STRAY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17347, 12 May 1924, Page 4

STRAY NOTES.

The Christchurch and Old Boys teams will meet at Lancaster Park next Sat urclay. The match is creating a great deal of interest and already specula tion is rife as to which side will win. Whichever way the result goes the game should be full of interest and, provided the ground is dry and the day fine, there should be no lack or fast, spectacular back play. Both sides are in solid training and arc out to According to tile “ New Zealand Herald,” arrangements have been made lor the Rugby team.of the Special Service Squadron to "meet the Sacred Heart College fifteen in Auckland next Friday. This is something of a change from meeting the Canterbury reps. And in Auckland the squadron will have more players to choose from, as, the Hood and Repulse will be there with the cruisers. At the last meeting of the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union two referees wrote complaining that teams had defaulted

without notice. The committee decided to warn the teams in question and also to issue a general warning that • teams offending in this respect in future will be fined. Apparently the same trouble is being experienced in Auckland, for at a recent meeting of the Auckland Referees’ Association it was strongly urged that teams intend ing to default should acquaint the Referees’ Association of the fact in ample time to obviate unnecessary journeys on the part of referees. The referees are certainly right in their complaint against defaulting teams. Refereeing is no sinecure and many who undertake the work have to make personal sacrifices to do so. It is only a mat ter of common courtesy that a referee should be given ample notification if a match he is set down for is off through the default of one of tho teams.

Tho guide of the Canterbury Rugby Football Union contains each week interesting information on {points of play. Under the caption of “ The Tackle ” the following appeared in the guide on Saturday:— A player is tackled when he is so held by an opponent that he cannot pass or play the ball. Tho moment a player is tackled he should lose tho ball so that the play can go on. Ha may go on if lie can, but he must play the ball with his foot first—so must the man who has tackled him. If either player goes on with the ball without first having played it with the foot a penalty kick must be given against one or the other by the referee. If a player is brought to the ground with the ball in his possession he can pass the ball, provided he does so immediately, and if within reaching distance of the goal-line he can score a try if he can reach forward and put the ball across or on the line. It is not a tackle in such case, and the ball ha, not to be played by the foot before being brought into play. “On Side Mac,” the football writer of the ‘‘Southland Times,” expresses the opinion that J. Harris, the Old Boys full back, was the second best man in the dominion in that position last 3-ear. “The off-side rule is one of the most difficult for young referees to interpret, ’ said Mr T. A. Fletcher during the course of an address at a meeting of the M ellington Referees’ Associaton last week. He added that it was certainly the one of which players and the public were most ignorant. The following is from the “Southland Times” :—All Black Selection Committee now increased to seven. “Tull Back,” of “Otago Daily Times,” wants to know why it was not increased to nine, and thereby givo Auckland and Otago a chance.' The winery (“On Side Mac”) is also'in a position to state that a strong protest will be forthcoming from Stewart island, demanding to know why “the most southern footballer in the world” not represented.

“It seems to me that clubs are concentrating too much on their higher grades, and do not pay sufficient attention to the lower grades,” remarked Mr J. Pendeville (chairman) at last week’s meeting of the Wellington Rugby Union’s Management Committe, when several applications for permission to withdraw teams were re • ceived from clubs. “Clubs evidently are not working up the lower grade teams, and they are the backbone of the whole concern—the under-age teams.” During a discussion on the mnxeer, members expressed a desire that more effort should be made to prevent boys from drifting out of the game. “It has often been suggested that clubs should adopt one of the schools,” said the chairman, “and I £liink it would be a very good idea il it could be arranged.” Mr E. H. Ward, the schools’ representative, agreed that the chairman’s suggestion was a good one. Boys were drifting out'of the game, he said, simply because there did not seem to be “a fatherly sort of chap” to look after them in the lower grades. The discussion terminated with a suggestion that Mr Ward bring down a report as to the best method of keeping boys in the game after they leave school.

All rep. games at the moment are looked at with an eye on All Black possibilities, and in this respect M Lean stood out among the forwards °£«!? sides in the Auckland-Waikato match, while Peters, Arnold, and Knight showed up as players who should have chances of further trial Olark’.n and Carter, of the Waikato front division, appeared to be the onlv visitors who had a chance of selection for this week’s trial. Mathieson pzayed a fine full-back game, but Goodacre also went through without a mistake, and he was responsible for initiating the first score. Wright, Cooke, to best New Zealand standard. h W right and Lucas have obviously improved on last year’s form (says the Auckland “Star”).

When the 1905 New Zealand team was selected it was not the magnificent Rugby combination it later proved itself to be on the playing fields ot Old England, savs the “ Dominion.” It will be remembered that the 1905 All Blacks were beaten in a match bv Wellington before thev sailed for England. No one thought for a moment that they would astound the Rugby world by running up 55 points in their opening match in the home of Rugby. M hat was the reason for this wonderful change of form? It can be explained in the one word —combination. For a month this band of Rugby pilgrims were on board ship together. Thev practised Rugbv, they talked Rugby and they thought Rugby till there was scarcely a' point about the grand old game which had not been exnloited When at last thev reached England it was a new breed of Rugbvites who broke loose upon the stereotyped players of the Old Land and overran the country like a prairie fire. Never be fore had the world seen such a perfected football combination. Tt should be the same with the team which New Zealand will send Home this year. We do not wish to boast that the wearers of the silver fern will beat England. Wales and France. The players of the older countries will not be caught napping as they were in 1905. But we do say that the New Zealand team which stops off the boat on to English soil will be a 50 per cent better foot ball combination than the one which embarked from Maoriland. It mav almost be said that New Zealanders have really never seen their representatives play Rugby football except, perhaps when they have returned from a lengthv tour. Players then have usually had quite. enough of strenuous t'lry and me not too keen upon getting into the jersey again. New Zealand representative teams are never given n chance to acquire combination in a test match. Thev ere usually astern hied from widely different centres, and are luckv if they get a week together men remain together for six weeks, end they would not be recognised as the same side. Combination is the alpha and omega of Rugby football.