LAWS OF RUGBY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22578, 17 November 1936, Page 7

LAWS OF RUGBY

SCRUMMAGE OFFSIDE PROPOSALS IN ENGLAND A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT It will, no doubt, have been noted by those who have taken the trouhlo to read the proposed changes in the laws of the game recommended at their annual meeting by the Rugby Union to the International Board, who are to consider these matters next March, that, while the very important subject of ofi'-side at tho scrummage has been duly considered, no suggestion is forthcoming to restrict the scope of tho wing forward, says a writer in the English Sporting Chronicle. Of the various proposals put forward by the representatives of the Dominions last season, that which sought to check over-enthusiastic winging forwards by amending the scrammago rule to make it, an offence for any player to advance beyond an imaginary line drawn through the middle of a scrummage until the ball had been heeled out seemed to commend itself most strongly to Rugby Union thought in this country.

Indeed, matters were so far advanced that in a match between two powerful district sides in which several international and county players tock part, the proposal was put into practice. and, as an experiment, was remarkably successful in improving the quality of the back play. Moreover certain winging forwards of international reputation have, to my knowledge, expressed themselves as entirely favourable to such an amendment Not Sufficient Virtue Officially, however, the Rugby Union Committee cannot see sufficient virtue in the proposal to recommend a move that undoubtedly affects the structure of the game. I am taking the liberty of quoting from an article by Mr. W. T. Pearce, a past president of the Rugby Union, that appears in Mr. 11. F. Oakes' Yorkshire County official handbook, some reference to the subject of the back-row forward that seems to indicate the view on which the decision to leave matters as they were is based. "No piayer," says Mr. Pearce, "can travel as fast as a Rugby ball, should be thrown. So it would seem that no back-row forward can ordinarily reach an opposing back from a set scrum as the latter is about to receive the ball, if the former remain fairly a,nd honestly on-side. "What is a constructive back-row forward? Not one who is in advance of his threequarters (because he should be head down and shoving up tq the point the ball leaves the scrum), but one who times his breakaway honestly to permit of his being up and across, behind, and in support of his throequarters. Offside Legislated For "If I am right there is no need for legislation; already offside is legislated for quite clearly—but referees do not always apply the law." And so, as I see it, it comes to this, that referees and club committees must continue to be responsible for putting the cheat out of lousiness. Even the greatest winging forwards and the> finest; sportsmen among them must occasionally overstep the mark — for the winging forward or the scrum halfback who is never offside is not likely to achieve immortality in- the game—but his job of doing his best in the interests of his side is one that under the present rules could bo accomplished without reproach only by an ? arch-angel. As to the. every-day club wing forward, well, his work is often so ignorant and his breakaways so ill-timed that the clipping of his wings would seem to be justified even at the expense of altering one of the fundamentals of the game.