ALL BLACKS-CARDIFF MATCH "Rugby's black day" say newspapers

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33066, 6 November 1972, Page 18

ALL BLACKS-CARDIFF MATCH "Rugby's black day" say newspapers

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright > LONDON. “Rugby’s black day” was how the “Sunday Express'’ yesterday described the Cardiff-All Blacks match at Arms Park on Saturday. And the message was the same in all Fleet Street newspapers yesterday.

“All Blacks welsh on the game’’ from the “Observer,” “Game of anger” in the “Telegraph,” and “All Black revenge” in the “Sunday Mirror,” were some of the headlines.

The condemnation of Saturday’s match, which the All Blacks won 20-4, was widespread, although few Rugby correspondents were prepared to apportion blame. The “Sunday Express” said that the “vicious uppercut” which felled the All Black prop, J. D. Matheson, was “typical of the ugly brawl this game proved to be.”

“More like war” “It was a disgrace to Rugby—more like war than a game of skill," wrote the newspaper’s correspondent, John Reed. Tudor James, in the “Sunday Mirror” said that the All Blacks unleased their “full blast of vengeance” on Cardiff.

The “Sunday Telegraph” said that the manner of the All Blacks victory gained them few friends among the 50,000 crowd. “The tourists have now a great deal of ground to make up in future visits to Wales,” the “Telegraph” correspondent, Wilfred Wooler, said. He described the New Zealand win as one of physical strength with no finesse.

Both aides blamed Clem Thomas, in the “Observer,” said the only real victors in the game were petulence and ill-temper. “This was a sordid affair which bore no resemblance to a great game called Rugby football,” he said. “I am not prepared to apportion blame. To my mind there was blame on both sides. They both did a Christmas trade in punches. “If this tour is to be saved, it will need a different approach by the All Blacks and by the teams that play them.” The celebrated “Sunday Times” Rugby writer, Vivian Jenkins, described it as a “thoroughly unpleasant match.” But he did not dwell on this, instead preferring to heap praise on New Zealand's half-back. S. M. Going. Man of iron "What a difference he made backing up New Zealand’s pulverising forward play," wrote Jenkins. “Going

seems to be made of iron, so many hard knocks does he take and yet comes up unflinching. "He was here, there, everywhere, probing away at the Cardiff defence and making the breaks around the fringes of the scrums and mauls, paving the way for the All Black forwards.”

The “Telegraph" described Going as a bald-headed Ghengis Khan to whom close contact Rugby was second nature. "His probing runs and towering kicks gave him a distinct advantage on Gareth Edwards on the day." Karam praised Others to earn praise were the full-back, J. F. Karam, who the "Telegraph” said was “immaculate,” and the backs, R. E. Burgess, M. Sayers and B. J. Robertson, who were said to be more compact and probing than their counterparts. The “Sunday Times” was awed at the New Zealanders' forward play, Jenkins report-

[ing one ruck where the All Blacks pushed Cardiff 20 yards. “Their driving when they got fully underway was something to see. Even the home crowd could not restrain their applause," he wrote