RUGBY FOOTBALL NO CHILD’S GAME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17853, 22 May 1926, Page 10

RUGBY FOOTBALL NO CHILD’S GAME.

PLAYERS MUST EXPECT KNOCKS, BRUISES, SCARS AND BROKEN BONES With the commencement of the Rugby season, the following article written by H. P. Marshall for All Sports Weekly, is well worth reproducing as the remarks are equally applicable to New Zealand players as to those at Home. Rugby football is no child’s game. We know that hard knocks must be given and taken and we expect scars and bruises and a broken bone or so. I’ve had my nose broken twice, two fingers broken, a rib cracked, and both knees put out, as well as the usual minor mishaps. Every player can tell the same story of injuries, but we, none of us, like the game any less for that. It is a hard game, and that is all there is to it. Very well. If that is admitted you will understand that this article is no sort of plea for more gentle Rugby. Like Mrs Battle, I’m all for “a clean hearth and the rigour of the game.” As tough as you like, and then some, as long as it is clean.

FLYING FISTS AND BOOTS. Unfortunately, the subject of foul Rugby is at the moment very much to the fore. The unexpert spectator and follower of the game must wonder what all the fuss is about. His mind is filled with visions of firing fists and boots, and he imagines terrible things about brutal forwards. He is on the wrong track altogether. The players know how to look after themselves, and any rough stuff that’s going about generally gets as good as it gives. What the Rugby footballer resents is the growing tendency of some teams to practise forms of obstruction which entirely destroy the spirit of the game. Anyone who has watched a game of Rugger knows that, it is a pretty complicated affair. There is more in it than meets the eye. It is not just a matter of slinging the ball to the three-quarter and seeing how fast he. can run. Subtle movements go on in that stolid and aimless-looking scrum. The trouble is that sometimes thev are a shade too subtle, so that the referee cannot see them, and that is where the trouble begins, SHADY PLAYER'S TRICKS. A favourite trick of the shady player is handing back in the scrum. It is so easy. 1 Ife is lying on the ground, and with a flick of his hands he can ensure that his own forwards heel the ball. He might not even be on the ground. A helping hand can none the less work wonders. This is contrary to the rules. It seems redundant to say that, but it so frequently done that many players would? seem to be ignorant of the fact. Perhaps you think it is a small point, but I can assure you that if you had been sweating your heart out to heel that ball and you saw an opponent use his hand you would change vour mind. A rule is made to be kept, and it is one of the rules of Rugby that the ball must not be handled in the scrum. For the life of me I cannot see what fun-..people who are on a field to play Rugby get out of continually playing something else. BARGING IN THE LINE-OUT. Another habit of the dirty player is barging in the line-out. When the ball is thrown out from touch, and a forward is about to catch it, his opponent will give him a shove in the back, or will push him sideways. That is deliberate foul play. It is most unsporting, and absolutely maddening to the man who is so treated. Again, it is directly against the rules, and it utterly defeats the object of the game. It is mean, petty, and stupid, and yet it is quite frequent. Just as maddening is that trick of catching hold of an opponent’s jersey so that he cannot follow up—a foul that al-w-avs takes place some yards from the ball, and so is hardly ever seen by referee or spectators. But it is calculated obstruction, and it slows the irame down more than people think. ° Another pleasant little habit of the low-down player is to fall down intentionally in a scrum, this preventing the opposing side from carrying out a wheel or a close dribble. A great many players do not seem to know that this is absolutely against the rules, and they wonder why they get boots put very hard into their ribs. By this particular foul they are stopping entirely one branch of the game, and 0 making genuine forward play impossible. They are obstructionists in a very real sense of the word and they should receive scant mercy from referees. . . . Then what shall we say about tripping? That it is pretty beastly and foul and filthy? It is all that. But your win-at-any-cost gentleman doesn’t care a hoot. He trips, but not in the open, mark you. He lies on the ground and apparently accidentally entangles his foot with that of an opponent who is dribbling. He even uses his hand sometimes. I’ve been tripped like that myself this season. I can promise you that it is annoying. It makes you wonder why these people ever put on a Rugger boot, and it makes you wonder whether Rugby is worth playing against 6uch players. The truth of the matter is that such players are rare. I have explained some of the tactics of the habitual obstructionists so that the casual spectator may understand a little better what lie" beneath all this foul Rugby controversy, but I do not want him to think that these tactics are common. But they exist in certain districts, and they are hardly ever confined to one member only of a side. I am inclined to think that many of the offenders consider these tactics justifiable. They think that it is up to the referee to stop them,' and that if he does not they have reaped a just reward for their cunning. They are, in fact, playing against sixteen men, the referee being the extra one, and they take it for granted that their opponents are doing the same. I feet that this , is all too obvious to be pointed out to

my readers, but since it even needs to be pointed out to some first-class players it cannot be so. The referee is not a hostile agency; he is on the field solely as an arbitrator of technical infringements. When a forward pass is given there must be someone on the spot to adjudicate the fact and give the signal for a, scrum. Although he is given drastic powers to enable him to deal with foul play of any kind, many a game is fought out really hard from kick-off .to no-side without his ever once having to make use of those .powers. Tnere is nothing remarkable in that; it is simply as it should be, and it would be if these obstructionists would only realise how much harm they were doing to the game. If they are ignorant, which I cannot believe, it is time they were told very plainly that unless they change their habits -they will have to change their game. The sooner foul tactics and tac ticians are out of the game the better for everyone. And so say all of us!