IMPROVEMENT OF RUGBY

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1931, Page 5

IMPROVEMENT OF RUGBY

CLOSER CONTROL REQUIRED, ll’- - APPEAL BY UNION PRESIDENT, An appeal to those concerned with th© control of Rugby to endeavour to improve the game was made by Dr. G. J. Adams, president, at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union. “There appears to me no doubt that we take our game too seriously and that we are inclined to forget that Rugby football is but a healthy pastime for the boys and young men of the Dominion,” said Dr. Adams. Instead of the young men looking forward every Saturday afternoon to a pleasurable pastime, with manly exercise and a healthy competitive spirit, devising tactful and strategical moves on the “chess-board” of Rugby football, there is too serious an attitude taken. Schemes step in to control individual players who, through their ability, may prove a source of danger in attack, and an inclination is being developed to regard a “win” as the only matter of importance. “The introduction of cups and trophies has played no little part in encouraging this attitude; and it has long since appeared to me, and I am sure to many of you, that all unions would be wise to eliminate competitive cups, or have them rearranged for distribution to teams and players that play the most perfect football, that show the greatest progress, or display any other feature which is going to improve football. “My observations have impressed me that many factors are progressively invading our play to the detriment of the game, and to the just resentment of the followers of the game. I refer to the immense amount of illegal obstruction in the line-outs through players deliberately handling and elbowing one another when the ball is nowhere near; early and late tackling; holding on to jerseys; irregularities in scrummages, unnecessary ‘dumping.’ None of these is in the best interests of the game; they are all well defined breaches of the game, and they are not infrequently the source of irritation to players and are ample provocation for acts which often bring those players into disrepute not only with unions, but with the public and the Press.

“1 have, therefore, no hesitation in saying that the time is now due when the control of the game both on and off the field should be hardened up considerably, and it appears to me that, whilst it may' be necessary to instruct referees’ associations to harden up their rulings and apply obstruction rules very strictly, it is much more necessary that Rugby union officials should take a part of the responsibility of Rugby control in support of the referees, and, through their respective unions, instruct teams that flagrant breaches of the rules which have been brought before their notice, and which will be found to present themselves on innumerable occasions, will not be tolerated.

■ “It is surely wrong that Rugby union officials should countenance on the playing fields flagrant breaches of the rules that they, and they alone, control without endeavouring to rectify matters. Good referees will see most breaches of the rales, but none will see all, and a practised defaulter can often obscure his acts from a referee whilst still well within the view of the onlooker. The (N.Z.R.F.U. and all of its affiliated unions have as their objects the fostering and control of Rugby football within their ■boundaries; the word “control” does not mean the mere provision of rules, but it means the enforcement of their application, and in this respect every union should help its referees’ association, instead of relying on that body and its members, and on them alone, for the control of the rules of Rugby.