RUGBY LEAGUE BIG PROFIT ON TOUR

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26637, 24 January 1952, Page 8

RUGBY LEAGUE BIG PROFIT ON TOUR

N.Z. TEAM MAKES £12,000 (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. January 22. The New Zealand Rugby League team will take home a profit of about £12,000 from the tour of England and France. About £5OOO came from matches played in England and £7OOO from those in France. The larger French receipts are attributed to the fact that Jiving expenses were unuch less there because of the crowded nature of the tour. AU the New Zealanders were busy today packing and making last-minute purchases of souvenirs and presents, but before the team embarks on the Rangitane on ■ Thursday afternoon it has one more match to play—against the powerful British Empire side on the Chelsea Football Club's ground at Stamford Bridge, London, to-morrow. This games was arranged at the express wish of the New Zealand team, which Is keen to play in the heart of the Empire. It wtu also serve as a “show piece’ in an effort to popularise the game fa Southern England, which is the stronghold of Rugby Union. Mr J. E. Redmond, president of the New Zealand Rugby League Council, said: "We would have played in a paddock with only 30 spectators. AU the team wants to do is to be able to say: 'We played in London.' ** Summing up the tour, Mr D. Wilkie, Joint manager of the aide, said: "We have enjoyed the tour tremendously. Everyone has been very kind and helpful to us and all the matches have been played in the best sporting spirit It has been a happy tour, free from incidents and bickerings, and a very successful one. too. We are naturally disappointed at our failure in the tests, but we endeavoured to uphold the prestige of the game in New Zealand, and we think we maintained the standard set by the 1847 team.” ■ Mr Wilkie is also full of praise for toe English referees. "They were firm, efficient, end unified in their interpretation of the rules," he said.