RUGBY POINTERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18785, 19 May 1923, Page 6

RUGBY POINTERS

(By “Referee.”) In view of the accidents and “knock-outs” which occur nearly every Saturday, it would be as well if both players aud public were reminded that: The referee should not whistle to stop the game until the ball be dead, i.e., until a breach has occurred or until the ball goes into touch. Only when a player is seen to be badly hurt should the whistle be blown immediately. Such stoppages should not be longer than three minutes. The referee during last week’s game between Kaierau and Marists informed Monday’s meeting that he was asked for “a 5 yard scrum” after the ball had been carried back over the goal line, and was also questioned as to why a “mark” could not be kicked directly into touch. The rule in both cases is definite, and is as under: 1. —"lf a player shall wilfully kick, pass, knock or carry the ball back across the goal line, and it there be made dead, the resultant scrummage must be formed at the spot from whence the ball was' carried back.” 2.—“ The only occasion when a ball may be kicked straight into touch is from a ‘free-kick’ i.e . penalty kick. Of course any kick can be put directly into touch from within the player’s own twenty-five.” For the edification of players and enthusiasts, it would bo well it they remembered that the “5 yard scrummage" is ordered only when two players—one from each side —place a hand on the ball in goal simultaneously, or when an attacking player is tackled in goal. I noticed the referee in the No. 1 Rec. game last week having a good time endeavouring to educate players to keep both feet in touch when throwing in the ball on the line-out. Will players ever learn this rule? Referees should be more observant with the rule relating to players wilfully returning the ball, by hand or foot, to the scrummage. This particularly refers to wing-forwards and half backs kicking back after the ball has been hooked. That much debated “off-side” rule took unto itself new significance on the local whistlers getting an expert opinion from the New Zealand body, and they will now interpret this phase more strictly in future games: Only the player who actually kicks the ball can place his off-side men on side.—Firstly, by running in front of them after having kicked the ball from behind them, and secondly, by simply running in front of them and shouting “all on side.” It must be remembered that the Kicker Is The Only Player privileged to call “all on,” and moreover is the Only Player who can commence running in touch prior to putting his men on side In connection with this rule, it must be observed that a player who is behind the kicker is not debarred from running up and putting the men on side by tackling the player who receives the ball or forcing the said player to run the requisite five yards, which automatically puts everyone on side who is outside th? 10 yard limit. Some of our local wing forwards should learn the art of putting th? ball in the scrum. The rule is definite that the ball must pass a player on each side and must be placed on the ground. Bouncing against an opponent’s legs or throwing right through the scrummage can be penalised by a free kick. Local referees report that players are less talkative than of yore, which is surely a good sign and augurs well for future matches.

THIRTY YEARS’ RECORD GONE SCOTLAND’S BRILLIANT VICTORY OVER WALES. SCOTLAND 11. VALES 8. Scotland won the second of her international matches when she beat Wales by three points—the first time she has been successful at Cardiff for 30 years (comments a writer in the Athletic News). The game was remarkable for the thrilling nature of the last twenty minutes’ play and for the brilliance of A. L. Gracie. At the close of a great display, capped by the scoring of the winning try a minute from time, the crowd carried the Scottish captain shoulder high oft the field

GRACIE THE HERO SCOTTISH CAPTAIN CHAIRED BY WELSH SPECTATORS Half a dozen reasons might be advanced for the victory which Scotland won over Wales on the Cardiff Arms ■ Park, and it is by no sense belittling ; the great game playe i by A. L. Gracie individually or by the Scottish pack col- ■ lectively, if one declares that one of i the main reasons Wales lost was because she did not take to heart the : lessons taught at Twickenham. Surely, enough was taught in the game with England to show the Welsh, selectors that the backs, as they j stood, were not good enough. I They were not good enough then I to do much. jf anything, in i combination; they were not good I enough to do much individually. But, instead of making changes the selec- j tors, apparently pleading Hobson's; choice, decided to place their faith i again in the same lot. And one result of that faith is that 1 a. record which has stood for 30 yeaw ! —namely, the inability of a ScotfSuh I XV. to win at Cardiff—has gone by the! board. It would be mere folly to urge thatj better results must have come had new men been put in, or that Scotland would not have won through the introduction of fresh blood among the Welsh backs, but at anv rate there would have been some hope that the spark of genius lacking at Twickenham would have been found at Cardiff.

