Inter-island Rugby league

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 11

Inter-island Rugby league

rVHE Canterbury Rugby League board of control appears certain to support the reintroduction of the inter-island match as an annual fixture when delegates of all leagues meet at the national conference. The board will discuss remits at its meeting on Monday evening but already three clubs. Eastern Suburbs, Linwood and Marist - Western Suburbs, have shown preference for inter-island matches over the present inter-zone fixtures. Claims by these clubs that there is less incentive for the players to gain zone selection and a lack of public interest in inter-zone matches are quite sound. In the three seasons since the zone teams were inaugurated, Southern Zone has been

successful only against an unimpressive New South Wales Country team and has never reached the standard attained by the South Island, which won two of the last four inter-island matches. In spite of the addition of Wellington to the South Island provinces,. the standard has not been raised and the team-work and determination that was evident when players from Canterbury, West Coast and, occasionally, Otago were brought together to meet the North Island has been absent. Canterbury will probably receive support from West Coast and Otago at the conference but Wellington and the smaller North Island leagues may vote against the reintroduction of interisland games. Wellington players have a greater opportunity and fewer players to beat in winning zone selection, while the smaller leagues would have their already meagre representations cut if they had to oppose Auckland and Wellington players to win places in an island team.