Welsh Still Uncertain About Test Team

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32012, 12 June 1969, Page 15

Welsh Still Uncertain About Test Team

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND.

The Welsh Rugby management has had to make hurried negotiations with university officials in Auckland to allow the scrum-half, O. G. Edwards, to take part in the main test practice today.

The tourists’ big rehearsal for the test is at Eden Park soon after breakfast.

It -eemed for a time yesterday that Edwards, whose preparation for the test has been wafer-thin, would not be there. He was to have been occupied with the third and final stage of his final teaching examinations this morning. The tour management asked university officials for a change in Edwards’s examination time. The manager, Mr H. Rogers, said that approval for a switch to tonight had been granted. Edwards yesterday had only his second full training session with the team since before the first test. He showed more vigour than on Tuesday, though perhaps not what the selectors might have hoped for. The test team was to have been announced yesterday

morning but, because of injuries, was put off until today From the injury viewpoint, yesterday’s run was encouraging. The only disappointment was in the progress of the young prop, D. B. Llewelyn, in his bid to recover from the effects of wrenching an ankle against Wellington. He trained only lightly, and was treading gingerly. It seems his chances of being ready for a first test cap are thin. The positions still uncertain are this propping spot, for which Llewelyn, D. Williams, and D. J. Lloyd are candidates; the left-wing, which M. R. Richards will occupy provided he is fit; the scrum-half; and back row. RICHARDS BETTER Richards, believed to have slight hamstring trouble, eased into work but toward the finish was going at a better pace than on Tues day. The fly-half, B. John, feeling calf muscle stiffness

after the Wellington match, strode through the full session with no obvious ill effect.

The No. 8, M. Davies, whom it is said doctors wrote off for the test after his calf injury in Wellington, demonstrated his amazing recuperative powers by packing down in the practice scrum. If determination means anything, he may play yet. POSSIBLE XV

The team that takes the field could be.—J. R. P. Williams, M. R. Richards, S. J Dawes, K. S. Jarrett, T. G. R Davies, D. John, G. O. Ed wards, T. M. Davies, D. O Hughes, D. Thomas, B. Price, W. D. Morris, B. Thomas, N R. Gale, D. Williams. Four of these were not chosen for the first test, Dawes, Hughes, D. Thomas and Gale. G. Davies was at centre in the first test but is likely to play on the wing this time, replacing the out-of-touch S J. Watkins.

B. Thomas was locking partner for Price in the first test, but D. Thomas has lodged an irresistible challenge for that position. Those who played in the first test and are not included in this selection are Watkins, J. Taylor, D. J. Lloyd, and : the incapacitated hooker, J. -Young. The All Blacks assembled in Auckland yesterday and (will have their first run this I morning.