LIONS COACH’S TEAM WELL PREPARED Llanelli may prove tough nut for All Blacks

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 28

LIONS COACH’S TEAM WELL PREPARED Llanelli may prove tough nut for All Blacks

(From

J. K. BROOKS,

N.Z.P.A. special correspondent)

SWANSEA.

The highly successful Lions coach of last year, Mr C. James, is so keen to score another victory at the expense of the All Blacks that he took his entire Llanelli senior squad for a three-hour trip to Gloucester on Saturday to watch the New Zealanders in action against Western Counties.

Tomorrow morning, the matchhardened Llanelli side will play the All Blacks on Stradley Park, and the New Zealanders, who know Mr James, will be in no doubt that they will be up against a side which is well prepared tactically and physically.

Mr James has b<*en meticulous in his preparations for the game, and with lectures and film screenings he has given his players a thorough grounding in the style of play he thinks is needed.

However, after the encouraging efforts of the All Black backs at Gloucester he might have to revise his tactics.

New Zealand has . not altered its winning combination drastically for this match, and although the key players, S. M. Going and T. J. Morris, are still on the injured list, G. L. Colling and J. F. Karam played so well at Gloucester that the selectors would have had every confidence in naming them again.

Passing game Indeed, Colling’s preference for the passing game in contrast to the running style favoured by Going might well have paved the way for the backs’ Impressive attacking performance against Western Counties.

R. E. Burgess had the time and space to dictate play superbly, and B. G. Williams, given ample opportunities on the right wing, showed some of the qualities which made him a sensation on the 1970 tour of South Africa.

The All Blacks will again play their test loose-forward combination of I. A. Kirkpatrick, A. I. Scown, and A. R. Sutherland against Llanelli, and this alone will make life difficult for the home team’s first line of defence.

Quiet, determined Although naturally elated by their win against Western Counties, the All Blacks were in a quiet, determined frame of mind when they arrived at Swansea.

The coach (Mr R. H. Duff) said he was pleased by the standard of the performance in the opening match and pleasantly surprised by the size of the score.

"But we are not going to get carried away just because we won this first game so well,” he said. “We are going to keep our feet on the ground, because we realise there is a long, hard road ahead.”

Back play

Mr Duff paid a tribute to the calibre of the back play and said the forwards had come fully up to expectations.

“We were determined not to shirk any of our responsibilities up front, but at the same time it was our intention all along to bring the

backs into the situation. I am happy with the way things worked out. "The boys felt they had waited a long time for the game at Gloucester. They were lumping out of their skins to get on to the field as early as last Thursday,” he said. Possession The inability of Western Counties to muzzle the All Black attacks from the back of the line-outs and mauls played an important part in their undoing. The All Blacks should win more than their share of set-play possession against Llanelli with R. W. Norton as hooker and A. M. Haden and P. J. Whiting, the 6ft 6in locks, as the principal line-out leapers. With G. J. Whiting back in the pack, the “Willie away”

move from Sutherland at No. 7 should again be seen to New Zealand’s advantage. Llanelli, the tin-plate town which gave the Rugby world its battle hymn, “Sospan Fach,” has a population of 40,000 and almost all of them are Rugby mad. This is the Llanelli club’s centenhial year, and the locals would dearly love the All Blacks on a platter to top off their celebrations.

Club’s preparations

Earlier this year the team made a short tour of South Africa and won three of its six matches against provincial sides. It has been preparing strenuously to meet the All Blacks for the last two months, and Mr James has had the Welsh national coach (Mr R. Williams) at Stradley Park to assist with the preparations. The home team’s plans have been threatened by injuries to key players, but all the men in doubt have been named in the team to play New Zealand.

“It is a strong side; the best we have fielded this season,” Mr James said. “Personally. I feel it will do very well.” The captain, W. D. Thomas who won great admiration for his play on three tours of New Zealand, has been suffering from an injured toe. D. B. Llewellyn, the tighthead prop, and P. Bennett, the fly-half, have had shoulder injuries. R. T. E. Bergiers, the Welsh centre, suffered concussion recently, and G. Jenkins, a lively flanker. has had a leg injury and will have a fitness test before he plays. Strong pack Llanelli will have a strong pack built round Thomas, his fellow Lion, D. L. Quinnell, and B. A. Llewellyn, who was in New Zealand with the 1969 Welsh team. One of the flankers, T. David, has shown form for the Welsh B team this year, and a good performance for Llanelli against the All Blacks might win him promotion for the test in December.

The men responsible for setting Llanelli’s tactical pattern behind the scrum will be Bennett, another 1969 Welsh visitor to New Zealand, and R. Hopkins, the Lions No. 2 half-back. The teams are:—

Llanelli.—R. Davies; A. Hill, Bergiers, R. Gravelle, J. Williams; Bennett; Hopkins; H. Jenkins; G. Jenkins, Quinnell, W. D. Thomas, David; T. Crocker, R. Thomas, B. A. Llewellyn. New Zealand.—Karam; Williams, B. J. Robertson, D. A. Hales; M. Sayers, Burgess; Colling: Sutherland; Scown; P. J. Whiting, Haden, Kirkpatrick; Whiting, Norton, K. Murdoch.

Tennis.—The West Coast, which was beaten in the final of the Rothmans inter-centre tennis tournament by Auckland in Greymouth last season, will meet the Canterbury and Buller teams in Greymouth towards the end of November. The winning team will go forward to the South Island final in February. The New Zealand final will be played on March 4.