ALL BLACKS’ TOUR

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28223, 11 March 1957, Page 10

ALL BLACKS’ TOUR

Unusual Role In Australia (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, March 9 An unusual role awaits the 1957 All Blacks when they arrive in Australia early in May. They are to break new ground in international football here in so many directions that their tour is taking the shape of something like a Rugby mission. Australia’s Rugby officials have heaped so many exacting demands on the All Blacks that they are rather overwhelmed that they have been met. The New Zealand Rugby Union has never been held in higher esteem than it is now.

New Zealand’s many concessions—the unusually early tour start, the unreasonably tough early fixtures, and the drastic kick-into-touch rule alteration—combine to make the visit of the All Blacks one that could give Australian Rugby a rare shot in the arm.

The new world champions of Rugby will open their tour in a most curious setting—in the midst of one of Rugby League's greatest strongholds, the south coast of New South Wales. Kick-into-Touch Rule

The All Blacks, keen to play a warm-up match and familiarise themselves with the trickv new kick-into-touch dispensation, will make their Australian debut at Wollongong, where English and Frence League teams have clayed epic struggles against the rugged South Coast sides and Rugby Union is in its infancy. The All Blacks will meet a combined Illawarra side of great enthusiasm and little ability. The match will be, in every sense, an exhibition game. The early season arrival, in May, was of vital importance. The All Blacks’ arrival will precede the World Cup League series, a professional extravaganza that has caused hundreds to rush for £2 reserved seats before the season has begun. New Zealand’s concession on the kick-into-touch rule is equally important to the success of the tour. It will take an All Black side, playing only the brightest brand of Rugby, to efface the memory of the South African tests.

Under a rule that permits kicking into touch only by a defending team in its own 25-yard area, the All Blacks have little option but to enter into a brighter spirit of play. This dispensation is the one that has enabled Rugby Union to survive here, for the international rule is intensely unpopular. The All Blacks should speedily adapt themselves to the new rule. Good Publicity If the All Blacks are going to be seen at their brightest and best, it could not be better timed from a point of view of publicity. Almost every move they make in their matches in Sydney will be studied by a huge, silent audience. The All Blacks tour of 1957 will be televised.

The Rugby League, fighting shy of an innovation that could wreck its big attendances overnight, almost completely rejected telecasts of its games. In Melbourne and Adelaide, where badly out-numbered Union administrators fight a relentless struggle against Australian Rifles, the All Blacks can provide one thing that is denied the Rules games—international competition. A match under floodlights is suggested for Brisbane when the All Blacks meet Queensland. Floodlights and a night game can draw 10 times the crowd that would attend on a mid-week afternoon.