And Rugby on?

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 26

And Rugby on?

(NZP.A. Stag Correspondent) SYDNEY. The president of the Australian Rugby Union (Mr Charles Blunt) said on Saturday night he was “rather disappointed” that five Wallabies had said they would not play against the Springboks next year. He was speaking on an AJB.C. current affairs programme examining the proposed 13-match tour by South Africa. “I am rather disappointed that these highly respected players should take this attitude,” Mr Blunt

said. “It seems to me this is bringing politics into sport which we have always avoided in the past”

The five players who have written to the Australian union declaring they will not play against the Springboks are Paul Darvenzia, Terry Forman,

Barry McDonald, Jim Roxburgh and Bruce Taafe. All toured South Africa in 1969, while McDonald and Roxburgh played for Australian against Scotland this year. Mr Blunt told the television interviewer that his union was not involved in politics. “The South Africans are the foremost Rugby players in the world and our players want to be given the opportunity to play with them.” Questioned about his own visits to South Africa and that country’s apartheid system, Mr Blunt said the policy of separation was a Government policy and he did not believe sport could be involved in the policy. “If I lived in South Africa, I feel I would probably be in favour of the policies which their Government pursues.” But he added these policies had nothing to do with Australia. ' The proposed South African tour will be discussed at a special meeting of the New South Wales Rugby Union, of which Mr Blunt is chairman, tonight Mr Bryan Palmer, a noted coach and a life member Of the Australian union, will put a motion seeking cancellation of the tour. Mr Palmer also appeared on the A.B.C. programme. He said he had been wrong to coach , teams which had played against South Africa in the past but defended this on the grounds that he had not been aware of what had been going on in South Africa until recent years.