THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 15, 1937.
RUGBY BOARD AND SCRUMMAGE LAWS
NEW RULE WILL MAKE LITTLE DIFFERENCE SELECTORS ABANDON
THE
PRINCIPLES
COMPLAINT OF REFEREES
(By HOWARD MARSHALL)
London, March 24.
HE International Board have been nibbling at the laws again. This gives us something to talk about, though I doubt whether the revisions amount to very much. At first sight it seemed that the board had made momentous changes in the scrummage laws. In point of fact, all they have done is to alter slightly the relatively unim- This section now looks portant section (F.). somewhat less like a proposition in Euclid, which is a comfort, but what precisely do the board's emendations mean?
SIMPLY THIS THAT WHEREAS THE SCRUM-HALF THE BALL IN ALONG THE USED TO BE ABLE TO ROLL
THAT IT FIRST GROUND, HE MUST NOW PITCH IT IN SO BOUNCES BEYOND ONE FOOT OF THE NEAREST PLAYER OF EACH FRONT ROW.
Alfred Padgham, the British Open Golf champion, above, has not yet struck his best form and was re- the Daily cently outplayed in Mail's £2,000 professional Medal Play championship.
BRIAN MASSEY PASSING
THROUGH COLONY Former Colony Rugby Captain
Brian P. Massey, a former Co- lony Interport Rugby player and captain of the Club and Interport teams during the 1929-30 and 1930- 31 seasons, is at present in the Colony en route to the North by the 8.8. Ranpura.
Massey first played for the Co- lony in the 1928-29 season, and was one of the outstanding wing-for- wards the Colony have had in re- cent years. He captained the Club first fifteen the following year, when Shanghai in the Colony lost to Shanghai by a goal (5 points) to nil and was again captain in the 1930-31 season when the Hong Kong.
3 at team won by 21 points to Happy Valley.
Massey was forced to abandon the the game in Hong Kong during 1930-31 season owing to an injury, and soon after was transferred to the Singapore Office of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corps. He has officiated as a Rugby Re- feree in Singapore, and has have stantly kept in touch
fact
con-
with
the
ALL THE though he is, would never NOT VERY REVOLUTIONARY, I THINK. OTHER SUB-SECTIONS OF LAW 15 REMAIN UNALTERED, been picked for the England front game.
row. He packs too high, a INCLUDING (K), WITH ITS MATHEMATICAL COMPLEXITIES ABOUT THE FIRST THREE FEET OF THE FRONT ROW FOR- which would have discounted all the m.....................................................................................................................OJKY WARDS, AND ALL THE REST OF IT.
grand work he did in the loose at
We are, in short, no nearer to the essential simplification of the scrummage laws, and the ball must still, in theory at least, pass the first three feet of the front row forwards of each team before it can be legally hooked.
Do not, therefore, run away with the notion that the ball is fair game as soon as it has passed the outside foot of a player of each team. The only man affected by the International Board's He will have to lob the ball in, new ruling is the serum-half. accommodating himself to each individual referee's interpretation of the phrase "at a moderate speed."
con-
We are thus left much where, tish Rugby Union's reply to this we were before. The onus is still question would be altogether largely on the referee, the convincing.
and the scrum- fusions remain mage scramble will continue.
COMPLAINT ABOUT REFEREES
ON WRONG SIDE
Murrayfield.
T
Now the selectors have abandoned
in disgust the principle that a front
row must be able to shove under Such shoving, they its opponents. argue, merely incurs penalties, so And it was why worry about it?
to avoid these penalties, since Eng- land were getting the first shove on Saturday, that Gadney tried to equal matters out by putting the ball away
NO PLAY YESTERDAY ON ACCOUNT OF RAIN
Owing to the heavy rain, no play was possible yesterday in the Open Tennis Championships. If the weather clears up to-day, tournament will be resumed.
from the advancing English hooker. TO-DAY'S TWO
This is all very paradoxical, and DOUBLES
SELECTORS' DILEMMA
it shows to what a pretty pass the ENCOUNTERS
the Scotsmen' complained after match that there were far too many Here we must note an odd deci-unpunished infringements of sion by the Board. "The members," scrummage laws, largely
the because
gradual evolution of the laws has brought us. Good scrummaging is penalised, and even England selec- tors are driven to abandoning sound principles by the unnecessary tangle
10
WONG AND LUK SHOULD WIN
Kam-chuen,
the
we read, "expressed dissatisfaction the referee persisted in standing on
The Stand Court match in the with the refereeing in international the wrong side of the scrummage of restrictive clauses.
