RUGBY IN AFRICA

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 4 November 1933, Page 8

RUGBY IN AFRICA

WALLABY’S IMPRESSIONS REMARKABLE ENTHUSIASM KICK INTO TOUCH RULE Rugby is very good to those players who can make their way into representative teams, and it has given me the chance personally of visiting and playing in all the great Rugby-playing countries of the world (said S. J. Malcolm, vi'ec-eaptain of ‘the Australian Rugby team, in an article he wrote for “The Out-span” before the team left South Africa). As a member of Australian and New South Wales teams- I have played in New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France, and in the last few months I have been very thankful I did not carry out a half-informed intention of retiring from the game a few years ago, for it has given me the chance to visit South Africa, without which my Rugby experience would have been most incomplete. Of all the countries I have played in I find there is more real enthusiasm for the game in the Union of South Africa than any other. We in Australia have our affections divided by several codes, and it is only in the last few years that the union game has made strong headway owing to the keenness of old players such, as Dr. - W. F. Matthews, our present manager, and others who have never wavered in their efforts to help the game they themselves played with such enthusiasm. In New Zealand Rugby, of course, is the national game, and the Rugby Union code has, for the time being, got on top of the l'efigue game, which at one time was a most serious rival; in- England, Ireland and Scotland Rugby is a game for the players, by which I mean it does not make’ a wide appeal to the general public, except when spectacular international matches are played, and it is mainly the enthusiasm of old' public school and university men and their people that keeps the game flourishing. In Wales Rugby is more the game of the rank and file, and the grand traditions associated with the players in scarlet, jerseys have aroused a national pride which is very keen in the mining towns along the Rhondda Valley and beyond.

KEEN ENTHUSIASM I had always thought that Wales andNew Zealand were the keenest Rughyplaying countries in the- world until I came to South Africa, and I must say I give the palm to the- Union for Rugby enthusiasm. I have met girls here with a knowledge of the finer points of the game and ability to discuss them that j would put many players to shame, and the enthusiasm is not confined to big towns. At small wayside stations and halts on our long journeys through the Union and Rhodesia we have been met by small! crowds of enthusiasts; we have had mayors and leading townspeople coming to .the stations to meet us early in the morning and late at night t'o offer us welcomes, and the “Three cheers for the Wallabies.” which'have invariably saluted us as our train drew away, has- helped to make us feel how warmly we have been welcomed in .the Union and helped to make the tour the great experience of our lives. KICKING INTO TOUCH

1 Personally, lam convinced t.ha't the Rugby game would be .more popular 1 all over the world if kicking into touch ; ‘ ‘on the full” 'outside the defending j twenty-five -were prohibited by the ! rules, and until 'this is done we shall ■ always have disappointing matches in international games. I know the mal jority of Rugby people are against this i innovation, which was tried with such • success in Australia and New Zealand ■ a few years back. They contend that Rugby is for the players and not the public. With this view I cannot agree, since the unions spend thousands of pounds on erecting stands and accommodation for the public and advertise to attract the crowds. Moreover, the gate-receipts paid by the spectators are necessary to finance international tours and provide grounds on which the game is played and developed in the junior grade® of football. In Australia and New Zealand the special dispensation of rules which debarred the kick to touch on the lull was abandoned .when the last British team visited Australia and New Zealand three years ago, and the members of the British team, like the good sportsmen they were, played bright, open Rugby, keeping the ball in play, so that everybody wa's satisfied. Toward the end of the tour, however,, when they played in Queensland, which is a growing centre of the game in Australia, it was a very hot day, and, tired out as the result of their arduous tour, they adopted the touch-kicking game, booting the ball out of play at every possible opportunity, to rest their players. They were entitled to do so by the rules, but they so disappointed the spectators that these began to' leave the ground half-way through the match, and the Rugby Union game received a severe blow, from which it took ‘sortie time to recover. PUBLIC AND THE GAME In Australia and New Zealand we have had to meet tho competition of the spectacular League game, and to draw any spectators to our matches we have had to play the open game and keep the ball in play as much as we can. In Great Britain the tendency is also to play the open game. It seems to me, therefore, that the game generally -would be benefited by debarring the kick to touch on the full outside the' defending twenty-five. I know the conservatism in the game in Great Britain is opposed to it, because so far in the South of England, Scotland and Ireland they have not had to meet the rivalry of the brighter method's of the League. If, however, as I read in: the papers, the League game is to be introduced in London, there may be a dif±*crcTLt outlook, when the opposition draws the public now identified with Union Rugby. At any rate, I think the Dominions might with advantage discuss such a change of rules and pre- ] vail on the International Board to adopt it. Players and public alike prefer bright, racy Rugby; so if my per- ; serial view is of any value, I would ■ ask, “Wliat is the good of a rule ( which prevents it?” i