Friendly Rugby ends abruptly on Coast

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32737, 14 October 1971, Page 1

Friendly Rugby ends abruptly on Coast

(From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, October 13. A friendly Rugby match between a Greymouth team and a vsiting Australian side at Greymouth today ended five minutes bofore half-time when the Greymouth side left the field in protest at the rough play.

In the 35 minutes that had been played, two of the visiting Manly (Sydney) players had been ordered from the field and three of the Star-United players had been taken to hospital.

One of the Star-United players. G. Cooke, was ad-

mitted with a broken ankle and the other two, R. Winchester and R. Johns, were treated for their injuries and discharged. Winchester sufered a gash in the head from a boot sprig and Johns was punched in the face. The referee for the match, Mr R. Richardson, a former West Coast representative player, declined to name the two Manly players he ordered from the field and would make no comment on the game. The manager of the Manly side, Mr R. Walton, also refused to name the players

ordered off. but said reports of the match had been "blown up out of all proportion.” The team, which played against Sydenham as a cur-tain-raiser to the special Commonwealth Games Appeal match in Christchurch, was "used to playing a fairly hard type of senior football, with the accent on forward play,” said Mr Walton. He said he did not think there had been any unwarranted vigour in yesterday’s match. Mr R. W. president of the West "Coast Rugby Union, said the union’s management committee would meet tomorrow to discuss the matter. Star-United was leading by 14 points to 5 when the match ended.