“FIFTY-FIFTY.”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18620, 16 July 1930, Page 10

“FIFTY-FIFTY.”

To the Editor of the “ Tlmaru Herald.” Sir, —To-day you quote at some length from the Christchurch “Star” on the subject of the “Tlmaru disaster." Would you be good enough to reprint the enclosed paragraph from the Christchurch "Sun,” of Saturday, July 5, on the same subject?—l am, H. SINCLAIR THOMSON. July 15, 1930. Saturday’s Rough Play: Had the British front-row forward, “Henry” Rew, been sent off last Saturday, it would have been most unfortunate from the point of view of the tour generally, and most unfortunate for Rev/ himself. Although the Army player undoubtedly was in the thick of the rough stuff, so were 14 other forwards. Against Canterbury the British packmen played a hard game, but it was not a rough game. In Timaru the opposition elected to make it “boots and-all," and the British players would not have been Rugby forwards had they not accepted the challenge. A Rugby match is as rough as the referee allows it to be. In the first halfminute of the game the referee had a fine opportunity to call a halt and state firmly his views on the subject. That was in the first line-out, which followed almost immediately after the kick-off. Although the ball was thrown in deep, one of the Combined forwards, near the front line, put his shoulder into a British player and started a lone rush —without the ball. But the referee let that go, and he had only let go one or two other triflles of a like nature when both packs realised fully that they could get away with a good deal. When experienced forwards realise that the referee is "'deed “up against it,” there is always someone who will take a risk and someone who will retaliate. Actually rougher games have been seen in club football in Christchurch, and since Saturday's set-to can be said to have been a fifty-fifty tangle, it would have been better had Timaru critics let it go at that. After all. Rugby was never meant to be a parlour game.