Welsh Journals

Rugby: Prospects for the Season WILF WOOLLER THE BIRTH OF ANOTHER rugby season recreates interest in the towns and valleys of South Wales, and as it develops it carries with it all the joys and frustrations of a growing child. It is nurtured in adolescence in the clubs, matures in the Trials, and is finally tested and judged in the International series which come with the new year. A vintage year is a source of comfort, enjoyment and discussion for many years ahead. Indeed it improves with the years like a good wine, and the deeds of the Welsh heroes who carried the red Prince of Wales-feathered crested- jersey to success and fame grow in stature and sagacity as memory adds to their already formidable virtues. The rugby game provides an ideal method of expressing the Welsh temperament, a means of proving to the wide world outside our restricted boundaries that this little Princi- pality is tough, hard, resourceful and capable of meeting the best that the rugby-playing world can offer on equal terms. What more does a Welshman desire than a great game, and the good fellowship of song that goes with it? Wales has given much to the game in the past. Was it not Cardiff and Wales that resolved the four three-quarter system which has stood the test of time? Did not Gwyn Nicholls, Prince of Three-quarters, stand out in a great era which established the virtues of fast open back play? Was not Ivor Morgan, along with Charles Pillman of England, the forerunner of the modern wing forward? Did not Teddy Morgan score the only try which gave victory to Wales, the only side to achieve the distinction over the 1905 All Blacks? One can delve into and reminisce on the part that Wales has played in the development of one of the greatest games that has come from the fertile imagination of the British peoples, but suffice it to say that our contribution is a noble, important, and historic one. This year is one of great interest in the further evolution of the handling code. It puts into operation certain new legislation which is calculated to alter the structure of the game more acutely than any laws