THE DECLINE OF THE RUGBY UNION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11885, 8 May 1899, Page 2

THE DECLINE OF THE RUGBY UNION.

(Pall Mall Gazette.') To join hands with the Northern Union seems to be a chimerical idea. ,It is only so because of the prejudiced, one-sided view that is taken by the Rugby Union officials. Whilst the Northern Unionists were coquetting with professionalism, and maintaining the attitude that payment for broken time was not professionalism, it was impossible for any supporter of amateurism to look with faWur on the Northern Union methods. The Rugby Union w'ere compelled to take up the standpoint of having no dealings with the secessionists. The underhand methods and subterfuges resorted to by delinquent clubs could meet with no countenance from straightforward sportmen. It was right, therefore, that the Northerners should receive such treatment as would show them that so long as they were blind to the deceit and malpractices that were carried on under'the .guise of the payments' for broken time so-called, no honourable follower of the game could be associated with them or approve of their methods. But there has been a great change through the' adoption, ,pr rather legalisation, of sionalism in the Northern Union. Many, especially the Rugby Union Committees of Lancashire and Yorkshire, strongly upheld the principle that on this declaration' for professionalism the - Rugby Union should have proclaimed an amnesty to clubs and players desirous of returning to the parent body. That idea was brusquely pushed aside. The two counties failed to bring the matter before the general meeting in Septe . ber. Had they done so they would have received support from many f quarters. Buu nothing was done, and at present we have the peculiar spectacle of the amateur Rugbj Union engaged in manufacturing professionalism, while the professional Northerners are guarding and protecting tho amateur. The regulations of the. former render it almost impossible for an amateur to play in the north and continue an amateur ; and his difficulties .increase day by . day 'as the Northern Union extends its borders. Take the instance of a ’Varsity player or a medical student of tbs south.' During residence at Oxford or Cambridge, or whilst pursuing studies at a London hospital, the southerner has opportunity of playing the game as an amateur. Supposing the ’Varsity man to accept a mastership in .some school at Hull, or the medical student to obtain an appointment in the same town, football with either of the great teams there is debarred to him, for let him once play for either of these clubs and he at once loses his amateur status. And yet hs has received no money, and would net lake any money. Contrariwise, as “ Tweedledum ” would remark, a genthman of position and wealth residing in the north, who may have played with a northern club, cannot, if he came to London, join any. southern club without infecting and contaminating every member of the same. That is the Rugby Union pcsiticn. , ■

