Renewed Enthusiasm In Scotland s Club Rugby Competition

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7066, 27 January 1933, Page 4

Renewed Enthusiasm In Scotland s Club Rugby Competition

OLDER PLAYERS GIVE WAY TO YOUTH

BROM8 ROM the results of matches played during the first month of a Rugby season, and from the type shown, the characteristics and general tone of the season as a whole can usually he lan y accurately gauged. It is now a month or so since the Scottish dtugbj seaso opened, and it can be said that t is decidedly healthy (wrote a special correspondent of a London paper, the second week of November). Health of tone is indicated by a renewed enthusiasm for training and . widespread earnestness and determination in actual play: by the success i the younger generation of Rugby majors: by a general levelling of _ among the clubs and schools, nducmg the keenest of competitions: and by Hie increased support of the public a. I tators, for even that hierarchy of an a teurism, Scottish Rugby footbnlK require money to carry on its acti\ Whether it lie a resolve to /diow ttm International Rugby Board that Scottish forwards, among others, arc not, as sug (Tested in the now famous circular Utter, lacking in grit and determination, or whether it be a natural national ieaction to the failure, of the Pnst national season, it is difficult to > . perhaps something of both, bu certainly is an increased verve in pettish forward play, a dash and deter, mination on the field, less bangin'! about, and off. the field a greatei will ingness in training. For the part it has played in Ms improvement the International Boaitl s circular letter deserves credit.., but me letter seems to have achieved little else. What it mainly sot; oiit to do was to improve Rugby football by domg a«<. with fixed places in the scrummage and to end specialisation and obviate dela.ss in and around the scrummage. In Scottish club. Rugby there.isJitUe or no sign of any change. ; roi .£ a T{J* are packing down as formerly in the nrc-arranged places which best- s-nt their particular physical uoahtics and measurements. The general attitude appears to he: “We hate to seem, disfovab hut we think the International Board has made an . error of judgment,

and while we will observe the spirit of the circular wc do not intend to observe its recommendations literally.

Special appeal was made to the schools regarding the abandoning of fixed places in the "scrummages, but the appeal has not met with a ready response. Games masters seems to feel that there, had been little wrong with the Spirit, or the deed in-schools Rugby. Certainly in Seottisli schools Rugby every forward is taught to he a worker, and the v lag forward of the club game is little m evidence. It is felt, 100, that to give no fixed places in the scrummages, would have the reverse result from what was intended. Schoolboy forwards vaiv greatly in size, and n front line which had one bov over 6ft and two of stt 7in in height would never give a compact and effective scrummage, delay and blurred heeling being the result. At the end’of ■ the last series, of international matches one conviction was common to all grades of Scottish Rugbv enthusiasts—the need for youthfur enthusiasm to uplift both club and international Rugby. Youth has arrived. One month was sufficient to show that.

Clubs which were near the bottom of the club championship last season are now among the most improved, and most difficult clubs to beat in Scotland. Each of them owes its advance to the ability and enthusiasm of the younger players.

The older players of genius have lost much of their power hut the younger men have arrived. -All should be well.

Keen competition, of course, is the very- life-nf a game, and, keen, competi-tion-demands’ a certain degree of equality among the contestants-. For years the “big guns” of Seottisli Rugby dominated .the game, - :and there, were far too many matches lacking in interest owing to the result being a foregone conclusion. -A- degree of ..equality is now manifesting itself and competition is of the keenest.

Casting an eye over Scottish Rugby as a whole, it may be said that the season has made an excellent begihning and doubt is giving way to a snirß optimism.