Interesting Experiment In Club Rugby In Rhodesia

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 222, 22 September 1934, Page 12

Interesting Experiment In Club Rugby In Rhodesia

\\7'HILE New Zealand %igby enthusi- " asls in general are concerned with the need for both an improvement in the technique of the game and a brightening-up of the play as a whole, it is interesting and instructive to note what is being done in South Africa to improve club and interprovincial Rugby. As I remarked in one of my notes last week, the problem in South Africa is a little different from that m New Zealand. There is not apparently, the same decline in the general standard of fundamentals of the game, such as handling and kicking the ball, in South Africa, as in New Zealand, but the game has become dull, chiefly through too much use of line-lucking. The Australian team which touied South Africa last year showed up the dullness of the game there, in general, and made enthusiasts long for a return to the bright Rugby which South Afnca enjoyed years ago. . The provincial unions in South Africa were not in agreement about the mos. practical way of brightening their game. Some of them wished to try such a modification of the rule regarding lucking into touch as New Zealand and Australia were permitted to have befoie the English Rugby Union withdrew its dispensations to the governing bodies in these countries. It is especially interesting that the Transvaal and Rhodesia were among the unions desn mg to have a local rule designed to check the inordinate amount of kicking into touch. However, the South African Rugby Board ruled that its constitution and affiliation with the Rugby Union of England prevented it from pet nutting the operation of any rule different from the rules of the International Rugby Board. It was pointed out, though, that, while referees could not enforce a rule that was not in the code, captains of opposing teams could yet agree to play according to the spirit of what was termed the New Zealand rule.

Captains of several club teams in the Transvaal and in Rhodesia did agree to play according to the spirit of the rule once enjoyed by New Zealand and Australia. But this agreement broke down too easily in the stress of a keen game for championship points or a trophy. Clubs then argued the question whether or not championships and trophies should be abolished. The Transvaal high schools gave a lead by abolishing their championship competitions and trophies, but, as human nature varies greatly, a movement of this kind must be carried on for a long time before it attains complete success. However, the fact that this movement is making progress shows how widespread is recognition of the fact that keenness to win championships and trophies tends to dull the spirit of adveitture in Rugby.

In the meantime, an experiment which should help toward a solution of the problem is being made in Rhodesia. A man who has had a very long experience as a player in the Western Province and Rhodesia, and as a referee, administrator, and selector in the latter province, and who believes that pothunting” is at the root of the trouble, propounded a scheme which was adopted by the Rhodesian Rugby Board, except for one clause in it which provided for elimination of championship competitions and trophies. The scheme, as adopted, is for the award of a certificate of merit to the firstgrade team which plays the best Rugby of the season, independently of results of competitions. A special committee attends each match, and meets immediately after, it to award “merit points” for the play. For each match there is a maximum of 21 points, to be shared by the two teams, but all the 21 points are not always awarded: at latest advices 21 points had not been awarded to any match.

AWARD FOR BEST FOOTBALL, NOT FOR WINNING OF GAMES

The special committee decided to give points' for tactics, appearance of players bn the field, forward play, back play, tackling, handling, and intelligent linekicking and other features of the game. The “merit points” are published, in the Rhodesian papers together with the scores in the match. The experiment is reported to be so popular with the players that, when the latest information about it was available from Rhodesia, they had come to regard the certificate of merit as the highest honour to be aimed at in the season’s football. So far as I can see, at the moment, the only difficulty in the application of such a scheme anywhere is that of arranging for each first-grade match to be watched by a competent committee for the awarding of the “merit points” on a uniform basis. Where first-grade matches are played on widely-separated grounds as many committees as there are matches would be needed, and their standards of comparison and of allocation of points would have to be approximately the same. However, the degree of variation in their standards would probably be no more than that of referees in application of the laws of the game. In any case, there should be no more difficulty in making such an experiment in any provincial union in New Zealand than there is in Rhodesia, and the experiment would be well worth while in New Zealand. A. L. C.

Easily-Won Award. There was not much glory in a football award which was made in Victoria a few days ago. There was a match at Australian Rules football, between Wallan East and Broadford, in the Hume Highway Football Association. This kind of football is played by teams of 18 men a side. Alter 17 players of the Broadford team had been censured for grave misconduct in the match, the association gave its-“best, and fairest’’ award to the one remaining player in the team. Fighting, kicking, bad language, rough play, and general misbehaviour were among the charges made against the Broadford team, and both the club and its supporters were reprimanded for riotous conduct on the field. One Broadford player was suspended for four years, and three other player? were suspended for lesser periods. The match, a premiership final, was won by Wallan East.