ENGLISH CLUB RUGBY SENSATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 175, 9 July 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

ENGLISH CLUB RUGBY SENSATION

EFFORTS MADE IN LONDON TO CHECK GROWTH OF OLD BOYS TEAMS. Now that the end of the Rugby football season has been reached no harm can be done in stating that only bymaintaining the strictest secrecy was a first-class “sensation” in London Rugby prevented from being made public (says an English paper). The “gates” of all the chief London clubs have suffered severely, partly because of the visit of the South Africans and partly because the continued growth in Ihe number of Old Boys clubs has prevented them from' obtaining recruits of the necessary quality. While the first is a factor, the second is regarded as a menace to the prosperity of the older-established organisations. A few of the loading clubs therefore decided upon steps that sounded drastic and were meant to be, but which savour rather of Canute’s efforts to stem the waves. They resolved not to renew fixtures with any Old Boys club, With two exceptions. These are"the twp oldest, but while one ha? always been reckoned first class, the other has long ceased to be and did not win half-a-dozen matches this past season. Also they have “put the ban” on the newly-formed Aidershot Services, a team capable of meeting the best in the land and which next season will have a real first class list ox fixtures.

In order to attract the public the clubs in question are arranging more matches with provincial teams, but this would appear the wrong way of going about it, for experience has shown that the public w'll not support teams who lose more matches than they win. And that is just what has happened to these clubs, who, incidentally, have been beaten by Old Boys sides they have dropped! Naturally enough, the Old Boys will not take matters lying down, and the sequel, when it develops, will bo interesting.