FOOTBALL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14126, 25 May 1920, Page 5

FOOTBALL.

- ■■■' ♦ i ' ENGLISH LEAGUE TEAM. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) SYDNEY, Monday. The English footballers have arrived. They express the opinion that the present team is better than the previous one, but they would have liked more weight ,in the backs, as there is , great danger of injury to a small man, used to the English grounds. The team was accorded a civic Reception, at which the manager said he had been instructed that the practice of replacing injured men in the first half, which was permitted here, had been abandoned, and no injured man would be replaced. NEW RULES FOR RUGBY. At a meeting of the Wellington Rugby Referees' Association last night the N.Z. Rugby Referees' Association forwarded a handbook of new rules, which are to come into force on Saturday next. These provide that in future a fair catch (or mark) must be claimed bv making a heel-mark, by calling “‘mark!., and not merely by catching the ball and calling “mark!” •If a player knocks a ball on and 'catches it befo.re it reaches the ground play will be allowed to proceed. In cases where' the ball does not cover 10 vards of ground from a kickoff, or reach the 25yds line from a “drop.out,” the opposing side has the right to appeal for a re-kick or a scrummage; otherwise play will not be interrupted. . At- a conference of referees in December last it was decided that the ball could be played after a tackle, but this has now been altered to conform with the English ruling, and in future the leather must be played by foot only. A breach of the rule is punishable by a ‘ ‘ free-kick.