In that Combined Services game, Fulton played outside centre. Services flyhalf was Parramatta Two-Blues Rugby’s flyhalf. I think it was Bob Brown but not certain. Fulton was not a great success at flyhalf so was pushed outside.

Germany was quite strong in the 1930s. When France was kicked out of the 5 nations, it formed European Rugby (FIRA) and spread the game to other European nations. Germany even played Romania in 1940 after Britain suspended internationals due to the war.

You can by opening the site below:-

http://www.rugbyeurope.eu/welcome-rugby-europe-tv

To me, a lot of the decline has been mentioned particularly about private schools.

Other issues are that the ARU has abandoned western Sydney junior clubs. For example, there were 14 clubs in Parramatta Juniors, there are now two.

The other is publicity. You only have to look at the two Sydney papers where their sports “journalists” always denigrate Rugby. Never a good word. It is almost as though the league pay them to run down Rugby. The Wallabies are made a laughing stock and we are told how hopeless they are but are ranked three in the world but on the other hand we are told about our wonderful Socceroos who are ranked about 32. Just an example.

A lot of those in power in Britain want Germany’s standard to improve so as to be stronger than the eastern Nations of Georgia, Romania and Russia. If and when that happens and along with Spain, then you can talk about an expanded six nations.

Georgia wants to be in the top division. However, the home nations don’t want them and don’t even think about promotion/relegation. Imagine the outcry if, say, Scotland was to be demoted to the European Championship

Russia has a squad of 31 players and all play in the Russian domestic competition except four who play in France.

In the game against Portugal, the only French based players were Andrei Ostrikov who played in the second row and Konstantin Rachkov who came on as a second half replacement as flyhalf. The other 20 all were from the Russian national league.

Rodney,
My article is not “inflametory, derogitory and down right wrong to write “the same Edgard Taturian has again caused a split,”. it is purely stating a fact. Edgard and Igor Taturian split from the Sovier Rugby Union in 1991 because they wanted professional rugby and Rugby was amateur at that time. They wanted to form an Association of the Oval Ball, which originally was to include Aussie rules (but this did not eventuate). From the split, he gained a lot of support and rtgby league eas founded in Russia which eventually became the Russian Rugbilig Federation.

He has again split from the federation because he is dissatisfied the way it is being run. That is his perogative and is not derogatory at all. It is up to the community as to whether he is successful or not.

The RLFR is still in existence and held its AGM on 5th February and in the process of restructuring with the help of the RLEF.

It is not just Asia where Rugby is spreading. Below are the tournaments listed for games to be played in June and July this year:-

CAR AFRICA CUP
Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Botswana and Namibia.

CAR TROPHY
Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Burundi , Rwanda, Tanzania, Reunion, Mauritius and Swaziland.

CAR DEVELOPMENT TROPHY
Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Gabon, Central African Republic and Chad.

The countries participating in the Asian Five Nations which doubles as the RWC2011 Asian qualifier are:-

Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Arabian Gulf.

The following Asian nations are to fight out the lower divisions with promotion and relegation rules:-

Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Malaysia, India, Pakistan playing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Philippines, Guam, Indonesia, Iran, Laos. Brunei , Cambodia, Macau, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and Jordan.

There are several women’s sevens tournaments arranged as well to emphasise the spread of the game.

I think changing a place kick to a drop kick is a good idea. It does reduce the length of time between the stoppage of plays and requires a skill of its own. A drop kick is harder than a place kick but I do not believe it will make the players infringe more.

Already, the place kick has been removed at the start of a game, after half time and the restart after a converted try has been scored and a drop kick must now be used at these times.

I remember when a conversion attempt had to be held by a player who then dropped it into a prepared hole for the kicker to attempt the conversion. You could charge as soon as the ball touched the ground. People moaned when that was changed but no way you would return to that now.

American football has done away with place kicks and use the old Rugby conversion method. The ball is placed on a tee by a catcher/holder after being snapped back for the kicker to attempt the goal kick. This is used for both field goals and conversions (extra point). Note that gridiron has done away with drop goals and penalty goals.

I remember from years ago that both in Britain and here, soccer clubs were known by the initials AFC, an abbreviation of Association Football Club, just as Rugby clubs had the initials RFC but Rugby has now dropped the word football.

By the way,” soccer” is purely an truncation of the word “association”.

My dear old grandfather was a Georgie who migrated here and was on the board of a local district soccer team. To him, only the round ball game was called football. For him, all the other games were handball and he let you know that.

The women’s team at the club I follow folded five years ago. The number of players began to dwindle and the club did not have the financial capacity to support the woen. it was a pity but that is life.

Last season whilst attending a Shute Shield game at Penrith, the Penrith women played the Parramatta women on an outer ground. The standard of play was very high and the Parramatta centre would be the envy of many a male club.

The Wallaroos won the World Sevens last year and some of the players were recruited from touch. Whether these women would want to play the 15 aside game is debatable. There is still a perception that the game is not ladylike and is a big part why it id not growing. The withdrawal of funds by the ARU was a disaster for the woen’s game.

There are lots of women who enjoy the physical side of the game and should be encouraged to play. We have women boxers and wrestlers so why not Rugby players.

