State of union

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 15

State of union

When Mr N. J. McPhail retired it was obvious that Mr Allen would succeed him as chairman of the All Black selection panel, but the successor to Mr Allen is not so plainly indicated. Whoever is appointed chairman of the selection panel will certainly tour South Africa in 1970 as assistant manager, and he will be blooded against Wales next year.

Mr V. L. George and Mr I. M. H. Vodanovich are the other members of the present panel. Mr George probably would not seek the office and Mr Vodanovich, while having been an All Black selector for two seasons, has not had coaching experience at either club or provincial level.

Mr R. H. Duff, at present a South Island selector, may be an outside prospect for the position. He has the valuable credentials of having been an All Black captain, and a Canterbury provincial selector. However, under the present system of choosing the national panel, whereby the chairman is selected by the council and the other two appointees are the chairman of the island panels, he may come up against island bias. If he was appointed chairman. it would give the South Island two members of the panel, something which the numerically stronger North Island unions are unlikely to favour. « * *

The Canterbury hooker, J. N. Creighton, has again been overlooked for the South Island team, and again without any justification.

In 1966 the selectors chose G. G. Spencer as hooker. A prop cum hooker.

Spencer lost six tight heads in the inter-island game. Not profiting by that choice the selectors chose another hooker-prop, G. P. Booth, last year. His performance was a repeat of Spencer’s. Now the selectors have chosen J. K. Mcßae (Southland), who was not very impressive in the All Black trials at Wellington in May either for his speed at hooking or his general play. * # *

The successor to Mr T. C. Morrison as chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union will probably not be known until next April, but the two most favoured candidates are Mr C. A. Blazey and Mr J. L. Sullivan. Mr Blazey is one of the most senior members on the council but it is expected that Mr Sullivan will gain the position. * * *

Perhaps the greatest test of New Zealand’s Rugby strength will be the short tour of Ireland—not the major tour of South Africa. Since short tours were begun in 1962, the countries travelling have had a poor record and not once has the same team lost the series or even a test Ireland, Wales and Scotland have foundered in South Africa. England in New Zealand and Ireland in Australia and the Springboks in Ireland.

The abbreviated tours by France of New Zealand also have met with a lack of success. If the All Blacks can overcome all the problems of playing completely out of season after a long break from Rugby, and having important and hard matches concentrated into a few weeks, they will deserve their unofficial title of world champions.