Hatchwell, Mehrtens Had Fine Game

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 15

Hatchwell, Mehrtens Had Fine Game

(from T. P. McLEAN) CAPE TOWN. If you had pride in New Zealand you would take a left-handed sort of pride in the performance of Natal against the touring All Blacks on Saturday because of the former Canterbury players, P. Hatchwell and T. Mehrtens, who were at centre and full-back respectively.

Each, it is true, made a crashing mistake Mehrtens by failing to grasp a ball bouncing near the dead-ball area so giving W. L. Davis a presentation try as reward for fast following up, and Hatchwell by letting Davis slip his tackle for the last try of the game. Nevertheless the two men contributed usefully to the courageous Natal performance.

They are well regarded in Durban. Mehrtens, a master at a preparatory school, has had no training as a fullback and only once before Saturday’s game had played in the position. Hitherto he had proved himself best at fly-half, his old position in Canterbury days. Yet he took on the fullback position with pluck and spirit and, giving in the bad mistake, came out of the day well. Natal people regard Hatchwell, who was also a schoolmaster but who has become promotions manager of a large and successful

firm, as exceptional because of his service to one of the great Durban clubs, Berea Rovers.

When he joined the club two or three years ago the first team was down on its uppers. No players, no spirit, no anything. Hatchwell performed prodigies in restoring club spirit. This year the first team has won one important cup and is well on the way to another which will make it champion of the Durban league. It has also suffered only one loss. A great deal of this, Durban Rugby folks say, has been Hatchwell’s work. Mehrtens is a member of the same club and as a consequence the very mention of the word “New Zealander” around the premises evokes an enthusiastic response. There seem to be a good many young New Zealanders in Durban, many of them playing Rugby. But from a club point of view Hatchwell’s name leads all the rest