RUGBY SENSATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 29 December 1925, Page 8

RUGBY SENSATION.

FAMOUS CLUBS QUARREL. LONDON, Nov. 12. Two famous Rugby clubs, the Harlequins and Newport, are concerned in a, sensation in the amateur sporting World, The following official statement has been issued by Mr. Adrian D. Stoop, honorary secretary of the Harlequin Football Club: ‘.‘At the conclusion of the game at Twickenham on Saturday the committee of the Harlequin ITootbail Club de~ cicled to discontinue the fixture with the Newport Athletic Club.” Discussing the matter with a press representative, Mr. Stoop s'aicl: “The position is that we do not like the toot ball that is played by the Newport forwards. They consistently break the rules, and we get plenty of games with other clubs which are much more en-joyable,-and it is for that reason that we have decided not to play. Newport again. Rugby football is quite rough enough, even when it is played in the right spirit and with proper regard for the rules of the game, but if a team consistently declines to pay any regard to the rules, then it is not football at all.”

Harold Davies, the Newport captain, interviewed" at Oxford, said there was certainly no foul play on either side. There was some haphazard play on both sides, because the referee let tilings go. Some of the players did not know where they were because of his off-side decisions. The Harlequins were equal offenders, and the only difference was that Newport were penalised in good positions. A player who took part in the match said that it was not a particularly pleasant game. Feeling ran a little high at times, but the match was spoiled, not on account of any excessive roughness, but by the different interpretation which Newport, in common with most other Welsh clubs, place upon the rules. There were certain incidents in the match 'which did not do credit to any team playing the Rugby game,” writes Touch Judge, of the Sporting .Life, and it was impossible for the referee (Mr. Potter-Irwin) to see some of these incidents. Newport were penalised three times, twice for off-side and once for obstruction. But there were other cases of obstruction which went unpeualised, and there was a good deal which occurred during the line-outs which also escaped —and unavoidably escaped —the referee’s notice. During the interval I saw Mr. Stoop speak to the Newport toucli-judge, and that official subsequently had a conversation with some of the Newport players. But the character of the game did not improve after the interval, although it is my personal view that, the Harlequins’ action' might have been less drastic —at any rate in the tirst in*' stance.”- __________