FISTS IN SCRUMS

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 10

FISTS IN SCRUMS

WELSH RUGBY “FIGHT” AMAZING INCIDENTS A SENSATION CREATED. Extraordinary scenes took place recently in a Rugby Union match between two famous Welsh Clubs, Swansea and Llanelly. “It was so rough,” states one report, “that it was more like a dog fight than a Rugby match . . . From the start the forwards took charge of the game, and there was never any ‘beg pardon about it.” Llanelly won B—3, the game being played on the Swansea ground. When it was over there was swift action by the committees of the two clubs, and a mutual agreement was reached to cancel the remaining fixtures arranged between the two teams. This affected two further games this season and four next season. Created Sensation. The clubs concerned are two of the leading and oldest in Wales and consequently the affair has created a sensation in Rugby football circles. The London Daily Mail states:— Players were constantly laid out, and one was kicked in the head and rendered unconscious. He was Joe White, Swansea, who subsequently returned to play, and was later ordered off by Referee Jarrett for alleged rough play. F. L. Morgan, Llanelly, was also given marching orders. Unparalleled. The Daily Herald report states that the match has no parallel in Welsh Rugby for years. It reports: “Fierce, rough to the point of dangerous, with players on both sides responsible—rarely, if ever, has there been such a match. Better by far that the two teams shall, not meet for the present. Now we must await the action of the Welsh Union. “But tempers were frayed, fists were flying in all directions. The referee, Mr. Maurice Jarrett (Cwmbran), son of Mr. J. J. Jarrett, a Welsh representative on the Intei|iational Rugby Board, had a very difficult task, but he held his hand as long as possible, without sending players off the field. Swinging Punches. The tackling was fierce on both sides, but halfway through the first half the bounds of legitimate play were overstepped, when players on both sides began ‘swopping’ swinging punches.” Rowe Harding, a member of the British team that toured South Africa, reported the game for the Daily Telegraph. “It is all too obvious that a series of feuds exist between various players on either side,” he states.

“The forwards were too intent on settling their private quarrels to feed the backs.’’