in. You may think that I am making Colony tennis tournament at the matches, and decided to send a let-while the ball was being put ter to each referee on the interna-Certainly the referee could see very a mountain out of a molehill, but Hong Kong C.C. this afternoon is tional panel informing him that it little from where he stood, and that I fancy that Mr. John Daniell and between Wong Shiu-wing and Luk Mr. Faull would Mr. F. D. Prentice would support Ding-cheong and P. F. Tsoi and Ng was his duty to referee international was unfortunate. matches in full accordance with the not have made that mistake.
these arguments fully. It has been suggested, though,
Both Two other points about the board's
pairs play laws of the game.”
an aggressive What are that the English scrum-half put the deliberations. The emendation A sinister statement.
to brand of tennis, and a very close we to infer from it? That referees ball in fast into the Scottish front the penalty-kick law, which means game should result in a narrOW of the row, so that it rebounded off Scot-that the kick shall be taken on the win for Luk Ding-cheong and Wong contract out of the laws
are tish shins into the English scrum-spot where the offence occurs, with Shiu-wing. game? Or merely, that they
This seems to me far-fetched
the offending side lining up
Wong Fuk-nam and Liu Kwai- incompetent? It is hardly a com-mage.
fan should have a slight edge over pliment to the unfortunate referees, and unjust to Gadney, who is essen-yards back, is obviously sound.
tially a fair-minded player. If he
THAT DROPPED GOAL whichever way we look at it.
W. N. Cheung and M. C. Hung, who Then there is the dropped goal. appear to have been rather fortun- did put the ball into the Scottish CANNOT BE INTERPRETED
rea- scrummage, and sometimes he ap-The board have not seen fit to re-ate to have advanced as far as they Referees, I suggest, might
The former combina- sonably counter-attack by express-peared to do so, it was for a very duce the value of the dropped goal have done.
to three points. Thir I think, is tion is expected to win in straight ing dissatisfaction with the Inter-good reason.
laws
a mistake, though I know it is a sets. national Board for framing
GOOD WORK PENALISED inter- which cannot be uniformly
Last time Gadney played at Mur-highly controversial matter.
I shall be reminded that the drop- preted. Does anyore imagine that [rayfield the English pack was get- the men who are given charge of ting the first shove and moving for-ped goal is a thing of beauty and This frequently the result of combination. international matches wish to re-lward as the ball came in. feree in anything but full accor-meant that although Gadney put the I shall be told that the original ob-cheong v P. F. Tsoi and Ng Nam-chuen
beject of the game was to kick goals. dance with the laws of the game?ball in straight it seemed to
and And I shall remain unconvinced that hooker, is absurd. The nearer the English The suggestion laws themselves and those who Gadney accordingly was penalised. a dropped goal is worth that totally frame the laws are to blame.
This was heart-breaking, as you illogical extra point. Another point.
Scottish may imagine. It caused the Eng- Let it be equal to a try, by all of members of the board might pro-lish selectors to think that the first means, but why, in the name
pre-common sense, should it be worth fitably reflect that it is unwise to shove was useless under the
If it is the result of put obstacles in the way of secur- sent laws, which explains why we any more? ing the best available referees. Why, have not had since then the com- combination-and quite often it is individual
J. F. L. Smalley and Miss. Smalley for instance, was Mr. W. J. Faull pact, solid front row of the Gardner- purely an opportunist,
In the old days effort-it demands no more com-y W. Wooding and Miss Ward or J. C. not entrusted with the Calcutta Cup Luddington era. ·
Pool and. Miss Allen: Wheatley, excellent forwardbination than a try. match? I doubt whether the Scot-H.
The
TO-DAY'S PROGRAMME
Open Doubles Championship Wong Shiu-wing and· Luk. "Ding-
(Stand Court).
W. N. Cheung and M. C. Hung v Wong Fuk-nam and Lui Kwai-fun.
Club Handicap Doubles
F. G. Nigel-- and R. M. M. King (+4.6) v A. H. Penn and J. R. Collis 15) or E. H. Williams and L. R. Andrews (+3.6)
T. C. Monoghan and V. R. Gordon (-5.6) v G. E. R. Divett and B. O'M.
Club Mixed Doubles Deane (-16.3) 199