WILL THE TOUR AFFECT ENGLISH RUGBY?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13030, 22 November 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

WILL THE TOUR AFFECT ENGLISH RUGBY?

SETTING THE CLOCK BACK.

FUTURE OF ENGLISH RUGBY.

Writing in the Daily Mirror "Touch Judge" inquires: " Will the tour of tho New Zealanders affect English Rugby football for •better or for worse?" and then he goes on to say: "That is the drift of several questions which correspondents ask me to solve. And, for the matter of that, many Rugby Unionists are asking themselves the same thing. I am not one of those pessimists who think that the recent exposure of the poverty and softness of average English club sides in the practice of the game is making for everything to hasten the decline of Rugby football.

•' Virulent disorders need drastic remedies. It is unquestionable that* the policy of lais-sez-faire in which the Rugby Union has so long stewed is responsible for the pass to which affairs in English Rugby have been reduced. And we want new blood on the committee a robust and broad-minded policy laid down and followed with a persistency that shall sweep away maudlin tradition with its Micawberian inclination to wait for something to turn up. " The old bogey about lean years is dissipated. This famous cock, which has so long served the Rugby Union in its pleading of extenuating circumstances for failure, will fight no more. We have had the material all along had the foster-parents only possessed the instincts of nursing.

"The Rugby Union made its first error when it tumbled head over heels in its fever for the Welsh system, and then, having decided for four threequartere, made not the slightest attempt to inculcate the principles of the new doctrine into the members of the clubs. In a word, it destroyed the efficacy of the forwards, and left the backs in confusion.

" The last ten years of the Rugby Union's rule in England is a black chapter. In Wales, Scotland, and Ireland we get the antithesis—everything is perseverance and prosperity. • ' "Having relieved my mind of this little excursion into the cupboards of the ' Old Motuer Hubbards' of the Rugby Union I would point out that the English clubs have it in their own hands to rapidly rid themselves of tho depression that has overtaken them.

"The New landers have actually put the clock back in allowing scope for individual skill. Wo are returning in some degree to the grand football of the 'eighties' and early ' nineties.' Splendid individualism is one of the secrets of the New Zealanders' success. There are 110 passengers carried.

"We want our forwards hard and quick, capable of keeping on the ball and of execution of scientific footwork. The types which I would hold up in the footballers' midst for them to worship and to emulate are: ' Sammy' Woods, ' Judy' MacM'illan, and the 'Prophet.' " And what our backs must do at once is to discard the dreadful, obviously promiscuous —' Roman-candle,' and ' subterranean, were the fond epithets ' Jimmy' Budd used to uso in relation to it—which serves for an imitation of the Welsh system. Let them endeavour to develop a safe, pair of hands, a. faculty for running straight, and a capacity for taking the ball in the act. of going on. The men must use their brains and practise and keep lit.

" There are as good fish in the sea, as ever came out of it, and I see no reason why there should be not only a strong revival in the outside attraction for Rugby football, but a splendid recovery in the science of the game. I insist that in England we have as good a lot of-players as. ever, if old Dame Nature would but shower on the Rugby Union executive a more bountiful supply of perspicacity. » " Only last Saturday I was impressed by the splendid band of forwards possessed by Blackheath; the scrummage work, the science practised as the men emerged with the 'bull at their feet, and the follow up. But what was the good of it all V In the old days of two good halves and three individual threequartors Blackheath would have romped .home.

" Instead of tills -the two half and the four threequartor backs never dreamed of saving their forwards. They tossed the ball about in their idea of passing as if they were playing the ancient game of shuttlecock and battledore, with a relief in. the shape of a few acrobatic feats by Cooper, and Cooper and Dillon wore English'internationals! I wonder what Bolton or Stoddart would havo thought had they seen the antics of their successors on the old 'club' threequarter line. " A little less inarticulate passing and a good deal more of strong individual work in going on with the ball is what English backs must practise. " Having failed in a dozen years or more to acquire some respectable methods of playing the Welsh game, perhaps English teams will follow Now Zealand. Pace, backing-up, 'fitness, and individual initiativesuch a game sounds comparatively easy when confronted by the imperativeness of keeping position and the crossing in for the return pass. But if the English Union had been as energetic and zealous as that of Wales we had never lost our proud and dominant position in the Ilugby game. " And I am looking for a great legacy of fruitful influence on Rugby football from the four of our colonial friends—the New Zealand ere."

THE •' GATE" AT'THE SCOTCH MATCH, An interesting fact is mentioned in connection with the. match Scotland v. New Zealand at Inverleith, namely, that through, the generosity of the - Scottish Football Union the New Zealanders are to receive the entire "gate." Scottish Rugby i tea (says our London correspondent) are said to be very much exercised as to the seemliness of all the takings being handed over to the visitors, and it is quite likely that some explanation will sooner or later bo demanded ,of the union officials.