RUGBY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 31 May 1923, Page 6

RUGBY.

I To tie Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” j gi r> —According to your columns ! the South Canterbury Rugby Union officials intend going ahead with the competition matches on and on the following Monday the seven-a-side tournament is to take place. It would seem that the anxiety of the Union’s executive to gather in coin is going to spoil sport for June 4, which has come to be recognised as Timaru’s big football . day, Now, ary devotee of Rugby knows that amateur teams playing a strenuous game on Saturday can hardly be expected to reproduce their ■ form on the following Monday, and 1 it is unfair to both the players and the public that such should take place. Under the circumstances the senior games instead of being fast and brilliant exhibitions of football may become sick and sorry spectacles, with the possibility of more than one good team not taking the field at all. The Majority of the football public really pay on these occasions to witness the top grade games, and it appears as if they are going to be deprived of full value for their money. Rugby is our national game and deservedly popular, and it is to he hoped that good judgment will yet prevail in favour of June 4th. —I am, etc., H.K. " (We understand that the resolve to go on with senior matches this week was the outcome of a resolution to play three rounds in the premiership competition. The question of playing games on Saturday is .still undecided—reference to our football news will show that the whole matter will be reviewed at a special meeting of the Management Committee to-day.—Ed. T.H.)

To the Editor of the ‘‘Timaru Herald.”, Sir, —There was a stir in football circles yesterday over the question of to play or not to play on Saturday next, on the eve, of the seven-a-side. Three out of four people I met were strongly opposed to any senior games taking place on Saturday, but not one in a dozen of them appeared to have any regard for the junior and third and fourth-grader, who look forward to the tournament with just as much zest as the" seniors, and a team which wins in any of these grades will have to play about twice as often as the winners in the senior grade, and will have to be in action hours before the lordly first-graders are called upon to'peel off. 'it might not harm the petted seniors to have a run on Saturday, but I think it is a bit over the odds to expect the despised juniors to take the field.— I am, etc., . . THIRD GRADE