Page:Football, the Rugby game.djvu/27

Rh qualifications, viz. good tackling and good kicking powers, especially as they have more chance of coming to the front as full-backs than as three-quarters, of whom there are already crowds in the field.

If a captain has not got a full-back ready made in his team, the best thing he can do is to get the most likely of his three-quarters for the work to take the post, and then to keep careful watch that he does not let his old habits as a three-quarter get the better of him in his new position. Such a man would be especially liable to the common fault of coming too far up the ground. A full-back must always stand far enough back to be able to receive the ball without having to turn round and run after it, at the same time he must not stand so far back that he has to run up to get it after it has pitched, since either of these positions allows time for the opponent's forwards to come up to him before he has got in his kick. A very little practice will teach him the right position. After he has learnt where to stand, he must then learn to make sure of catching the ball without "muffing" it; for if he fumbles it at all, he is held to have played the ball, and he thereby puts on-side any forwards who have followed up off-side, and who are bound to give him five yards clear if he catches it true. A recent alteration in the laws has added a new danger to fumbling on the part of backs; for if they touch the ball and then let it cross the goal line, they are held to have passed the ball across their own goal line, in which case the opponents have a right to a scrummage at the spot where they touched it, unless they can bring it out without making it dead. Of course they must also beware of kicking or carrying the ball across their own goal line at all times, or the same penalty is incurred.

Granted, then, that our full-back has learnt where to