Ban On Club Tours To Stay

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 13

Ban On Club Tours To Stay

(N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 2. A move to make more flexible the New Zealand Rugby Union’s policy on club tours overseas failed at the annual meeting today.

The union’s policy, formed in liaison with the Australian union, is that no club from either country may tour after the end of March or before the end of September. The council chairman (Mr T. C. Morrison) said the view

was that club tours tended to undermine club finances by raising funds under the club name for a purpose not devoted to the development of the club. “Club administrators are the backbone of our Rugby administration. “As time goes on, if these tours were to reach saturation point, the finances of club Rugby, so important to our game, could be undermined in a disastrous way.” Mr G. C. Grace (Taranaki) said that fixing arbitrary dates was not a fair way to control tours. It ignored, for instance, the position of country clubs with members in the dairying industry. These clubs were now disqualified from ever making a tour. There should be room for a local union to endorse a club application as long as the club’s obligations for the season were fulfilled. Then the endorsed application should go to the New Zealand union to use its authority and judgment

Mr Grace moved that the question of overseas tours by clubs be a matter for the N.Z.R.F.U. based on the merits of each case. This was seconded by Mr J. O. Hattersley (Canterbury). The motion was lost.

Mr C. G. Gibbons (Wellington) moved that the period be slackened to allow for a fortnight in September, but an amendment that the present dates stand was carried.