SPORT IN SCOTLAND

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 189, 11 August 1931, Page 1

SPORT IN SCOTLAND

Visit of New Zealand Team is Desired. RUGBY GAME FAVOURED. (Special to the “ Star.*’) WELLINGTON, August 11. A visit to Scotland has convinced Mr Colin Reid, who has been closely associated with sport in New Zealand, that when New Zealand sends another Rugby football team to England there will be considerable disappointment if ! the team’s itinerary does not provide for games in Scotland. Mr Reid, who . returned to Wellington last week, said , that there was a genuine public desire in Scotland to see New Zealand’s j Rugby footballers in action on Scottish soil. The game, along with various other branches of sport, was in great favour there; in fact, the amount of attention given to outdoor exercise generally was amazing. At the time of his visit to Scotland there was a good deal of discussion on class distinction in sport, and Mr Reid was given the opportunity of dealing with the subject through the eyes of a “ New Zealand Scot.” “ One point of difference in the case of New Zealand and the Old Country,” he stated, “ is that there is a reversal of positions in the status of the two games (Soccer and Rugby), which perhaps allows one who has been in touch with each game j in both countries to say most emphatically that class distinction in the sphere !of sport has absolutelv no bearing on the game itself from the players’ point of view. Then both games are played strictly under amateur conditions in New Zealand. Enemy of Distinction. “ Naturally, there as here, there are those who consider their game to be ‘ the real thing,’ but that is as far as it goes. I would like to say, before getting down to points of comparison between the two games, that sport should be the enemy of class distinction. The real sport., is the man who S can give or take a beating, and there is no class distinction in that. “ The consensus of opinion in this discussion seems to be that the real sportsman plays for the love of the sport, pecuniary gain being, in the vernacular, ‘ a wash-out.’ That would make it appear that to the professional j footballer the sport is only a secondary j consideration. The narrow-minded j person who adopts such an attitude is not only not conversant with his subI ject, but can have had no personal | contact with professional footballers. There are black sheep in every fold, but 1 can safely say that the professional of to-day is not only a credit to the game, but that his social standing is of a very high order. He loves the game for the game’s sake, and is a very disappointed man when he is not chosen to play. To say that he doesn’t care whether he plays or not, Iso long as he receives his salary, is | just rubbish.” !-'.■==