RUGBY REFEREES

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20775, 8 April 1939, Page 9

RUGBY REFEREES

DISCUSSION ON RULES

FAIR MARKS AND KNOCX-ONS (By Telegraph.—Press Association) GISBORNE, Friday Twenty-eight delegates attending the national conference of the New Zealand Rugby Referees’ Association were welcomed by officials of the Poverty Bay Rugby Union and Referees’ Association and local body members. Mr B. S. Marshall XX’aikato. presided. During a discussion on the fair catch rule, the opinion was expressed that referees should enforce the interpretation more strictly. The Auckland delegate, Mr J. Malcolm, contended that it should be made clear there could be no fair catch unless the player was stationary, and made a mark with his heel simultaneously.

Mr 11. J. McKenzie (XVairarapa) said that the claiming of marks had almost died out in his district, players finding it unprofitable to do so while referees were strict on interpreting the rule.

The consensus' of opinion was that the practice of claiming marks was dying out, as players found it unprofitable to stop the game this way while referees were strict in applying the rules.

There was a division of opinion on the ruling which should be given when the ball rebounds from a player’s chest, touches his hands without gaining momentum from contact, and continues in tlie direction of his opponent’s dead-line. Some delegates

read the knock-on rule to mean that contact with hands or arms followed by a forward movement of the ball must be ruled a knock-on. Others held that if the hands or arms were passive and merely were touched by the ball after rebounding from a player's chest, there was no occasion to stop play. The chairman of the executive committee, Mr G. E. Bradley, ruled that if the ball first hit a player's chest and rebounded, no knock-on should be given, unless players made an effort to play the ball with their hands or arms. “Cut out all these knock-ons simply because the ball hits a player.” he said. “If the ball hits a player's chest and rebounds, passing over his hands without them assisting the ball forward, it is no knock-on.”