Bookshelf

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 11

Bookshelf

The Unsmiling Giants. By Wallace Reyburn; Stanley Paul and Co., Ltd.

Any person who has toured with an All Black team—or even been closely associated with their home tests would regard the title as being a misnomer. All Blacks might not be the wittiest and gayest of company, but they certainly are more approachable and friendly than the majority of other international touring teams. And what is more, they would be by far the most polite and considerate.

This is the third book on the 1967 tour of the All Blacks to appear and it must bear comparison with those of T. P. McLean and David Frost It does not have the insight into the All Black team that McLean had, or the Rugby acumen of Frost but nonetheless, it is a very lively and interesting account of the tour and some of the harsh comments by Reyburn will provoke considerable discussion.

Perhaps because he was not allowed to get dose to the players, his views on the individual members will

not be in accord with the general view; but because he was in this position his views from the side-line do become pertinent, because there is no misguided lovalty to the side. On occasions, Reyburn is quite brutal in his assessment of the players. For example when describing M. C. Wills: “His advance publicity said: The British crowds will be staggered at this man’s speed about the field.’ They weren’t.** However, it might be asked why Reyburn uses the handout from the Government Tourist and Publicity as a yardstick of the ability of Wills and other players, That Government Department is not usually regarded as an authority on evaluating Rugby players. Reyburn divides the side into four categories: the top six—Lochore, Meads, Kirkpatrick, McCormick, Kirton and Going. The good eight: Gray, Strahan, Tremain, Nathan, Williams, Davis, Macßae, Steel.

The adequate seven: McLeod, Major, Hopkinson, Muller, Hazlett, Laidlaw, Cottrell.

The unfortunate nine: Wills, Smith, Jennings, Herewini, Thome, Dick, Birtwistle, Clarke, Kember. He obviously chose them fairly well, for, of his unfortunate nine, six were dropped from the team to Australia this year. The discipline that the coach, Mr F. R. Allen, achieved, and the results that he gained are admired by the author. He pays full credit to Allen and says that his record as a Rugby coach is unequalled by any other, and to this effect he included the great South African coaches, M. Markotter and D. H. Craven. The Meads’ incident is not treated particularly fully in the book and the author does not reach any final decision on the correctness of Mr Kelleher’s decision, but he does criticise Mr C. K. Saxton- for speaking in Meads’s defence after the match.