Previous to the present corporate semi-pro Rugby in Japan, a different system was in operation

There were two competitions in operation, one involving different companies and the other was the university competition. The grand final was the game between the winners of the two competitions. Crowds of up to 60,000 attended this match.

However, companies started to buy the best uni graduates and uni players could not play for the uni after they had graduated so the grand finals became lop-sided and the company started to win by massive scores. When overseas players were bought by the companies, the system became irrelevant and the current competition took its place.

Westie
Thank you for your apology. It is most welcome and accepted.

I must say your comments did offend me quite a bit but hopefully all in in order now.

I think you missed my point. What I said was that people who do not support the local team should not be treated with suspicion and distain. It is those people who feel so insecure to reride others who may look to a wider view may be the ones to watch. There should be openmindedness in a community not denigrating someone just because he thinks differently.

Newcastle was only used as as an example because of the previous post used Newcastle.

To clear things up, I have followed the same club all my life (as player, official and supporter) and my forebears and relations have also been involved as players and officials for 100 years for that club.

People flocked to Souths because of Russell Crowe and stopped supporting Canterbury because of their rortings. People change clubs when a player that they like shifts to a new club.

Why do I have to follow Newcastle (say) just because I live in Newcastle? If someone is treated with suspicion and distain then it says more about the narrowmindedness, xenophobia, lack of self-esteem and insularity of those who feel that than for the person who can look further than their own backyard and may prefer to follow another club or even code.

I think people are not sheep who just want to part of a mob, but can make up their own minds about who they follow.

I am sorry but following a football club is not like marriage at all.

Why does anyone have to support a team from where they were born? In this day and age, you support a team that suits your ideals, your prfereences, your ethics and the playing style you like. Humans are migrating animals and always search for their own standards.

Remeber that nationalism is the refuge of scoundrels.

I played for five different district clubs, three I lived in the area and two, I didn’t. I chose the club that suited me.

Many people support NRL teams outside where they live and Rugby followers prefer other teams to the Waratahs. Not all Sydney-born Aussie Rules followers support the Swans.

Surely we have moved on from when you were a traitor if you not follow the club/state/nation of your birth.

In 1982, the book released for the Queensland Rugby Union for their centenary, the Queensalnd Rugby team was called the “maroons”. i think it was titled something like “History of Maroon Rugby”

I believe the change to reds iwas just another marketing ploy.

I said the rebirth of the game. Rugby has always been played at the universities but it was the Viet vets retuning who by and large formed new clubs and expanded the game in the USA. The after match party hi-jinks were often reported and gave Rugby a bad name. It is not a myth and I have been involved with American Rugby since the mid 1970s.

I never said 100% but majority of new players were Viet veterans. In the main, American Rugby has moved on and the Viet vets are probably “old farts” now and part of the establishment.

Rugby got a bad reputation from the 1970s. The rebirth of the game was from soldiers returning from Vietnam and learned the game from Aussies and Kiwis. The soldiers were anti-establisment and wanted a way to snub authority and took to Rugby which was non-mainstream in the USA. They played a tournament style where several teams descended on a city or town for a weekend. The after match partied ended in a lot of anti-social behaviour where pubs were wrecked and hotels partiallt demolished. Drunken brawls happened in the streets. This publicity coming from this mayhem turned mainstream America against Rugby.

In fact, the USA is probably the only country where Rugby is not grow as part of the conservative establishment.

In 1995 when a fellow named Morgan was trying to establish Rugby league through his TV channel, he commissioned a marketing report to look at the viability of promoting the game.

The first thing that the report said was not to use the name rugby due to the bad reputation that the word had in the USA due to the drunken thuggery at after match tournaments by Rugby players. The name suggested was “League Football” but this was never heeded and Americans still confuse the two sports.

Perhaps Rugby’s reputation is not as bad as it was but there are still a lot of American people who still shudder at the name.

It was only when FIRA went to the IOC in an attempt to get Rugby into the Olympic Games that things started to move.

FIRA told the IOC they were the controlling body of Rugby because they had 52 members whilst the IRB only had 8. This made the IRB choke on their gin and tonics ans saw that their power could slip away from them. The IRB then admitted more members and gave a seat to FIRA on condition they no longer called themselves the controlling body, Fira agreed to this and is why we have the current set-up.

By the way, voting power in FIRA used to be based on playing numbers. This meant FIRA was controlled by France as there were more players in France than the rest of the members combined. This did not sit well because France was also a mrmber of the IRB by then after its exile. France could not undermine the IRB and still be amember hence the compromise of FIRA gaining a seat on the IRB.

The Sydney sevens were held at the Millner Field in the 60s and 70s and at Warringah in the early 80s. None of them aroused a moment of interest in the public or press and only meant something to the teams participating.

In 1988 and 1989, international sevens were held at Concord Oval. There was some interest in the 88 series but dropped below the radar in 1989 and the series folded.

Only since the introduction of the sevens circuit and now, admission to the Olympic Games has there been a slight revival and following of the truncated game.

The results are a bit like one day and 20/20 cricket. A quick question. Who won the Rugby sevens at George in 2007 and who cares?

The Sevens are held in Adelaide because they asked for the tounament to be held there after it was a disaster in Brisbane and Sydney couldn’t care less about holding the leg.