A Test Of More Than Rugby

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 12

A Test Of More Than Rugby

There is much more than usual at stake in Johannesburg today, when the New Zealand Rugby team will play the first of four test matches against S<juth Africa. For 40 years New Zealand and South Africa have been pre-eminent among the Rugby-playing countries—and the most eager of rivals. But sport the world over has reached an unhappy, stage. Public interest is often so intense that victory is sought at any cost. Perverted national pride is a fearful thing. Already newspaper and broadcast accounts of the matches played by the New Zealanders in South Africa have suggested that the healthy robustness expected of Rugby has been grossly exceeded: and fears have been expressed that the test today will be played in an atmosphere of grim enmity. The New Zealand Rugby public must accept its share of the blame for this. Too many people have been saying that it does not matter what the tests

are like so long as New Zealand wins them. They take exception to the behaviour of some of the spectators in South Africa who demonstrated noisily while D. B. Clarke was kicking at goal for New Zealand, conveniently forgetting that such ill manners are not unknown in New Zealand; there have been similar outbursts during Ranfurly Shield matches at Lancaster Park. The attitude of the test teams reflects all too faithfully the feelings of their supporters. Those who had misgivings about the wisdom of sending a New Zealand team to South Africa must have been anything but reassured by the incidents which have occurred so far on the tour. Yet today’s match, if played in a good spirit by both teams, could set all these fears at rest. For botfi sides it is an opportunity to do something more important than win: it is a chance for them to prove that international Rugby is still worth playing.