FOOTBALL AT WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12653, 6 September 1904, Page 5

FOOTBALL AT WELLINGTON.

ROUGH PLAY. , , STRONG COMMENTS. •"by TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL COSRESPOKBEOT.] \YEiXJNfiTOK. Monday. To-day's New Zealand Times says.—The concluding match for the Rugby championship of Wellington, played at the Athletic Park on Saturday, bit ween thePetone and Poneke teams, was a fitting finale to a season of football which ha? been marked and debased by the methods of the prize ring. Perhaps worse than prize ring methods, for within the ropes foul fighting costs a' man defeat, whereas foul fighting on the- Rugby field in Wellington and other parts of the colony has more than once this season triumphed over the science of the game. To such a stage has it come, that in all fairness, in ail justice, to the physically week men playing, the unions should now conduct the: matches under the Marquis of Queensbeny rules. Beyond argument* Saturday's . match W as tie Toughest played in the city far many a day. Onlookers saw . players deliberately kicking at the bodies of fallen opponents; knuckles were screwed into the throats and faces of men on the ground; blows were given and taken again, and again; men fought openly standing up or laying down; and " scragging" and tripping were everywhere. The referees are in entire- control of matches. They cannot Me everything that goes on, of course, because .the Rugby rough - performs his > evil work when the referees' back is turned, or in a scramble, where it is difficult to detect the cowardly blow of boot or fist. When it is detected there is almost always only a warning given, which means i nothing. Men were warned oil Saturday, when they should have been ordered off the field, and disqualified for life. If the grand game of Rugby becomes ' what it threatens to be, the sport -of roughs, the blame and the shame must be with the spiritless, nearsighted officials of the unions, who know just as well as the preaa, and public what is going on. _____ "■ '