REFEREES MEET.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 139, 16 May 1925, Page 5

REFEREES MEET.

THE OEF-SIDE RULE. At the weekly meeting of the Manawatu Rugby Referees’ Association held last evening the president (Mr C. W. White’ presided over an attendance of 20 ,members. The lecturer for the evening wa3 Mr W. McSweeny, who took as his subject “Offside Play,” a fund of interesting matter being brought forward by the speaker, his use of the miniature playing field giving to the remarks additional value. An interesting discussion was opened up by the presentation of a point for decision by one of the members, the query being relative to* the putting of the ball into the scrum. On the occasion of the recent visit of Mr D. MoKenzie,_of Wellington, the veteran whistler had ruled that there y?a3 no law forbidding tho increasing of the pace afc which the ball was put into the scrum and if the pace was such that it passed right through the scrum the action was legitimate. An interesting debate ensued around the point, it being viewed from a,,point of law and the spirit of the game. The chairman ruled that it was a question of fact rather than law, he maintaining that if the referee was of the opinion that the hookers had not been given an equally fair chance of securing possession of the ball it should be ordered to be re-thrown into the scrum.