Professional Rugby.

NZ Truth, Issue 115, 31 August 1907, Page 3

Professional Rugby.

■ . . A Candid Critic. "■Quidnunc," the, "Canterbury Times" football writer is causing the hair of the Dixon-cumTWylie j push to stand on end— George hasn't got too much 'tis true— by his remarkably candid advice to the New Zealand Rugliy Union m the matter of this professional football. He doesn't beat about the bush cither m saying things that will perhaps be distasteful to people of the kidney of "Gaily, but which, nevertheless j will find ready endorsement from the deep-thinking section of the community. Here is- his lat-i est fulmination :— "'That, profession- 1 alism m Rugby football •m Australia and New Zealand has come to stay is an undoubted fact. The thing is: Will the existing governing bodies have sufficient sense to realise the position and deal with it on the lines followed m cricket; or:. will they call for fight, as the . English Rugby Union did, and have two forces m the field. . , . This is not a time for talking twaddle about the purity of the same, and the sordid spirit that calls for reward. What is required is a sensible grasp of changing conditions, of the casting aside of old traditions, of the determination to have -a different distribution of the spoils. The ulemocratic spirit of the age demands a change from the hoary-headed conservatism, born m 'England, and transplanted here by descendants of the original conservatives. What all true lovers of the game would like to see. and to have must give .way to what will he. For the New Zealand Rugby Union to recognise and countenance the nav-* ment of players would mean the cutting of the painter so far as the British Unions are concerned ; but the question arises as to whether it is preferable for the New Zealand Rugby Union to go under out of sentiment for "bodies thousands of miles away, or to remain on top and work m with its neighbors, for that N.S. Wales and Queensland will be m the same book as New Zealand is now beyond doubt. Money is beginning to talk m Australia through the medium of the private speculator, who will surely be m evidence m New Zealand il his services are required. There is money ,m the game, and while private speculation would be something ol a novelty, it would be a better investment than many commercial, ventures. If the New Zealand Rugby Union prefer being a dead lion to a living donkey it will cling to the British Unions, and take off its coat and call on the advocates of the newi order of things to come on."