Meads backs All Blacks to beat S.A.

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 26

Meads backs All Blacks to beat S.A.

New Zealand has never won a Rugby test series on South African soil, but the legendary AH Black lock, Colin Meads, believes the feat might be accomplished next year.

It was imperative, however, that two important points should be kept in mind when the itinerary was being negotiated, Meads said in Christchurch yesterday. One was that games should be grouped according to areas, and the other was that the first test should be played earlier in the tour than in 1870.

Meads, who has visited South Africa five times and who is the only All Black to have made two tours of the union, said the 1976 New Zealand Side would benefit substantially from the grouping of games. First test “If the team has the opportunity to play all its games on the coast before moving on to the low veldt and then to high veldt, it would do much better than if it was constantly switching

from one area to another,” he said. “The Lions, who went through South Africa unbeaten last year, had a great itinerary. They played their first test earlier than we did in 1970, and I think that is significant. “You are half-way to winning the series if you win that first test. Ideally, I think it should be the sixth or seventh game. “I think we won our provincial games too easily in 1970, and we weren’t in the hunt in the first test. If you play too many games before the first test the Springbok scouts can pick your moves and get your game sorted out.

“It is essential that the New Zealand union should show strength and negotiate an itinerary which will be for the betterment of the side.” Versatile side Meads said he felt the present All Blacks had the ability to win next year’s fourmatch series against the Springboks. “I think that we have got such a good back-line now that, provided the forwards gain dominance, we could win.”

He described Duncan Robertson, the All Black first five-eighths, as the key to New Zealand's success.

“If we have a weakness, it is in our line-out play. Our chances in this phase depend on whether Peter Whiting goes on the tour. But I think we. possess reasonable depth in most other positions.” : Meads emphasised the need to pick versatile players for the 1976 tour.

“Adaptability is an important asset for players to have on a South African tour. It is a country where you get a lot of injuries, and a touring team needs to have men who can play in more than one position to keep the side strong.” South Africa, in spite of its series loss to the Lions, would not be easy to beat, Meads said. The defeat df the All Blacks was paramount in South Africa’s plans, and to this end it had cancelled the 1976 provincial championship games for the Currie Cup. Greater emphasis, consequently, would be placed on the internationals.

Meads, who has visited South Africa twice this year, said Rugby followers were not pinning their hopes too high that the tour would eventuate, but, nevertheless,

preparations were going ahead.

“Most of the people I come in contact with in New Zealand are Rugby folk, so, naturally, I have detected little opposition to the tour,” he said. “But I think that, generally, 90 per cent of New Zealanders are for the tour—and that estimate is probably too low.”