Replacements for Sydney

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 24

Replacements for Sydney

By

RAY CAIRNS

While the South Island rugby league earn yesterday trained with a full ;quad free from injuries—after two withdrawals, of course—the Sydney Metropolitan team has called for two replacements.

This young team — noone is older than 24 — has suffered cruelly from injuries on its path-finding short tour and even though only five days remain to the end of the tour, and matches against the South Island at the Show Grounds on Saturday and Auckland on Tuesday evening will complete the programme, the replacements are expected today. They should be Barry Reilly (Eastern Suburbs), an all-purpose forward, and a utility back, Don Moseley (Canterbury-Bankstown). and they could even be drafted into tomorrow’s team. But the team’s coach, Noel Kelly, one of the hard nuts of international front rows in the 19605, had little to say about injuries when the team arrived in Christchurch yesterday. He preferred, instead, to enthuse about the value of the five-match tour, short as it has been, to his “colts” side. “The future of these tours will depend heavily on the results this time, but before the next trip, I think we will have to have a good look at the timing. It should be closer to the end of our season, because most of these players have been without club play for about five weeks.

“Even so,” said Kelly, “it has been pretty obvious in the two matches we have won, that we were much too fast for the opposition. Mind you, one ground, that at Hastings on Wednesday against North Island, was beautiful, and the ground for the Waikato game was reasonably firm. “The grounds certainly have a bearing, and although I’m not saying we need dry grounds — because we can play wet-weather football — we don’t play it as well as we do a dry game. This is a pretty young side, and they have to adapt pretty quickly.” As with most rugby league visitors to New Zealand, Kelly spared few kind words for Carlaw Park in Auckland. “It is a cow pad-i dock, which has to be detrimental to the game of rugby league. By comparison, we got to Hasting , and were able to cut loose because wei

were able to stand up. Ark don’t write off the North Is land, because they neva gave up or let us run riot.”

But Kelly and his teat! seemed fated to play on i greasy Show Grounds to morrow. The surface of th* oval was shorn thin yester day, and the South Islam team sloshed their \va; round, quite impressively the No. 2 ground yesterday.

Considerable attention wai paid to the liaison betweei the halves, Gerard Harcoup (West Coast) and Davit Field (Canterbury), and th* line ran quite fluently. Th< forwards were mostly unda the control of the captain Tony Coll, and they to< showed rare understanding. The provisional Sydne; team, with the centre. Tet Goodwin, and the hooket Arthur Mountier, is doubt is:-

Greg Cox; Terry Fahey Les Mara, Goodwin, Martu Raftrey; Paul Hayward, Roi Raudonikis; Bill Annabel) Mountier, John Donnelly David Grant, Steve Lavers Neil Pringle.