Versatile league tourists

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 14

Versatile league tourists

Suggestions that the limiting of the Australian Rugby league team to 18 members for the brief northern tour this month might leave it short of adequate replacements in the event of injuries were dispelled by the inclusion of five utility players. The most versatile of this quintet is the 23-year-old P. Sait, who appeared for Australia as a second-row forward and in the centres during the World Gup series in England last October, and has also had extensive experience at loose forward. Sait prefers to play at the back of the scrum but the presence of R. Coote, the successful World Cup captain, in the South Sydney pack required Sait to adopt a more liberal attitude. On one occasion that Coote was not available for an inter-state fixture, Sait was plucked from his club’s second XIII to represent New South Wales. The other players who have displayed their ability to fulfil the requirements of more than one position are G. F. Langlands (fullback or centre), R. Branighan (full-back, centre or wing), R. Fulton (centre or stand-off half) and T. Raudonikis (stand-off half or scrum half). Apart from Sait, the forwards are less changeable and Australia's most vulnerable point might be at hooker, where only B. Fitzsimmons can be regarded as a specialist. R. Costello has substituted in this vital role once or twice

during.matches, with little success. R. J. McCarthy, the probable second-row partner to Costello for the test at Auckland next Saturday, was tried as a prep by

South Sydney earlier this season but the experiment was a failure. McCarthy was not able to combine the duties of a prop with his characteristic attacking style. The team includes two of the finest goal-kickers in Sydney, K. Campbell and Langlands, while the 18-year-old centre, G. Starling, has been the understudy to the high-scoring South African, L. Killeen, for the Balmain club. Campbell, a 20-year-old loose forward, became the first player to reach a century of points for the season last week-end and has been a leading figure in Parramatta’s rise to third from the bottom of the premiership table.