ALL BLACKS’ HOTEL LIKE AID POST

Press, Issue 32345, 10 July 1970, Page 1

ALL BLACKS’ HOTEL LIKE AID POST

(From T. P. McLEAN) JOHANNESBURG, July 9. The All Blacks’ hotel looked like an army regimental aid post this morning. The casualties are many and serious.

They start with C. E. Meads with his broken arm and A. R. Sutherland with his broken nose.

They carry on into the three-quarters with G. S. Thorne, H. P. Milner and B. A. Hunter all suffering injury. L R. Macßae, during the match against Eastern Transvaal, discovered, as did Milner, that he had returned too soon from injuries of the previous week. Neither he nor Milner could stretch out. S. M. Going badly sprained : his left ankle during the match. He had trouble with his right ankle after the match at Kimberle”, but this one now looks much more serious. Because of the pain of the injury he slept little on Wednesday night. B. Holmes has been suffering from muscular spasms of the back and twice has had to withdraw from teams because of these. R. A. Urlich has a torn ear, and T. N. Lister has water on the knee. Lister claims to be all right, and he has trained today.

The injuries to Macßae and the three-quarters are almost as serious as the injuries to Meads and Going. There is no question, as yet, of considering a call for replacements. Advice Astray Medical advice given Meads during tie game was astray. His arm was broken in a ruck in the eighth minute. At that stage Eastern Transvaal players were playing like men possessed. Fists were swishing, boots were flyinS- . „ It was a swishing fist aimed with cruel deliberation which a few minutes before broke the nose of A. R. Sutherland: it was an attack from behind

which broke the arm of Meads. He went down in a ruck with all his weight on his arm and a boot savagely crashed into him. He was in deep pain. He came to the touchline in the twenty-eighth minute. He wanted to leave the field. Lochore wanted him to leave. Meads was not playing and could not hope to play with his old skill. But at a conference a doctor went through elementary tests and advised that if the arm was strapped Meads

could play on. Reluctantly he did so. It was an unfortunate judgment