Star full-back may miss tour

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 40

Star full-back may miss tour

NZPA London The England full-back, Alastair Hignell, may have to choose between a trip to New Zealand next year or captaining Cambridge at cricket. The ’ 21-year-old bearded Bignell was a decisive influence in the Cambridge XV’s 15-nil Win over Oxford in the annual universities match at Twickenham yesterday and showed he had the qualifications to be J. P. R. Williams’s deputy for the Lions next year. Hignell, batsman for Gloucestershire in county cricket this year whan he scored his maiden century, has already been appointed captain of Cambridge for next season, which clashes directly with the Lions’ tour.

With three penalties and a conversion, he scored 11 of Cambridge’s points and was mistake-free in his genera! play in the field — something which the other 29 players were not. The England full-back, one of the few players in the Cambridge side actually to come from Cambridge, has played five tests for England and is almost certain to be the full-back again when the international season begins in January. For the Lions .he will have the added advantage of being able to play at half-

back, a position in which he began his student days. There used to be a saying that when university rugby is strong, England rugby is strong. If that still applies England could be in for as bad a season this year as last year. Hignell, and to a much lesser extent the 1968 All Black against France, Mick O’Callaghan, provided the only flashes of brilliance in a dull game on a dull day. Cambridge, who bookmakers had installed as favourites at eight to one on, led 9-0 after playing to a stiff, cold breeze and occasional rain. The Oxford forwards, led by the 1974 Springbok No 8, Dugald Macdonald, were winning more-ball than expected in set play but having won it, they were having trouble doing something with it. Oxford’s controversial selection at centre, Faisal Rahmatallah of Iraq, having his first first-class game, showed perhaps that he should have been included earlier because he was one of the few backs on the ground to use the ball constructively. O’Callaghan, playing his third annual universities match, had two fine runs down the touch line, one of which led to the Cambridge try by the lock, Steven Brown.