All Blacks praised

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 6

All Blacks praised

NZPA staff correspondent London

British rugby commentators have dramatically revised their pre-tour assessments of the 1978 All Blacks after New Zealand’s 17-7 win over Cardiff on Saturday.

Commentators in all British national papers wen generous in their praise o Graham Mourie's team, an< the “Daily Express” headlined its story — "Those pre-tour All Black doubts look daft now.” In the “Daily Mail,” Terry O'Connor said: “This looks like becoming a refreshing tour which might bring back some sanity into British tactical thinking.”

The All Blacks had played an unashamedly oldfashioned game, proving they were still the masters of pressure rugby and making Cardiff’s attempts at sophisticated tactics look clumsy and complicated. In the “Express,” Tony Bodley said Mourie’s team had shown it was “going to be just as tough to beat as their powerful predecessors.”

If they came away from Swansea unbeaten by the powerful West Wales side on Wednesday, they had every chance of going through the tour unbeaten, he said. “It seems ridiculous that he team left home burened with doubts.” Chris Lander in the lass-circulation "Daily Tirror” said that the new Ml Blacks were refreshing: •They are hell-bent on >roving that big-time rugby success need not be all about forward power and domination. Unlike All Black teams of the past they are not obsessed with, or maybe capable of, grinding opposition forwards nto the dust.” The verdict of David Frost in the “Guardian” was that while the All Blacks might not become a great side, thev had shown an over-all pace and efficiency which would make them very difficult for anyone to beat. In “The Times,” Peter West said that the New Zealand performance so early in the tour must have been satisfying to the All Blacks.

In the “Sunday Times” John Hopkins said that the All Blacks had shaken Cardiff to life and reality “as rudely as does an anxious parent a child having a screaming nightmare.”

The All Blacks had shown their true spirit — "zestful, imaginative, and expansive.”

The last word came from the Welsh themselves. In the Cardiff-based "Western Mail” J. B. G. Thomas said New Zealand had played "honest and workmanlike rugby with admirable efficiency as a controlled machine.

“They were not brilliant, but they were good and accurate and the fact that they made no mistakes was decisive.”

The former “king” of Welsh rugby, first fiveeighth Barry John, yesterday praised the Maori first five-eighth Eddie Dunn after his performance on Saturday.

John, who writes a rugby column in the "Daily Express,” said that Dunn might be one of the hits of the season.