CHAPTER XI.
THE EFFECT OF PROFESSIONALISM ON THE RUGBY GAME.
When a few years ago the Rugby Union refused to follow in the footsteps of the sister, and, legitimatize professional- ism, they stood on the brink of a precipice. It needed but one false step to plunge them into the chasm below, to be driven hither and thither by the eddies of professionalism, and, after a vain struggle maintained for a time, to sink wrecked and wearied beneath the suck of the whirlpool.
But, though well aware of the magnitude of the task before them, they did not shrink from undertaking it, for they well saw the impending danger; and when they resolved to throttle the hydra of professionalism before it was big enough to throttle them, they saved the game from a system which would have begun in degradation, and ended in ruin.
And, now that they have once put their hands to the plough, we can rest assured that they will never pause to rest till they have completed the task before them. For, though so eminent an authority as Mr. Montagu Shearman, in his article on football in the Badminton Series, has prophesied that it is only a question of time, when they have to throw up the sponge in this struggle, I am confident that there is not a single committee-man who shares that view. They know, it is true, that a great deal of latent professionalism exists in the country, but they also know that it is making no headway against them, and they feel certain that they are holding it in check and have it in their grip.
In my opinion, if they only go on as they have begun; if
