WELSH BRINGING OWN SUPPORTERS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 15

WELSH BRINGING OWN SUPPORTERS

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON. The Welsh Rugby team will arrive in New Zealand later this month with its own band of supporters. More than 40 enthusiasts have each paid about $1260 for a five-week “package tour.”

The party includes seven Journalists, among them three former Welsh internationals, Vivian Jenkins, Clem Thomas and Bleddwyn Williams.

A spokesman for the travel agents organising the tour said he was surprised they had attracted so many supporters. “When we started making arrangements we would have been extremely pleased if we had got about 20 supporters. In fact, we will be carrying more than 40 to see all the matches in New Zealand and the games in Australia and Fiji.” The supporters will be travelling with the team as much as possible and staying in the same hotels. The party includes two wives and one single woman. The travel agents said they had received excellent cooperation from the New Zealand Government tourist office in London in making arrangements. “Our main problem has been , getting enough single rooms,” he said. “Auckland and Wellington were satisfactory *ut we have had some difficulty with Christchurch, Dunedin and New Plymouth.” The party contains several Welsh Rugby personalities and includes the Welsh

union’s honorary surgeon, Dr Rocyn Jones, who was an international in 1925, and the president of the Welsh union, Mr Ivor Jones. Other former internationals include Claude Davey, who captained Wales against the All Blacks in 1935,. and Reece Williams, one of the Welsh selectors. The team will assemble for the tour and a final training session on May 20, and will leave London on May 2L