Early league start

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 56

Early league start

By

JOHN COFFEY

Canterbury will still have to make an early start to its representative rugby league season in spite of its omission from the rich Amco Cup knock-out tournament in Australia.

The first match against West Coast at Greymouth, has been tentatively set for April 16 but Canterbury administrators are negotiating to have the game delayed until May 7. Should agreement be reached, Canterbury’s firstclass programme will begin with a match against Wellington at Wellington on Anzac Day, April 25.

Mel Clinton, convener of the provincial selection panel, said yesterday that Canterbury’s meeting with Wellington would have special significance in view of Wellington’s inclusion in the 1978 Amco Cup draw 7 at Canterbury’s expense. Wellington will by then have made its Amco debut against the Illawarra division of New South Wales at Wollongong on March 15. Regardless of how it fares, Wellington will be keen to repulse Canterbury’s chai-

lenge in its rivalry for Amco Cup status. The early representative fixtures will also serve to prepare Canterbury’s contenders for the trials which will precede the selection of a Kiwi side to tour Australia and Papua New Guinea. The trials, at Auckland, will be on May 17 (under floodlights) and May 20, the latter being a match between Auckland and the Rest of New Zealand.

On Queen’s Birthday weekend, Taranaki will make one of its rare appearances at the Show Grounds. Canterbury will be without its internationals because of the Kiwi tour and they will not have returned in time for the opening round of the national first-division championship. Auckland is not required to take part in the preliminaries, and will be at home in the final on September 2. The first division is split into two sections. The southern zone will be a home-and-away tussle between Canterbury and West Coast (at Christchurch on June 17, and Greymouth on

July 30), the result being decided on aggregate if each province has one win. Wellington, Taranaki, and Waikato have been grouped in the other zone, the national semi-finalists to meet on August 19. Representative football will be available to more players in Canterbury because of the inclusion of the second XIII in the South Island second-division championship. Canterbury B has been drawn against Otago (at Dunedin, June 17), West Coast B (at Greymouth, July 30), and MarlboroughTasman Bays (at Christchurch, August 19).

The club season in Canterbury will start on March 12, with Marist-Western Suburbs opposing Riccarton and Addington playing Halswell in the opening qualify-ing-round games. On March 19, Marist will meet Halswell and Addington will line up against Riccarton. Training for the representative squad will resume at Spreydon Domain on March 8 at 6 p.m. Advertisement.