It "was perhaps well that this line of action should have been adopted cn the first secession of northern clubs. Many prophesied a short life for the ■northerners ; others, better versed in the Ways of the north, and cognisant of their zealous and businesslike methods, foretold that the Northern Union had come to stay. -Three years’ experience has demonstrated that the latter have been correct in their forecast. And so conditions have .materially altered since 1895. The Northern Union is steadily progressing and extending. The Rugby Union is declining, aud its sphere of influence narrowing year by, year,,, and still the same fatal policy is clung to. Will this persistent fatuity be continued till it is too late ? Naturally, it is contended that any change will necessitate an abandonment of principle, and that it will be preferable to suffer loss and even to contemplate total exinction, rather than LOWES THE FLAP, OF AMATEUR PRINCIPLE. ’ ■- Two of the most ardent supporters of the present policy of the Rugby Union are Messrs Rowland Hill and 1 Arthur Budd. What do they say on the : introduction of professionalism ? Mr Hill writes : —“I hold that it is injurious to the individual who becomes a professional. A man finds for a time that it is more remunerative to play football than to follow his regular occupation.. He is'induced in many cases to give up ins work at an age the most important in his life for forming habits of industry; he does not realise that a man cannot play for many years in sufficiently good form to earn good wages from the game. After a time his play falls off, and he has .to go. He has got out of the way of work and lost valuable time, in which he should have been learning a trade. He then recognises that football has unfitted him for other work, and finds it very difficult to get any employment ; and if he is able to get work it will probably be at a much smaller rate of wage than he would have received if he had from the first stuck steadily to work.” These are noble sentiments, fully in accordance with the high principles of the Rugby Union secretary. But in them is nothing inconsistent with adopting the lines laid down by the Northern Union. Professionalism, as understood and practised in the Association game, is a theory to be shunned and avoided. ■ Mr Hill’s remarks are exceedingly apropos when directed against the out-and-out professional under the Association code. But the Northern Union have framed regulations whereby it is impossible that a man can be paid for football and not work at his ordinary employment. They have decided “No work, no play,” and it is this edict that has entirely altered the condition of affairs. The working man is now placed in the same position as the ’Varsity amateur. • He is enabled to use Ms football abilities as a means to. obtain employment and to better his condition in life. Football, instead of being a snare, is now of material benefit to him. It insists on Ms working, and thus discountenances a life of idleness. There is no place for- the loafer, while the genuine working man dan play the game and benefit himself. The fate of Fitzgerald, of the Batley Club, has clearly . indicated that the Northern Union intends to stand no nonsense, and that bogus situations, with a farce, as regards work, will not be recognised. ‘ ' . . '■'••. Rugby Unionists may object to this, but the same thing is going on in their midst every day. A ’-Varsity man seeking a-mas-tership in a school uses his football and athletic abilities to find favour in the eyes of the headmaster. These are often adjuncts which secure for Mm" a desirable mastership. Blit he must be capable of doing the form work and of performing the other duties which fall to the lot of the ordinary schoolmaster. He is'not engaged because he can play football, hut he is a much more useful . unit in school organisation if he can take part in. the games and interest lumselt in the boys’ pursuits outside the classroom, and so the athlete, cteteris paribus, gams the preference when the headmaster is making a, selection. He uses< Ms; athletic ability to advance his career in life. ; He’can con mue to play as ah amateur, but; in principle HE IS AS MUCH !a PROFESSIONAL as the. . working man who uses his ability to obtain a situation under the Northern Union rulfcs. It is this class legislation that* is so sickening and disgusting. The semi-professional schoolmaster, for such he is under the Rugby Union theory as displayed towards the wooing man, is regarded as an amateur, while the individual who plays for the love of the game, and has not taken a periny for expenses, is branded as a professional because he’has donned a jersey under the Northern Union code. The situation presents a screaming farce. It can only he justified it it were in the interests of the amateur, but 1 since the outcome is the increase of professionalism and the decline of amateurism, it ceases to be laughable, and becomes almost criminal. Mr Budd sums up his ideas in tabular form in his objections to' the system of migration, which, as “ a necessary concomir taut of professionalism, must inevitably lead to. (1) the, extinction ,qf-the aipgteur 12) the ; exclusion of native talent; and (3) the se-

duction.by pecuniary inducement of players from (a) club to club, (b) county to county, or even (c) country to country. Is this sport? I cal! it the .prostitution of it.” Very true, Mr Budd, but sentiments that appear strangely incongruous from one who is a red-hot advocate of the Blackheath Club, the most inveterate and pronounced, poaching organisation in England,. The bait of football promotion and the dangling of a prospective,, international cap are ‘in principle as deleterious as the promise of a situation or the payment of money. They are inducements that have cajoled many a player to join Blackheath, and in their results have brought about as great an injury to southern football as ever the winning over of working men to northern clubs by the prospect of increased wages. But note how all Mr Budd’s objections are met by the system adopted by the Northern Union. With them it is impossible for a player to migrate from club to club. He is tied, bound fast, to his club by stringent regulations which neither he nor his club can evade. True that at present the Northern Union poachers find vast preserves in otiier counties and countries, and migrations from West, the Midlands, the Nortb_ (at least, what is still left to the Rugby Union) and Wales are occurring every day. But all this can be ended if once the Rugby Union comes to an understanding with the Northern Union. To say, that the northerners are not in sympathy with the amateur is to be in ignorance of the motives that actuate that body. For three years they , have steadily set their face against the legalise,-_ tion of professionalism. At last they have succumbed to the inevitable, but their resistance lias resulted in the framing of regulations which have rendered the professional innocuous to the game and to himself. These regulations have entirely changed the situation, and, if they can be adhered to, and there is no apparent reason why they should cease to govern the professional, then a platform has been erected upon winch Rugby Unionists and Northerners may stand united in the one common object of forwarding the interests of the game and of preserving the amateur from losing his importance in the sport.