All Blacks in 18 games

Press, 21 February 1978, Page 30

All Blacks in 18 games

From

RON PALENSKI,

NZPA staff correspondent in London The All Blacks will play 18 matches on their tour of Britain this year, including the expected four internationals and a fifth test against the Barbarians. Seven of tne matches will be in England, six — including the Barbarians one at Cardiff Arms Park — in Wales, three in Ireland and two in Scotland. The tour will start in Cambridge against Cambridge University, one of the weakest sides the All Blacks will encounter, on October 18 will end traditionally with the Barbarians match on December 16.

The midweek-Saturday pattern of matches will be followed throughout the tour, meaning that the All Blacks will miss out on the luxury of having a clear week, something New Zealand has given the Lions on their last two tours.

The All Blacks will play tests on successive Saturdays in November, against Ireland on November 4 and against Wales a week later. Their Barbarians match, which is expected to be against virtually a Lions side, will be a week after the Scotland test.

The matches immediately preceding tests are, as usual on Tuesdays. However, the game before the Barbarians match — against the Welsh Bridgend club, which is celebrating its centenary and which boasts J. P. R. Williams among its number — is on a Wednesday.

The Four Home Unions Tours Committee regards the Barbarians game as merely being against a club but it is a club which has access to all British players. Cardiff, Gareth Edwards’ and Gerald Davies’ side, and Bridgend will be the only other clubs that the All Blacks will play. Other matches will be against regional groupings, except for traditional fixtures like the university match and

Combined Services. Neither Cambridge nor the servicemen are regarded as tough opposition. The West Wales side the All Blacks will play will include the Llanelli (1972 winners) and Swansea clubs, while Monmouthshire will include Newport (victors over the 1963 All Blacks) and Pontypool, providers of the Welsh front row. One of the hardest matches outside the tests could be that at Leicester on November 18, a week before the England test. The All Blacks will play Midlands there and their opposition will be drawn from the highly rated Moseley, Bedford, Coventry, and Leicester clubs, among others. The Northern Division match at Birkenhead will include the Broughton Park (Tony Neary’s side), Gosforth, Headingly, Waterloo, and Sale clubs. The All Blacks’ only match in Scotland apart from the test will be against North and Midlands at Aberdeen. In Ireland, the Al! Blacks will play Ulster in the first big rugby international in Belfast since Andy Leslie’s All Blacks were there. They will also play Munster in Limerick in addition to the Dublin test. Cardiff was probably given the Barbarians match in preference to London because the All Blacks will be in England the following season anyway. The same view would probably have arisen when allocating Scotland only two games but the Irish three. The All Blacks will tour England and Scotland in the 1979-80 season. The All Blacks are expected to arrive in England on October 11 and leave for home on December 19. In Wellington, the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (Ces Blazey) said yesterday that the tour would obviously be a hard one but that the same comment would apply to an equivalent tour of New Zealand.