COUNTRY RUGBY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 13

COUNTRY RUGBY

TTEARTENED by the determined and efficient display given by Country, particularly in the driving forward play, in holding Town to a 6-5 win in the annual game at Lancaster Park, Rugby enthusiasts in the Canterbury sub-unions are now looking forward to the outcome of their team’s three match tour in the northern area of the South Island.

The tour includes matches against Marlborough today, Golden Bay-Motueka on July 14, and Nelson on July 17.

Country has completed its last two tours with the good record of having lost only one game; it went down to Nelson by a point in the final game of the 1958 tour. In that year it won four of its five matches in a tour of the Seddon Shield districts. In a tour in 1960, the Canterbury sub-unions’ side won all four of its games and then drew with New South Wales Country, 11-all, at Lancaster Park.

Country players have benefited from the policy of the selectors in the last three years—when Mr C. R. Watson has been teamed with first Mr H. C. Swaney and this year with Mr D. K. Coleman, in seeking outside guidance in coaching the team.

One of the present Canterbury selectors, the former All Black, Mr R. H. Duff took over the coaching in the first two years of this programme and the effect was evident last season when Country surprised by ending a long series of wins by Town. No doubt conditions on the day favoured Country but that did not explain the marked improvement by the side particularly in the more polished play by the forwards.

This season the good work has been continued by Dr. J. D. Stewart, a former University and Canterbury player. During his spell of coaching the Country squad, Mr Duff was Impressed with the amount of latent Bugby

potential that existed in the sub-unions.

Most of the squad had only limited experience of representative football but they tackled their training enthusiastically and impressed Mr Duff with their quickness to master details. The process is an accumulative one, however, and it may be some years before the full benefits filter back through the clubs and eventually down to the lower grade players. The present Country squad is a particularly youthful one. Three of the forwards, A Wyllie, F. Meyer and R. Tuhuru are under 21 and C. Deleveau and T. Norton are 21. A. Hopkinson, who played so impressively in the Town-Country match, is 22. The backs also are young. R. Grenfell, M. Reid, J. Doggett, and N. Alexander are under 21 and D. Wylie, R. Grant and W. McDonald are 22.

The Country selectors should be able to call on the majority of the side for some seasons yet and develop them into a still more powerful combination. Having built up a pack that in the last two years has at least been the equal of Town the next step in the development of the side will be to encourage more attacking back play. Although five of the squad chosen to train for the match with Town are not available, the tour will give further opportunity of developing team spirit and a better understanding among players gathered from the scattered subunion areas, extending from the Rakaia river to Kaikoura. It says much for the enthusiasm of those chosen for Country that so many of them were prepared to travel such long distances to practices at Belfast And for the future the Canterbury sub-unions' association is hoping to negotiate a more regular exchange of home and away tours, and has already made a preliminary approach to some of the minor union* in the southern section of the North Island.