Character behind test wins, say returning All Blacks

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 20

Character behind test wins, say returning All Blacks

PA Auckland The grand-slam All Blacks returned to New Zealand yesterday but several hundred persons, including many youngsters with autograph books, missed them. Because of the obvious popularity of the team officials at Auckland Airport ; anticipated a huge crowd on the ground floor because the 1 All Blacks’ arrival coincided with the loading of two out- ■ ward bound jumbo jets. So the players, after a long and slow journey through Customs, were taken ! by an internal stairway to a reception room on the first i floor where they were ( greeted by their immediate 1 families, officials, and news ; media representatives. i Down below the crowd waited, occasionally catch- j ing a glimpse of the players 1 as the Customs-area doors ] opened and then shut again, i One or two players came : into the public area by mis- 1 take. John Loveday, the 1 Manawatu lock, was one who was immediately besieged by 1 a horde of autograph ( hunters. Loveday spent about 10 1 minutes signing autographs I

—“it is no problem, we should do these things” — before he retired to the quiet of the Customs area. One father who had brought four sons to see the All Blacks said, “I suppose it is fair enough that the players are taken upstairs. It might take them hours to get away from this crowd. “But it is a pity that the! crowd were not able to give! the AU Blacks a real home-1 coming greeting. The All; Blacks deserved it.” The All Blacks mixed withj the meek and the mighty ini Britain and one famous ■friend, Spike Milligan, actor and a rugby fanatic, carried on his feeling for the team by sending Graham Mourie a telegram which he received at the airport. It read in part, “1 am desperately sorry I missed all the boys at the (farewell) party but. I was unable to make it. Thank you for a sensational tour over here. I thought the game against the Barbarians was wonderful.” With a touch of Goonish humour, Milligan had sent the telegram to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and had made it collect. |

At a news conference, the All Black coach (Mr Jack Gleeson) and the captain, Graham Mourie, said the character of the All Blacks had been one of the main reasons behind their last-minute wins in three tests and in the final match against the Barbarians.

Mr Gleeson was asked ;how he had felt in the [grandstand when his team [had needed those late points I against Ireland, Wales, [Scotland, and the Barbarians.

“Well, for a start rugby is an 80min game and our players were trained to play the full game,” he said. “Secondly, knowing the courage and character of the players I was always sure that they would produce something extra no matter how late in the game. “I had never given up hope in the grandstand. After all, you can’t, not with the reserves and other players about you.”

Mourie said that the All Blacks had never given up on the field. “Even when there was only Imin to go they played as if they had 10 min left.

They were wonderfully cool under pressure, and never showed signs of panic. “With a record like that people still say that we are not a great side. What else can you expect from a great side?” Of the praise heaped on him that he was the best captain and the best loose; forward to tour Britain for ( [years, Mourie said. “If [people said that, 1 regard it I [as praise for the team, not| for me.” There were various signs j of the character and spirit I which had grown within the! team. “On the day before the Scottish test, for example, the players in the B team went out and practised on their own. Some of the test plavers went to watch them train. “Many of these players did not have much hope of getting a run in the last three games but they trained so well that it was an inspiration for us to play well iand win in the test the next day. ’ “In another case, the total cost of breakages in the , team hotels throughout the ’tour came to £4 and that

I came when someone knockr ed over a vase when going out of the door of the hotel ; in Porthcawl.” s Mourie said that the team : had not run the ball as t much as he would have liked but the All Blacks had L had to adapt after their defeat by Munster. ■; “If we had not adapted 'lour style, every other team Iwe met would have played hike Munster and we would J have been vulnerable.” | Mr Russell Thomas, the j manager, said the players had realised their obligations ion the tour, had stuck to the guidelines laid down before . they left, and had been a happy band. “Why, even the night bei fore the Barbarians game Bryan Williams was among i a group of us invited to visit the Cossacks Rugby Club. Williams went along because he had been invited, • despite the fact that he was I playing the next day.” Mourie said that every action of the team seemed to; : have been reported in the, newspapers. How did he! I react to the pressure of such : newspaper coverage: “We ' never gave them a chance, t did we?”