RUGBY FOOTBALL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 May 1912, Page 9

RUGBY FOOTBALL

Hawera teams have made a good beginning with the season's fixtures by winning two senior and two junior matches. Judging by the play against Patea there is much room tor improvement in the seniors, both back and forward. If the success is to continue, a, strong effort should be made to get a little combined practice. The want of it was painfully evident. Although the scrum was heavier than Patea and held them fairly easily, the ball did not come out clean.' Unless this fs done the backs get no opportunity to show their quality. With a little practice and coaching the back team has possibilities, and it is a pity that they should not be given tho chance to prove themselves. The strong teams have yet to be met, and if a stand is to be made against them, training is essential. Waimate and Okaiawa who must surely labour under greater disabilities, manage to get in pome practice games—why not Hawera ? It is some years since the local team headed the list of senior teams. If some energy and enthusiasm are shown, all possibilities are in their grasp. A first essential is individual training. There is no excuse for a lack in this respect. Waimate are the favorites at present. Thera is a proposal from New Plymouth to 'get their seniors to play a match with a selected Northern team at the time of the Taranaki Winter Show. Hawera will be better treated in the matter of representative matches this season. In Dominion Show week Wellington and Wanganui will meet Taranaki^ The place of play has not been decided. The mooted proposal to take the matches on to the Show grounds is an excellent idea. In a town of this size, a ground oil which there is room for all sports to be played is a capital scheme. It was the original idea 8f the promoters of Bayly Park, Limited. It promised well and for some years worked satisfactorily. The company had a much larger area than is now known as Bayly Park. Tennis courts, cricket ground, cycle1 and running track, and afterwards football field were provided. Want of cohesion amongst the clubs and consequent difficulties in finance proved the wrecking of the scheme. One after another drew out until cricket alone was left. Certainly football returned, and hockey nourished there for a season or two. In order, however, to help finance, the original scheme had to be dropped. Parts of the frontages were sold, and now the accommodation, and, indeed, the playing area, is altogether restricted. The ground is really too small for cricket, and will not accommodate the gate that a fh'st-class rep. football match attracts, and that is an essential to getting such games played in Hawera. It was an opportunity that was not likely to come a second time. The scheme was not backed as it should have been by townspeople. Now the solution of the ground question seems to lie in the proposal put forward to go to the A.,and P. ground, a proposal that is heartily endorsed by the Association and supported by sports clubs. The Recreation Ground is so wanting in accommodation and conveniences as to be out of the running.

Football in Wellington has for some years had the unenviable name of being something more than willing and strenuous. Football is a game that is not suitable for a drawing-room. But, however hard it is played—and it should be

played hard (when it ceases to have that quality, then let it perish) —there is no excuse for its not being stringently clean ;md sportsmanlike. For this season it is very much to be regretted that j some proved instances of foul play have not been dealt with by the Union as should have been the case. For the man who cannot play a game without resorting to tactics such as no decent player would dream of descending to, there should be or.c place, and one place only - -not the bank, as is suggested, but off the football grounds altogether, so that his o-xample and influence cannot have the chance oi contaminating other players. Rugby football is said to be going through a bad tim<\ owing to the coun-ter-attractions' of Association, hockey, and the North Union game. For the sake of the best and most manly sports, all clubs should co-operate and help the authorities in a movement for the absolnte prohibition of foul play. The whole sport would be the gainer. If only the Unions wouJd take a firm stand they wov.ld. we feel sure, be backed up by the clubs. In this respect it might be suggested that a little more authority should be given into the hands of line umpires. If three pairs of eyes watched the players, and each of the two side nifeii was authorised to report to the referee, players wich a tendency to unfair play Mould he very careful. A writer of the Australasian talks interestingly of Rugby football. In the course of an article, he makes a strong appeal for clean play. Inter aim, he says: Football improves the physique, likewise the temper, teaches obedience and self-con f.rol, and every man is a better citizen for a little wholesome discipline. But it must be kept pure and played fairly. The use of the elbow and fist must be eliminated at all hazards. A player who lacks self control is a menace and a blot upon the game's fail name, and should not be allowed to run amok at his own will. Such a man is always the centre of a disturbance — a sort of willy-willy. Football is a grand game, played fairly, cleanly, and strongly. Legitimate force is part and parcel of the pastime, and there is no place for.weaklings. A. player should always be prepared to receive and give a bump without malice or spite. It is a trial of skill, speed, and force between athletic young men, and so long as an exponent lawfully and manfully uses the strength that nature gave him he is absolntelv doing the right thing for his side and playing the game also. It is the personal contact and the extreme pace that imparts the i?idoscTibabJe but necessary thrill to the thousands of onlookers. No'truer words were ever written than Adam Lindsay Cordon's, when he said: No game was ever yet worth a rap For a rational man to play. Into which no danger, no mishap, Could possibly find its way. They are certainly applicable to all field sports, and particularly so to football. The London lleferees' Society recently discussed the never-ending topic of passing from the ground. Here is the excerpt from the hon. secretary's notes: Q. —Tf a. player is held (but not tackled in accordance with the definitior thereof on page-55^ and the ball touches the ground, can the player pass th< ball ?

A —Yes. A definite explanation of a tackle is now given, and so, if he can pass the hall, he is not tackier! and can pass -the hall off the ground. This is an entirely new ruling, and the special attention of referees and players is called thereto.