All Black Batty to tell all

Press, 24 August 1977, Page 19

All Black Batty to tell all

Grant Batty, the All Black who scored more than 100 tries in firstclass matches, looks back on his colourful rugby career when he talks to Jon Neilson in TVl’s "Sportsnight” tonight. “Batts.” as he became known to team-mates and followers, played 56 games for the All Blacks, and went to every major rugby-playing country in the world.

His own play was of "star” class — and usually when he got the ball crowds would buzz with excitement, expectation, or sometimes, as in Wales, derisive boos. But as the “runaway bullet," as he has been described, tells Neilson, he really only wants to be remembered as “a guy who enjoyed his rugby.” Playing for New Zealand was his greatest motivation, and as for those many “incidents” his aggression on the field got him into — he can justify those.

If Batty considered he had been wronged on the field, he would immediately do something about it — he is equally blunt with his criticism of rugby administrators.

In his opinion, the administrators ought to be running the game for the players, and he has plenty to say to the interviewer about the present men at the top. He is equally forthright about financial sacrifices that All Blacks have to make — a problem that has recently forced several top rugby players out of the game. He also has some interesting views on the future of the sport in New Zealand.

Batty traces his career from his high school days through to the time he became one of the most talked about men in world rugby. Many influences — coaches, the physical aspect of the game, criticism and praise from the media, frustrations and delights of touring — all come in for comment. What Batty has to say on some questions should be an eye-opener for many, and will probably not win him many friends in the inner sanctums of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. But, according to TVI, Batty tells it as he played — hard, uncompromising, and straight Included in the pro* gramme are film clips from some of the matches in which Batty played — the tries and incidents which illustrate the points he makes in the interview.

The “Sportsnight” special is produced by Keith McEwen.