Kangaroos likely to field test team tomorrow

Press, 7 June 1980, Page 56

Kangaroos likely to field test team tomorrow

By

JOHN COFFEY

Australia intends to field its strongest-possible combination when it meets the New Zealand XIII in thei r Autex International Series rugby league match at the Show Grounds tomorrow.

The Kangaroo coach, Mr Frank Stanton, said from Wellington yesterday the Australian management was treating the game as one of the most important of the tour. “We realise that we will meet the shadow New Zealand side, and can in no way afford to be complacent,” Mr Stanton said. He was unable to be more specific on the probable composition of the Australian team because of last evening’s encounter with Central Districts in Wellington. However, there is good reason to believe that a near-test line-up will oppose the New Zealand XIII. Four of Australia’s most experienced internationals — the captain, George Peponis, Tom Raudonikis, Rod Morris, and Kerry Boustead — were rested in Wellington, and only the fleet-foot-ed Boustead, who has a minor injury, is in doubt for tomorrow. Peponis, a doctor of medi-

cine and a specialist in wresting possession from rugby league scrums, is likely to have his test props, Morris and Craig Young, with him in the front row. Morris, a former Queens*lander and now a club-mate of Olsen Filipaina at Balmain, will have his thirtieth birthday next Thursday; Young, a 101 kg police constable, is an imposing figure around the play-the-balls. The presence of Raudonikis, a veteran cf the 1971 tour to this country, ensures that the young Otahuhu scrum-half, Caryl Morrison, will have a tough debut in football. The tempestuous Raudonikis has a reputation for riding roughshod over less experienced rivals. Such tactics have twice caused his dismissal during tests in England, and each time Raudonikis’s marker, Steve Nash and Roger Millward, accompanied him to the showers. Even though seven of the New Zealand XIII players

have between them accumulated more than 40 test appearances, Mr Stanton has little knowledge of his opposition. He had a chance to run the rule over Lewis Hudson and Graeme West when they were replacements during the test at Auckland last Sunday, and he remembers the captain, Tony Coll, from the 1978 Kiwi tour of Australia. Mr Stanton is* resigned to the fact that the match will be played in wet conditions — “it cannot be raining any harder in Christchurch than it. is here in Wellington” — but said that the Australians had expected to strike heavy grounds in New Zealand. “A team has to be able to handle such conditions to be a significant threat in international competition,” he said. “Some of our players have been here before, but a few of the new fellows were struggling against the New, Zealand Maoris at Hastings.” The Maoris, by achieving a shock 10-10 draw, provid-

ed the example to the other teams which have matches with the Australians. That result has inevitably made Mr Stanton more wary, and has whisked away some of the aura of invincibility which surrounded the Kangaroos* on their arrival. It is heartening that the New Zealand XIII coach, Mr Neville Denton, has sought to instil a similarly positive attitude, both on attack and defence, in his squad. The individual players are well aware of the errors made by the Kiwis a week ago, and have much to gain from a strong performance.. The New Zealand XIII is:— Gary Kemble; Dick Uluave, Lewis* Hudson, Ron O’Regan, Mark Peterson; Chris Menzies, Daryl Morrison; Danny Campbell, Paul Ravlich, Alan Rushton; Tony Coll (captain), Graeme West; Gary Prohm. Reserves: Billy Kells, Owen Wright. The referee will be Mr Don Wilson (Canterbury).