To *put it more explicitly, the Welsh • centres and the Welsh outside half- . back have not so far this season shown that they are capable of producing the best that there is in Welsh football. Welsh successes in the past have co mo as a result of the putting into practice that old doctrine that attack is the best defence, but the triangle with Clem. Lewis as the apex, upon which that attack is based, has twice failed oven to recall faintly the old-time glory. There is no need to labour the point, and possibly the Welsh selectors will i feel content to make less drastic changes than a complete sweep of the triangle would indicate. But I doubt very much if they will not decide tli.it Wales wants a more effective link between the inside hair back and the three-quarter-back line. WELL-DESERVED VICTORY. That little growl disposed of it may he well to come to the main issue and tc state at once that the bettor team won. The Scottish vic tor y was ni <ie ’ possible by the sterling play of rbo Scottish pack and made certain by the wonderful game played by (iracie. The individual is always more picturesque that tile bi.lk, and the j>..rt Gracie played m the success of trio team ho captained will probably be more commented upon by the 40///) or so spectators who saw how he played than tlie work of the forwards will lx*. And yet Gracie would never have got his chances but for the work of the pack; just as the good work by the pack would have b<*en wasted but for Graieie’s finishing touches. It was a good example of dove-tailing. That the Welsh team as a whole ' played better than tncy did against England is all the more to the credit of the Scotsmen. The forwards put more “devil” into their work, but they weio , taught a very useful lesson by the others. The Scottish pack had quite as much fire and energy, but they also had the additional virtue oi control. That was the main and the most marked difference between the two packs. Sometimes during the game, | and especially in the second half, we ' saw the Welsh forwaids going away i with some dangerous loose driLl.k®, but there was never the same command of • .the ball as some of those very clever | Scottish forwards had The Wrish l >r- ' wards were using the broad side of the I sword ; the Scotsmen the point. It is not the easiest thing in the world to identity an unnumbered Scottish pack, and it is quite possible that in picking out Dannennan, Buchanai.. and Lawrie one is not doing justice to ethers who are entitled to similar selection. But these three caught the eye frequently, although they were c<tTa inly not the only ones who attracted attention. Bannerman’s dribbling was perfect It was so safe; the ball was swept along with the minimum of I effort and the maximum of effect. I ' should say this well-built Glasgow High School boy, with the magnetic toes, was quite the best forward on die field. WELSH WEAKNESS TN THE CENTRE. V e had some good solid work from ■ several of the Welshmen, and Tom ; Parker and Roberts certainly did their share in a battle of front-rank giants; ; while Gethin T homas, if he was not so j prominent as at Twickenham, was c<r- j tainly very deadly in his tackling. : The heeling of the Welsh pack was ' not as clean as it might have been, and there were times when the eight I seemed a bit slow in getting back to ! aid the defence. But they were “up ; against” a pack of men who were* in ' superb condition, and who, as I have | indicated, adopted different, and m ire i effective methods of attaining the ; same ends. On the Friday evening, when the : rain was pelting down and when wc j heard that the Cardiff Fire Brigade I had had an engine out to pump the ! water off the ground, wc fully expected to see a game in which the forwards would have had all the play. As it happened, the ground, except for a bad patch or two, was in quite good condition. Both sets of forwards, therefore, were fully justified in letting the ball out to their backs. In this phase of the game, just as in dribbling and in cleanliness of picking up to set their backs off. the Scottish forwards were distinctly better than the Welshmen, among whom the bail sometimes dragged an unaccountably long time. Sometimes it seemed as though the second and third rank men were deliberating as to whether it was much good letting their backs have the ball ! One docs not include the Welsh wings in this inference, for no fault could he found with Johnson, who was quite the best man in the line in Th** first half, and who ran and tackled in The most determined manner. It was ' Johnson who brought off a wonderful tackle of Liddell in the first half when : the sprinter looked bound to score. Rowe Harding, the fastest man on the Welsh side, had all too few chances and lie showed what a mistake this was in the second half, when he made a brilliant run which led up to Clem Ixjwis scoring. Neither doos the inference include the defence of Cornish and Albert Jeakins, concerning which little fault could be found. • But it certainly does include the two centres as an attacking force, and even more so. it includes Clem Lewis. Some of the captain's passes were wild aud doubly dangerous from the fact that j such an opportunist as Gracie was an . the look-out for such chances The 1 : outside halii?ac\ and the two (ontres i have had two chances already this aeaI son to giro at least one glimpse of ' what we know as “Welsh play,” and ion both occasions they have failed. : The moral is obvious. Delahay, the Welsh inside half-back 1 did a lot of good things, ho showed ’ illimitable pluck, and he nearly • i brought off one of the most “cheeky” i tries imaginable, for, having made a I mark near the touch line in the ScotI tish “25,” the touch judges wore sent i round to see if he would drop a goal, j and the Scottish placers spread theni- • selves out across the field. And Dol.i- -; hay, shaping to drop at goal, suddenly i ( hort-punted straight down the touch i line, followed up, and was within an i ace of getting the ball again and a try. I GREATNESS OF GRACIE Bryce may have been robbed by ! Delahay more than once, but the hon- >| ours of the duel went to th-e Selkirk player, while of the two stand-off men M’Queen was the more useful inasmuch as he served l.is Imo hotter. He showed, too., some of that initiative . which Lancashire followers know be : possesses, but which, apparently, he I has been hiding under a Scottish bushel.

