RUGBY INCIDENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19044, 18 June 1936, Page 7

RUGBY INCIDENT

(To OIH ICilitor of the Herald.J Sir,—With reference to the report ol the P.B.R.'RvA. which appeared in voiii issue of Tuesday concerning alleged improper and insulting behaviour on the parr of a . Rugby Union official, as the official concerned' 1 wish to state that the contents of the letter and the statements I made at the meeting are an exaggeration of the facts. It seems hardly just to in.\ fellow-members to publish such state meats without naming (he person con cerned. and it is certainly not in the best interest aof football. The R.B.R.U.A should a! least have given me an oppor tunity of nutting my side of I he question before rushing into print on the matter, In view of the implied slur, which tin publication of this ■ mallei' has placed upon my club, and particularly upon the team' which it has been my privilege to coach for some years. T have no hesitation in making a very spirited, protest, against the distorted utterances of I lie gentleman concerned. It is alleged thai rule 19, paragraph f, was broken, and that the referee awarded a free kick to the non-otl'ending team where the ball alighted. .In point of fact, he did no such 'thing, lie awarded the kick at the spot, where lie could legally, have

! awarded a, scrum if the breach commit- ' ted had been for offside—that is, at, flu; spot where the ball was last (lagged by the offending learn. This naturally nonplussed the players, and the captain asked me what he should do. I instructed him to appeal against the kick. Let ine say here, that I was closer to the side line than I really should have been. The captain gave notice that would appeal and the game progressed. In view of the fact thai (he offending team was beaten by five points by a better team Ihe matter was allowed to drop. 1 have no hesitation in saying that

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there were legal grounds for an appeal, and giving notice of appeal is not "volubly questioning the referee's ruling." I freely admit that I had no right to address the captain during the course of the game, but I feel that the whole matter could have been settled in a far more amicable, not to say just, manner than that adopted by the association concerned.—Yours, etc., J. E. MERGI'It.