Rugby league pressure? ALL BLACKS A PRIME TARGET

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33516, 23 April 1974, Page 26

Rugby league pressure? ALL BLACKS A PRIME TARGET

(By

J. K. BROOKS)

The strained relationships between the New Zealand Rugby Union and a number of the country’s leading footballers may create a situation which would play into the hands of the wealthy Sydney Rugby league clubs during the All Blacks’ forthcoming tour of Australia.

B. J. Robertson, the New Zealand centre, would be a prime candidate for an approach by a league talent scout, and B. G. Williams, G. B. Batty, I. A. Kirkpatrick, W. K. Bush. I. N. Stevens, and L. G. Knight are others who might be tapped on the shoulder while the team is in Sydney.

Many All Blacks are bitter about the wholesale sacking of established players after the trials, and about the unfeeling way in which Kirkpatrick was demoted. They and other trialists are also disgruntled over the heavy' trimming of expenses during the trial period.

Against this background of resentment, the All Blacks will flv to Australia next Sunday. It will be a ucial tour for New Zealand, and unless harmonious relationships are restored in the next few day-, it could be a fretful one as well, with the most spectacular players exposed to the keen gaze of the league [scouts.

Robertson, who has thrown off the effects of his lingering leg injuries, moved sharply and confidently at the trials. As a student teacher and a 'single man, he could be made a tenanting offer of a secure iob and a lucrative league [contract.

Bush, who has turned down ■ a local league offer, and. Knight are unlikely to be I interested, as they are in the I All Blacks for the first time. But the survivors of the; 1972-73 tour—few in number] since the axe was wielded with such devastating effect’ last Wednesday—might be the most susceptible. Kirkpatrick has excited the i interest of Sydney league i clubs in the past, but there is little likelihood of league luring him away from hisj Ngatapa farm A courtesy

If his circumstances were different, however, he could be excused for looking closely at other fields of sporting endeavour. If the New Zealand union was of a mind to depose him from the leadership of the All Blacks,

it at least owed him the courtesy of a few quiet words in private, before the public announcement.

As well as those All Blacks who will tour Australia, some of the big number left behind might also receive feelers from across the Tasman. K. K. Lambert, G. J. Whiting,

and T. G. Morrison are three men who would appeal to league clubs, and Lambert, dismissed from the side after becoming an established international prop at 21, must feel that his treatment by Rugby has been unduly harsh. A union? There has been talk in some quarters of the need to form a players’ union, because of alleged injustices to some footballers. Most of the problems have occurred simply because of a lack of liaison between administrators and players. A little common sense, understanding, and tactfulness would have prevented the prevailing situation. Players seem to have forgotten that the members of the New Zealand union are men dedicated to the game; and some administrators appear to have forgotten that the players are grown men.