KIWIS SURE OF SUCCESS

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

KIWIS SURE OF SUCCESS

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. The New Zealand Rugby league team flew from Auckland last night convinced it can win the World Cup for the first time.

“There is a feeling right through the 19 players that we have the ability to win,” the coach (Mr D. L. Blanchard) said.

"There is more keenness and enthusiasm in this team than I have seen for many years. There are players of great natural ability and we will be trying to use that ability as much as possible.” The Kiwis will give their backs plenty of ball, said Mr

Blanchard. “We won’t be wearing out our forwards by having them barge all the time,” he added. Mr Blanchard, as convener of the national selectors, has said that he was interested only in players who tackled hard and low. He will continue to emphasise this in the team’s training sessions. “It will be drilled into them that no-one can afford to miss a tackle and that we won’t tolerate half-hearted tackles,” he said. STRONG HOPES The Kiwis will have light runs on the beach at Waikiki and at Empire Stadium, Vancouver, on their way to Manchester. Mr Bl’nchard hopes for two things when the team gets to England. “I hope Wigan will have a home game so that we can look at the ground, see the players and the conditions we will be playing under against Australia. “And I hope that the referee who will control our game against Australia is refereeing somewhere locally so that we can have a look at him.” In their final practice match on Saturday, , the Kiwis beat an Auckland side, 37-25. TWICE CAUTIONED It was reported from Leeds yesterday that Britain’s selectors got a shock when they learned that S. Hynes, their tough-tackling centre threequarters, is due to appear before the League’s disciplinary committee on October 29, after two cautions in matches this season.

If Hynes were to be suspended, he would miss the match against New Zealand, and possibly the final, if Britain qualified. The selectors are in a quandary because no changes are permitted in the party of 19 players for the World Cup after next Wednesday.