Harcourt ends league career

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 24

Harcourt ends league career

The shoulder injury suffered by the West Coast rugby league scrum-half, Gerard Harcourt, against Canterbury at the Show Grounds last Saturday has prompted him to retire from all football. “It is just not worth (carrying on and risking | making the problem worse i every time I go on to the | field,” Harcourt said yesterday. Harcourt originally dislocated his shoulder while playing against Canterbury at Greymouth last month, preventing him from making an almost certain appearance in the trials which preceded the Kiwi tour to Australia. “I am disappointed that I cannot finish the season, but I intended to retire this year in any case,” Harcourt, aged 27, said. He began with the Marist club in Greymouth in the midget grade 22 years ago, and has been a regular (representative since 1973. A sturdy scrum-half, Harcourt was often seen in the guise of an additional loose forward, such was the frequency and firmness of his cover-defence. Harcourt was

particularly adept at backing up and extending the breaks made by his club-mate, Tony Coll, and was a member of the South Island side which beat Sydney Metropolitan two years ago. Harcourt said that he would continue to play basketball, another sport at which he has worn his province’s colours.