League TOUR BY N.Z. TEAM

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29370, 24 November 1960, Page 5

League TOUR BY N.Z. TEAM

Visit To England And France

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, Nov. 23. A N?w Zealand Rugby League team would definitely tour England and France next year, in spite of earlier doubts whether the tout' would be a financial success, said the president of the New Zealand Rugby League (Mr J. Watson) today. “We are confident we have the players, and I say the success of the tour rests on the type of football our opponents let us play,” he said. “They have a job ahead of them to arrange and publicise the tour better than they did in the recent World Cup series.”

Mr Watson said the New Zealand league wrote to the English Rugby League after the World Cup series to ask if the invitation to tour was still on, and what were the financial prospects. No official answer has yet been received, but Reuter reports from London that the English league’s secretary (Mr W. Fallowfield) announced after an international committee meeting in Leeds yesterday that New Zealand would be invited. “We will certainly invite them and welcome them. As for the prospects, the important thing is the quality of the New Zealand team,” Mr Fallowfield said.

Mr Watson, commenting on this statement, said: “It is just a letout on their part. If we send a brilliant team —and I am confident we will—and it plays poorly because of its opponents* tact&s, Mr Fallowfield will say. *1 told you so.* ”