South Island League Team Should Extend North

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29871, 11 July 1962, Page 11

South Island League Team Should Extend North

COON after Mr C. R Mountk ’ ford was appointed advisory coach to the New Zealand Rugby League Council last year, he told a meeting of interested persons in Christchurch that the West Coast and Canterbury would pool ideas in coaching techniques that would mould a team in the South Island which would “shake"’ the North. Perhaps the present coaches of the West Coast and Canterbury teams and their ideas can not al.ogether be credited with their sides’ successes this season, nor is it certain that the coaches have pooled their ideas, or that they are even in line with those of Mr Mountford. However, it is perfectly clear, no matter how ambitious Mr Mountford’s statement seemed for the South Island at the time, that the combined strengths of Canterbury and the West Coast will field a South Island team at the Show Grounds on Saturday which will prove formidable for the North Island, It is repeatedly said of Rugby League that possession is nine-tenths of the game, and it is possession from the serums which is the South Island’s strength. The experienced Kiwi booker, R. J. Butterfield, has outheeled the best from Canterbury and Auckland thss year and should have few difficulties in beating D. Dow. of Waikato, a Sttle-known hooker in the South, but a player who is considered to be rich in promise

Butterfield will have with him in the front row two powerful scrummage rs. G. H. Turner and G. Cooper, but so, too. will the North Island, with S K. Edwards and H. K. Emery. It has been reported that Emery is one of few of last year’s Kiwis touring team who is playing with any real distinction in club football in Auckland. The North Island selectors have plumped for speed and this is obvious in the surprising choice of P. Pique, of Waikato, as the loose forward. Pique, who has played only one game in Shat position. is normally a wing three-quarters and has been an outstanding success in Waikato this year. N. L. Denton, the fastest wing in the country, has been

preferred at centre with another swift mover, B. Mclnnemey, sharing the wing positions with B. T. Reidy. McInnerney was unimpressive when he played in Christchurch last year with the national coaching school but has improved rapidly and is playing splendidly in Auckland at present The South Island will need to keep the clever switching of the North Island middle row forwards, R. C. Ackland and D. R. Hammond, in sound check, for this pair could easily dictate the game if

they are given the slightest latitude.

The North Island appears rather suspect in some positions, notably at full-back and first five-eighths, where J. E. Fagan and D. Elwood have been chosen without achieving anything of real worth in Auckland this year. Fagan will have to play very hard indeed if he is to retain his place as the Kiwi fullback ahead of his Canterbury opposite, A. Smith.

The most notable omission from the North Island team is that of the Auckland centre, R. G. Bailey In club matches he has not been able to capture the brilliant form that marked his play in England and France last year, but it was thought he would have been chosen on reputation. It is hoped that this gifted player’s lapse of form is only temporary. As in previous iqter-Island fixtures, this match will be vital for likely aspirants to the New Zealand side to play the touring British team in the first test at Auckland on July 28. The players’ eagerness to do well in the presence of the national selectors should in no way deter from the spirit of the game, for inter-island fixtures have the reputation of being fast and open.