of tlie championship, for which all teams are out to do their best. Thirteen senior teams is a pretty good number, and should provide 'much fine football, 't here has been a suggestion made that thirteen are too many, and that fewer would lead to a better standard of pla.v. It is therefore up to all the players to do that which is open to every footballer, get and keep lit, so that play will be hard and keen, for keen spectator critics do like to see the players go right to the end of the game, and to be as. keen when the whistle blows for no side as they are when it blows for kick off. That is in the reach of everyone if he is .so minded, and if he is not interested enough to be fit, his place is on the bank. Football is a game that demands hard condition. While there has been decided progress in most centres. Waimate (Manaia) are having a repetition of the lean time they have experienced for some year or two. An old time representative- and still a keen enthusiast, ascribes a good deal of this state of things to the failure to realise that the young players must be trained and given their chance, and that it is folly to continue with the old butlers. They are at last forced to see the futility of trying to go down on indefinitely with the same players. So Waimate—once the glory of the football world of Taranaki, from which team have graduated some of the liest players who ever donned jersey for the province or for ’the Dominion, —must carry on as juniors for a year, perhaps two, until they renew their youth and are able once more to take a worthy place in the senior ranks. With that exception the prospects all over Taranaki look good. The leading players of last year are out again, and those who are still young in years look likely to put the name of Taranaki once more on the scroll of fame. The chances will open up as the championship matches are played.

WEDNESDAY PLAY. There is an air of strong enthusiasm «nd a feeling of optimism about the clubs 'who play in mid-week. Hawern will have two teams, and there are altogether probably nine who will compete for the mid-week championship. They still have the Wilson banner as a trophy, and its possession will lead to many keen contests. AT THE SCHOOLS. The schools —Secondary, Technical High and Primary will be in action very shortly, and with such good bodies of enthusiasts as are at the head of affairs, there is strong probability of capital football.

MORE REFEREES WANTED

The Poverty Bay Referees’ Association is instituting a “drive” for the strengthening of its membership, and no body of sportsmen are more deserving of support in their aims. Refereeing if one of those jobs the only reward for which lies in the consciousness of work well done. There are few perquisities for the referee, who, in the event of trouble on the field, may have to face the criticisms of the crowd. He must give up his Saturday afternoons to the sport, and sometimes forego attendance at a big match. There are all sorts of arguments against being a Rugby referee, and old footballers are very ready, as a whole, to quote them when asked to take a hand in the conrtol of games. Despite all these arguments, however, the business of refereeing is one that few men give up, once they have made the plunge. There must ®be something in it. that fascinates the man,, whether it is the authority placed in his hands when on the field, or the feeling that by volunteering for the work he is helping long the national winter game, an enabling others to enjoy the privilege he himself is no longer able to take advantage of. It is one branch of public service that might prove congenial to all lovers of Rugby.

HERO WORKSHOP. It was intermission. A small boy pushed his way up to the teacher’s desk and held out a small grey ball of something. “Do you know what that is, Miss Blank?” he asked. “I don’t know, .Tohnriie; it looks like mud.” “It is mud,” was the proud reply. “But it came from the shoe of one of the All Blacks.” That was in the Westminster, nn the Thames, in the heart of the .Empire. A city council was in session. It had _ been decided to hold a court of rvision of Thursday morning. But the Mayor announced that he had recieved an invitation to a demonstration at a logging camp. Big trees would he topped and felled, and there would be au exhibition of modern logging methods. That wasn’t anything new. But the All Balcks would be present, and so > *fj|u]d the Mayor. The court of revision Mould wait. And it had to.

That was in New Westminster, on the FTaser, on the edge of the Empire. They are heroes wherever they go. —From a Vancouver paper.

FOOTBALL ON ST PAUL’S ROOF. Within a stone’s throw of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, the preservation of which is now the business of the whole world, there is a sports ground on which cricket and football have been played regularly for the last fifty years. One might search for this a long time without finding it—it is on the roof of St Paul’s Choir House. There, on almost any day in the week, may he found half a dozen youngsters in football shorts or flannels exercising in a wire netted cage, which is about the length of a* cricket pitch. When the Choir House was built it was realised that it was necessary for the hoys to have some place where they could play games, and, this being impossible in the crowded city streets, a sports ground was laid out on the roof. “BEST OF GOOD WISHES.” The regard which the Earl of Ranfurlv who was Governor of New Zealand from 1879 to 1904. still holds for the Dominion and its people was made known to the All Blacks towards the close of their football tour. In a letter to Mr. S. S. Dean, manager of the team, the FJarl of Ranfurly wrote as follows: “Will you please wish the All Blacks on my behalf the best of good wishes at this season of the year. . . I wish to offer my congratulations on their brilliant success. Though over twenty years have now passed since I was in New Zealarfti,