“Reality Replaces Make-Believe”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30365, 14 February 1964, Page 6

“Reality Replaces Make-Believe”

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, February 13. J. L. Manning, the “Daily Mail’s” sports writer, applauds strongly the action of the Irish selectors in requesting C. M. H. Gibson not to play in any match before Ireland meets Scotland.

“Nothing pleases me more than that stern reality should replace openly the make-believe, ‘we’re-recrea-tion-only’ attitude of Rugby Union,” writes Manning. “The Irish Rugby Union want their team to win the Triple Crown which has eluded them since 1949. And the selectors are right, if international matches mean anything, to ask their players to avoid unnecessary risks. “Not all Rugby men will »ee it that way They will complain that wrapping a player in cotton woo 1 for two weeks just to win one match is unpleasantly pot-hunting

and ungentlemanly competitive.

“This is pious nonsense. It is an attitude which has greatly harmed the attainment of high standards in British amateur sport. “To argue in more practical terms, Gibson was not selected by the Irish to play against the All Blacks earlier in the season because he had to play for Cambridge in the university match three days later.

“Had he put country first, then New Zealand might not have escaped with a onepoint victory. The Irish now feel that country should come first, and I agree.”