I Gracie, however, was the man of thd I side, the man of the match. WelsiM I n>en know something about centra three-quarter play, and no greater tribute could have been paid to any centre than was paid the Scottisa captain at the close of the game. He had made a number of heroio efforts to score in that last twenty minutes of thrills when raid after raid was being made on the Welsh line, and when only the most desperate efforts kept Scotland out. Then, somehow or other ho got possession of the ball when it had come out on the Welsh side of the scrummage, and bad been handled by Lewis, and with a run that no defence could have prevented, ho scored. The huge crowd cheered the try as one man, but an even more striking testimony was to be paid him. For when, a minute or two later, the game was over huncireda of spectators. many of them still sporting the r ational leek, rushed on to the field, and Gracie, the captain of the team 1 that had robbed Wales of victory, was i carried shoulder high off the field by j r.h<*-ring Welshmen. No crowd, however partisan it might; i liave Ixjen, could have failed to have cen impressed with Grade’s play, it v. as all the more remarkable be*-ause it .‘.h f.ueh a happy combination of sclf-<ffa/.*-ment and telf assertiveness. Time alter time he was centent to take hu I art ha one or a team, and to hand th< I i all on when he h.\d done his bit. He '•ximed ir>r ;rei with the knowledge oi when to . nd when to go on his i own; his d* W 2.3 equal to fits attack; he was unquestionably Uie great* I One can . gir.e Grar.ie locking ' 5 ark to 3, E*23 aa 1 the r'-l-l' f . m hi« football nisi tory. for it la ro < thing in a man’s ;<thl«tic c.ar«<- zau a team on to a j victory that rua x* . won for thirty ■ «irs. ‘ part ;n that \ictory. to e< if - *.>■<• a,'r..ng try in the last minute ai : r ■ . to he earned off trie field by your enem.es.” BEST OF THE SEASONAnother factor has to he taken intf ' account when judging Gracie’s play ■ and that is that he did not receive tfif i best of help from ins co-centre. -d’Lareii improved somewhat in the I second half, but in the first he was far ironi .sound, an J right through he was not the plawr that he was againrt fiance. ’ i he Scottish wings were quite good, with Browning the better. Liddell took his [Kisses well, and he scored his try in good style. Male served Wales infinitely better than Rees did at Twickenham, and Drysdale, after a shaky start and a highly risky pass on his own line in the opening minutes, settled down to play a very useful game. One may hope, but one hardly ex-I-ects, to see a better game of Rugby this season. The inteinationals to come may hold a seouence of more picturesque incidents and they may pioduce a greater number of concerted movements crowned with tries, but it is doubtful whether there will be a keener, cleaner, and closer struggle. Hie Scottish forwards were every bit as good as the Englishmen were against Wales, but there was no indiscriminate l acking, nor careless heeding as to kicking, no careless heeding as to kicking .mg the man or the ball.’* T ins w’as a game, which, ir. many respects, wad J Digby at its best. And the thrills! The match wta full of them, the second half chocklull of them. The last twenty minuted was one long thrill For in that ti.ue Scotland were lighting with all the fervour of a si !e that lias the vision <»f victory in front of it, while Waits were lighting with all the grim earnestness ol a side determined to hold on to a very slender lead. Time after time the Welshmen were driven back tn their line; time after time, sometimes loot by loot, some-tunes with long sweeping dribbles, they forced oiay away from the danger zone. Then Gracie would come zooming along the horizon, engines full on, with his scouu on cither side. However, some of the attacks were stopped goodness—and the Welsh defence —alone knows. Male brought Bi ow ning down a few yards from the line; M’Laren missed a crop at goal; Gracie punted past .Male and failed by inches cnly to get to tbo ball before it went dead; Gracie was tackled inches from the line— these were but a sample of the incidents that kept the blood at bailing point in the dosing stages. Then came the last, the best, and, as every Welshman was the first to admit, the most deserved score of alii—Grade’s great try. THE TALE OF THE SCORE. Wales opened the scoring in the fir 4 ten minutes, and bad Cornish run straight ahead, or even short-punted. instead of looking around, and then passing to Davies, it might not have Taken so long for them to liave scoraa. T he Scottish forwards were then penalised for offside play, and Jenkins had an easy job to kick a goal. That was the only score up to the interval. Liddell was once neirly over; we had some remarkably futile attempts to crop goals made by some of the Welsh Lacks; and we har. Delahay’s wily attempt, only just frustrated, to hoodwink the defence. The Welshmen certainly ought to. have scored more in the opening half, and when, with the wind in their favour, Scotland started, the second J -df Ly equalising, the lack of penetrative power by the Welsh centres was emphasised. Before Scotland got on terms, Cornish was so nearly a crygetter that the referee and the touch judge had a consultation as to whethex the corner flag had been knocked over after or before he hau crossed. Unfortunately for Wales, the decision went against the Cardiff man, iso that when M’Queen ran through for Gracie to put Liddell in, and Browning's kick had failed, the scorei were level. Wales took the lead, thanks to a brilliant piece of play by Harding, who burst through the Scottish centre, and when Drysdale half got him, he sent on to Lewis, who ran over Jenkins to convert. It was then Scotland’s turn, and Stuart seeming td break away from a scrummage in ti<nc to pick the bull up near the line, forced his way over.