Vital league clash in Chch?

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 30

Vital league clash in Chch?

By

JOHN COFFEY

It will not be known until this evening whether the Rothmans national rugby league tournament semi-final next Saturday will be played in Wellington or Christchurch.

However, there are strong indications that the Canterbury side will have a homeground advantage in its bid to reach the grand final against Auckland at Auckland on September 2. When the representative programme was originally drawn up, the semi-final was allocated to Wellington but when it was proved that Wellington used an unregistered player in earlier rounds, the New Zealand Rugby League penalised that province by transferring the venue to Christchurch.

The player concerned was Robbie Muller, whose transfer from Northland has still not been cleared by the national council. Muller was used as a wing for Wellington’s win over Taranaki, and was a centre for the defeat of Waikato.

The delay in confirming the N.Z.R.L. ruling has arisen because of an appeal

lodged against the decision by Wellington, which is keen to stage the match and improve its prospects of reaching the grand final and retaining its Amco Cup status.

Canterbury has an unimpressive away record in games with Wellington bur has won six of the last seven fixtures played in Christchurch. The necessity of making a morning flight counts against the travelling team.

Mr Steve Gunby, secre-tary-treasurer of the Canterbury Rugby League, said that his board of control would go ahead with preparations for the semi-final on the assumption that the N.Z.R.L. would dismiss Wellington’s protest.

There is no chance that the match could be held in Wellington in any case. Mr Gunby made tentative inquiries with Air New Zealand and discovered that, because of the rugby union test between Australia and New Zealand, it would not be possible to fly a team into Wellington on Saturday morning.