Rugby starting date conflict

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33790, 12 March 1975, Page 36

Rugby starting date conflict

The hardy annual of the starting date for the senior competition is again likely to divide ranks at the annual meeting tonight of the Canterbury Rugby Union.

The union’s management committee has already set April 5 as the starting date this year, but its unacceptability in some quarters is made obvious by the fact that there is a notice-of-mo-tion from the Sydenham club calling for no competition games before April 12.

In addition, the Christchurch club is sponsoring a motion which seeks to have the power of fixing the senior opening date taken away from the management com-

mittee and left for the annual meeting to decide. In the annual report, to be presented by the president (Mr C. H. J. Rhodes), atrocious weather last winter is blamed for making the season a frustrating one. Oddly, the cancellation of the Springbok tour is given as another cause for frustration — odd because the Springbok tour was scheduled and cancelled the previous year.

There is another instance where the news seems to have been slow in getting through: Tane Norton is congratulated on being appointed captain of the New Zealand Maoris side which toured the Pacific Islands. That tour was in 1973. On the South African tour, the report states that tests between South Africa and New Zealand must be maintained if Rugby is to prosper and hold its place as this country’s national game.

In a timely reference the report says that after the success of the All Blacks in Britain last year “Rugby internationally for New Zealand appears to have come alive.” There is optimism that a thrilling game cart be expected against Scotland this season.

Also today is the annual meeting of the Canterbury Rugby Sub-unions Association, and in his report the association’s president (Mr R. J. M. Millar) warns that the rapidly-growing populations in the Ellesmere and North Canterbury sub-unions presents a challenge to administrators to keep pace with this growth.