Clarke to retire at end of Rugby league season

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 22

Clarke to retire at end of Rugby league season

(By

J. O. COFFEY)

The Papanui captain-coach and former New Zealand Rugby league scrum-half, J. G. Clarke, announced after his team had displaced Marist-Western Suburbs at the top of the minor championship table on Sunday that he intends to retire at the end of this season.

Clarke, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, said that he favoured the policy of club coaches being active players and would not consider applying for the coaching role with Papanui in a non-playing capacity.

“It is very difficult to guide a team from the side-line. If the coach is on the field he can urge the side on by his own example and correct mistakes and change tactics without having to wait until half-time,” Clarke said. He feels that Papanui has sufficient talent and potential for him to make way for younger members of the squad. However, Clarke is hopeful that he will be fit enough to return to the team for the match with Linwood on August 12 because it is likely that four of his players will be in Wellington with the Canterbury 19-years side. When Clarke accepted the position as coach of the Papanui XIII three years ago it was in preference to an offer from a country club in New South Wales, and he has had no cause to regret his decision.

Last season Papanui made a clean sweep of the Canterbury Rugby League’s premier trophy competitions, and it has already retained the Tavendale, Vivian and Barr Cups in a memorable start to its jubilee year. SUCCESS One of Clarke’s principle duties has been talent-spot-

ting, and he has met with enviable success when promoting youngsters such as E. S. Kerrigan, R. Seaward, S. Hatipov, M. H. F. Godinet and R. Broadhurst from the lower grades to off-set retirements and injuries. Although essentially a scrum-half during his firstclass career, Clarke has appeared regularly at stand-off half in the last two championship contests, with P. R.

Blackler fitting smoothly into his former berth. “I am prepared to transfer to any position if I believe that such a move would assist to improve the team’s performance,” Clarke said, when reminded that he had also played occasionally in

the forwards when circumstances required more experience up front. Always a consistent footballer, Clarke represented Canterbury 30 times between 1963 and 1971, a period in which the province developed two other gifted international halves, R. S. J. Irvine and G. R. Cooksley.

TEST DEBUT Clarke’s test debut in 1966 was as a replacement for R. W. Bailey in the second game against the British tourists, and he returned for the World Cup tournament two years later. He also played for Southern Zone and captained South Island in its fixture with the 1969 Australians, having initially come to

prominence as a schoolboy Kiwi in 1956.