Notes.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8779, 16 November 1906, Page 1

Notes.

(By QUIDNUNC.)

• English papers speak in glowing terms of the " Complete Rugby Footballer," the book produced by I). Gallagher and W.J. Stead, of the "All Black Team." Even Hamish Stewart, the critic who could see little for commendation in the New Zealanders' play, has a good word for the book, which, he remarks, ''should be on every Rugger man's shelves, for it is much the best and most comprehensive work on the game ever written." The San Francisco " Bulletin " of recent date says : — Rugby football has clearly won its way to the hearts of football enthusiasts in the University of California, and President Wheeler, in his endeavour, for the best interests of the University, to do away with the old game with its dangerous mass plays and OT.ber* rough features, has achieved a signal victory over the " knockers " and would-be champions of the old-style football. It has been pronounced by grad<? who have watched the football games for the last twenty years, to be in every way a game superior to the old.

A New Zealander, T. J. Richards, played for Bristol City last Saturday against Exeter (writes our London. coTrespon'lent, under date September 28). Richards played as a forward, . and the "Sportsman " speaks very highly of his form, describing it as bebiqj "of the real colonial standard." The " Sportsman " adds: "Fleetness of foot, plenty of dash and unlimited nerve are his three outstanding qualities, and the Exeter backs in fielding opponents' kicks were unusually harassed -.by. him. Unless a player goi\in' a guicK responsive tick

he found himself in the grip of the colonial- 1 - and there were no half-mea-sures abo-ut this forward's tackling."

So far (says tho London " Sporting and Dramatic Newej") the lessons which the New Zealanders endeavoured last season to impress on British Rugby footballers "would not seem to have borne fruit. A fair number of games have been played, but a reduction in the number of forwards from eight to seven, and the institution of fiveeighths in the back department, have not been features of those matches. There ia not much doubt that seven forwards packing and pushing, as do the New Zealanders, are quite as effective in the scrum as eight men huddled together in the haphazard fashion which prevails in Britain, but the bother is whafc to do with the other man. The wing-forward is not in the least, likely to be to! orated, and it is not felt that there is need for another back. Consequently, if it were deemed advisable to play only seven forwards the next step would be to reduce the team to fourteen. Such an alteration could hardly become law, and it would strike the average club as foolish to play fourteen' men when it had the right to jmt fifteen into the field, so that matters will probably remain just as they were before the visit of the New Zealanders. The wing-forward is at the bottom of the trouble. Rightly or wrongly, he is regarded by many people in this country as an obstructionist,- and as such he will not thrive in the United Kingdom.

The South- African Rugby footballers opened their campaign in England against East Midlands, whom they defeated by 'thirty-seven points to nil. "These South African footballers," sayjs the " Tribune," " judged on their performance 1 yesterday, are students of a different school from that to which the hard, tense, hustling New Zealanders belong, and yet the temptation to strike a comparison between the touring band of players now with us and those led to such sweeping victories by David Gallaher is irresistible. Last season interest in Rugby was quickened; its possibilities, long neglected, were again realised, and we thought we saw in the mighty New Zealand combination that which was the antithesis of anything we had ever looked upon in this. country before. There was freshneesj brightness, and a tensity of purpose in the play of the New Zealand men that brought them to the point of weirdness, and we have come to accept them as the • embodiment of real Rugby football. And, no matter how we try to escape it, we 6hall measure the South Africans by the colossal standard of the men who, by the exposure of our transparent weakness, did so much to insist that we shall mend our ways. But our South African visitor© really make such a comparison impossible. They have not the New Zealand manner. They do not exploit any n&w ideas. Their game is our game. They have no five-eighths. They marshal their forces as wo do. And eo> any theories as to what is the source from which their strength conujs cannot be based on their adoption of new-fangled notions. They tore yesterday's opposition to pieces by superb stamina, rare pace and intelligence. Even as a matter-of-fact team they are great; and. with their wealth of reserves they are likely to make their tour memorable. Let these lusty colonials weld themselves into something like a whole, and they might very well become just as formidable as their New Zealand cousins. They tackle with deadly effect. Theirs is the tackling that bites; low, fearless, at close grips they holtl like a, yice. They scorn ceremony. They give and take wealthy punishment, and it is this ability to erect so many barriers, coupled with terrific speed, that is going to be the South African'6 greatness "

Our American correspondent, writing under date September 29, &ays: — Mr Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, and formerly the representative of Cornell in aquatics, and football and a recognised authority, declares his belief that within five years the whole country will be playing Rugby instead of the present intercollegiate game. There has been a good deal of interest expressed this year on the opening of the football season, for the reason thtt it meant a trial of the game under the new rules which have been adopted for its improvement. No one has been able to tell how the changes would work out. There has been some fear that the characteristics of the old game, which made it fascinating to the hardy player, would be extinguished in the renovation the game has undergone. It is believed that the game that the mass plays, the pushing and downing, have been made impossible, and that the game will develop an attack in which open running for long free gains will be prominent, without being eo varied as to render their scientific prevention impossible. In speaking of Rugby, President Wheeler said : I hope there will be no hesitation in adopting the Rugby game.- The alternative, namely, the adoption of the new intercollegiate, involves also the learning of a practically new game. The Rugby game is being played all over the gLbe: Ite ruks are well understood, the game is known to work,. hundreds of thousands see the game played every week, and enjoy it. That it is more interesting to the spectator than the intercollegiate is, I think, unquestionable. To the player it is immeasurably more interesting:, inasmuch as it involves moire variety, and gives every player participation in the various features of the sport. The old game had made pushing and downing the B-riiifiixjal feature, and. had con-

centrated upon this nine-tenths of tho force and activity of the players. Our men enjoy Rugby, it is freer and healthier. I prophesy that this game will be played out of season for the fun of it. No one could play the okl game, except when in training and in company with men with whom he trained, because definite evolutions, dependent upon signals, wore necessary. I know of no better service the universities could render the (schools of this State than to provide them with a game, of football to take the place of the 'thoroughly discredited intercollegiate, which has being a system of evolution rather than a game, and a prolonged mechanical strain rather than a free sport, and had proved itself peculiarly unfit." In order to avoid the pushing and numerous downs of the intercollegiate game, tho new rules for that game provide that ten yards must be made in three downs. It is not known whether it will be possible to do this.