WORRIES REFORE TEST

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32386, 27 August 1970, Page 13

WORRIES REFORE TEST

Members of the All Blacks tour committee were long in conference yesterday morning before they announced their team for the third test to the players. However, its publication was withheld until late in the afternoon. Fitness reports on various players, most notably I. R. Macßae, W. D. Cottrell and K. Murdoch, were considered by the committee. Murdoch may be on the verge of appendicitis. He was withdrawn from the Universities match on

Tuesday at a late hour because of stomach cramps. Another report on his condition was being obtained yesterday. Macßae stretched out in in a training run on Tuesday evening without trouble and seemed to weather another gallop yesterday well enough. Cottrell was to be seen again yesterday for a report on the crack on the back of the right knee which caused his retirement from the match with Universities.

In the circumstances, the composition of the team can only be guessed at but there is strong evidence that S. C. Strachan and C. E. Meads will be paired at lock. The inclusion of Meads, if it has occurred, is one of the contentious points. It is doubtful if he is capable of exerting full effort at test match level. There is a possibility that N. W. Thimbleby, by his excellent play on Tuesday, has won his way into the team, but if Thimbleby and

B. L. Muller are played, the line-out resources will be thin. The more so because Meads is not yet at his old standard. So the selectors have had their problems—not small ones either. The possible team is: W. F. McCormick; M. J. Dick, G. S. Thorne, B. G. Williams; Macßae, E. W. Kirton; C.. R. Laidlaw; Lochore; A. J. Wyllie, Meads, Strachan, I. A. Kirkpatrick; Muller, R. A Urlich, Hopkinson.