NOTES BY FULL BAGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 62

NOTES BY FULL BAGS.

The death is announced as having taken place in Edinburgh of the well-known Cambridge and Scottish international footballer L. M. M'Leod, who played in the threequarter line for Scotland against New Zealand in 1805. It is quite on the cards that the British team for New Zealand is going to be a strong combination. Among the applicants for positions are 20 international players. The veteran Welsh footballer, W. Bancroft, was carried off the field in a recent match at Swansea suffering from a fractured skull. Almost at one fell swoop we are losing our three crack three-quarter backs. Colin Gilray is already in England, Macphcrson follows at the end of the year, and Alan Adams in February- And the British Rugby team descends upon us next year ! Such an authority as C- B. Fry has stated that if he- had his time over again he would play Rugby football instead of Soccer, and in addition has foretold that eventually the Association game will be ; confined to professionals only, while "Rugby will be the amateur game. It ie understood that the manager of the New Zealand professional team now in England strongly resents the designation of "professionals" as applied to th« team. The men, he stales, pay, their own expenses, and the visit is in the phape of a holiday. Thf» Northern Union ha& guaranteed them a minimum sum of £3000, "and should the tour not prove a financial success the playere will stand to lose. If, on the other hand, there is a balance to the good they would merely be in the position of the Australian cricket teams. An English writer, eommentingr the position of the amateur and professional, saye : By the way, I wonder how many of these New Zealanders will return to Maoriland. If they are any good the Northern Union will be on 'em, no doubt. That they will be found to be a good aide I feel sure, but whether they will draw is another matter. Their having to "cotton" to a new formation and a thirteen aside game may hamper them. Welshmen went road over the South African player Marsburg. who has now settled in Wales. "I shall never forget," says an English admirer, '"the moment in the Scottish match when he dived for the ball right on to the feet of the Scottish forwards. He was carried off the field on * stretcher: all thought a dead 'un! A few hdura later, however, ho was as fit as a fiddle. 'Marsie' started life as an actor, but subsequently took to the more lucrative game of stage carpenter. He is a Kimberley man, and is known m Africa as the 'Goldfields Idol.' He is alone always worth paying the gate-money to see play : and "Welshmen know when they have discovered a 'diamond.' " Our old friend W. Johnston, one of the four original £ll Blacks, disoussing the capabilities of the professional team with a Daily News representative, said that the strongest part of the team would be the forwards. They had a really brilliant lot, and, in his opinion, they would be better served in that department than were the last team. As for their backs, he did not think they were auite so strong, they had one player, Messenger, of New South Wales, who" as a win? three-quarter or five-eighth was as Rood as a nyone he knew. The men were all very fit and well, and had taken a lot of exercise on the SarneyT Asked what he thought of the team's prospects, Johnston replied that the style of Play in the Northern Union would ?o y doub? puzke them at first ™ml<i of course, We to play 13 aside and what would trouble them would be the tule with regard to a ball out of touch. . ! A relent interview: On the point as to how much the professional spirit had developed in New f ealand and r £ ia > ■ Mr Baskerville, the organiser of the profefsional team, stated that in New Zealand professionalism was only in its infancy, but in Australia it was something pretty solid, and in a couple of seasons . "amateur* would be wiped clean out. He did not know the opmion m New land, but he contended that the public were thoroughly with them, as was shown by the splendid send-off they received, although the New Zealand Union and the press -were against them, Baying they were all "scraggs." The South African Rugby Board* receipts from the English tour amounted to £15,571 7s 9d, of which £12,081 was Teeeived as 6hare of gate receipts, and after meeting all expenses the surplus amounted to £610&. This money the board has decided to "use solely for the advancement of Rugby football in South Africa. Mr C. J. B. Marriott, x contemporary of Harry Va«sell, G. O. Wade, H. B Tristram, and A. Rotherham. in tho English teams of 20 years ago. has been appointed secretary to the English Rugby Union. A very keen New Zealand amateur now in England takes up the cudgel on behalf of amateur football in New Zealand, and I in «, letter to the prese save, amongst ' other thinge • "In common with many of , my fellow-couTitrvmen I am greatly sorry ' that this professional team ever left Now Zealand. To .=ay that it is representative of the Dominion would be very wide of the mark — iisdeed. I believe that at least «ix other teams in New Zealand could be chosen to annihilate it. And, moreover, the meml>ers are chiefly drawn from the North Island, while, according to the published names, only four, or, at most, , five, hail from the south, where the game 1 is played every whit as well as in the north. I do not anticipate any hupe scores or the brilliant games which characterised the 1905 'All Black' purely amateur team. Should my prognostications , prove correct the Northern Union clubs , should have little- difficulty in asserting j their superiority in more than half of the games during tho New Zealandere' tour, and if the contrary should happen -we amateurs shall have ttoorl reason to think that the Northern Union club? are not so strong as w-e imagine. 1 ' i The latest number of Spalding's Athletic ' Library t published by the Bi iHeh Sport? Publishing Co., is group 2, No. 24, entitled "Rugby Guide and How to Play Rugby," edited by "Old International." The editor, who has been connected with the game aa international player and interested follower of the game for over 20 years, v

not content to explain what to do and what to avoid by text and illustrations alone, but he demonstrates his arguments by diagram in such a lucid manner that even a child cannot fail to grasp them. The book is illustrated with over 30 full-page photos of well-known internationals in action, and contains articles on "The Art of Passing," "Position of Units forming the Three quarter Line," "proas Running and In-passing," "The Triple and Feint." Kicking, touch-finding the position of tho backs, tackling and fielding are '.he salient points in the chapter on "Full Back.'' Picking up, the drop at goal, intercepting, the straight run, the wing's work is the make-up of the "Three-quarter Back" article. In the "Half-back" chapter he treats on che reverse pass, feinting, throwing out of touch and "the Rover." Following up, dribbling, holding, passing and re-passing, and scrummaging are the chief attributes of the forward, according to his views. In fact, nothing is omitted that a Rugby player should know.