Apathetic Response To “Plum” Rugby Job

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 15

Apathetic Response To “Plum” Rugby Job

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyrioht)

SYDNEY.

The New South Wales Rugby Union virtually had to hunt up a manager and coach for its team to tour New Zealand this season, the Rugby writer of the Sydney “Sun,” Norman Tasker, said yesterday.

“One of the great charms of Rugby officialdom is the chance of landing a ‘plum job’—an all-expenses-paid trip as manager or coach of an overseas touring team.

“Luxury hotels, lavish hospitality, the red-carpet treatment—it's all part of the V.I.P. deal such posts carry in the powerful Rugby countries. “What a terrible reflection it was, then, of current Australian Rugby apathy, that the New South Wales Rugby Union virtually had to hunt up a manager and coach for its team to tour New Zealand this season,” Tasker said. There was a full month of being feted in the “scenic wonderland of the south seas,” yet there was only one nomination for manager. “And the coach—well, it’s hard to work out what went on there, but it looks very much as though the successful candidate was ’invited’ to make the trip just before the ■vote' was taken.

test referee and a former New Zealander, .has been named manager, and Mr Bob Simpson, a N.S.W. union official and selector, as assistant manager.) Tasker wondered how New Zealanders would view Australian Rugby as they posted over the $3OOO cheque to outfit the side.

“Apathy on the part of officialdom is a problem that is proving a real sickness in the game,” he added. The N.S.W. team will play eight matches in the North Island in June. As in the case of Wallaby teams touring New Zealand since the mid50s, outfitting costs of the side will be met by the New Zealand Rugby Union.

“He certainly was not among the nominations when they closed the previous day. “Mr Ferguson and Mr Simpson probably will do a first-class job, but what an inglorious reflection on the game that nobody else was Interested,” Tasker said. (Mr Craig Ferguson, a