League Buys From Rugby

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28474, 2 January 1958, Page 9

League Buys From Rugby

The much-criticised British and French Rugby League tours of South Africa earlier this year have attracted some South African Rugby Union stars to British League. Last week, the Wigan club signed up the Rhodesian full-, back, Fred Griffiths, for £3OOO. Griffiths, a tough, 14-stone player who scored 17 points for Cape Province against the British Isles team, has been a prolific scorer for Rhodesia.

Griffiths follows another Springbok star, van Vollenhoven, into British Rugby League. Van Vollenhoven received £4OOO from the St Helens club to play in Britain and is a try-scoring sensation there. South African Union officials are openly worried about the pooching attacks by British professional football officials, and they will probably seek a conference with British officials soon to find some solution to the problem.

British poaching for star-starved teams is not confined to South Africa. Clubs are starting to "buy” French Union stars. There is a poaching ban between British and French Rugby League clubs, but there is no protection for the Union code. British Rugby League clubs claim that South African Union stars are always good investments because of their size and speed. Spokesmen for leading clubs say they have no intention of letting up on their poaching. They claim that because the League is in a bad financial way in England today, they need dozens more drawcards for every team.