Lachlan Cameron third new cap for tomorrow’s vital test

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 24

Lachlan Cameron third new cap for tomorrow’s vital test

NZPA Sydney The Manawatu second five-eighth Lachlan Cameron, and the Southland flanker, Leicester Rutledge, have been named to play in the third test against the Wallabies at the Sydney Cricket Ground tomorrow.

Cameron will become the third player in the All Black side, along with the flanker, Geoff Hines, and the first-five-eighth, Nicky Allen, to make his test debut in the vital deciding test match. The All Black manager, Mr Ray Harper, said that Gary Cunningham’s bruised thigh injury would not allow ! him to play in the match! and the bracketed Cameron was automatically included i in the side. I

Allen and Cameron played together during last week’s match against Australian Universities, at Brisbane, but the side’s captain and halfback, Dave Loveridge, has yet to play inside Allen. Consequently, the insideback combination placed a great deal of emphasis on snappy passing and appeared to combine reasonably well together during training at Sydney University yesterday afetrnoon.

Superficially, Loveridge was not troubled by his hamstring injury and partici-

■pated in the full work-out. Rutledge had been bracketed with Mark Shaw but was preferred to the Manawatu man after the coach, ' Eric Watson, had spent a [long time deliberating over [the selection. The Southlander did not appear to be affected by his hamstring injury during the training run and will play at No. 6 in the lineout.

Mr Harper said that the one remaining problem in attempting to finalise Saturday’s injury-plagued side involved the hooking position.

Hika Reid . watched the reasonably encouraging All Black training session from the sideline yesterday and it appears doubtful that his badly bruised right calf will allow him to play. Canterbury’s John Black participated fully in yesterday’s training run, but Mr Watson said he would wait until tomorrow morning if. necessary before deciding on[ just who the hooker for the! test would be. I

| Mr Harper named Steve .Scott, Murray Taylor and ! Murray Watts as the back reserves and Brad Johnstone and Graeme Higginson as the forward reserves. Both teams will train again this morning to put the finishing touches on their bLj-match preparation. Changes to the Australian team, meanwhile, should signify to the All Blacks a level of panic in the Australian selection panel, according to a Sydney rugby commentator. Writing in the “Sun” newspaper, Norman Tasker said yesterday that the All [Blacks would read the selec- | tion of Peter Carson as halfiback, and the extensive ■changing in the front-row, as something of an admission. “It signifies to them a cer- [ tain disquiet, if not panic, ini [the Australian selection! panel, and a sign that Aus-[ tralia is more than a little ! concerned about the power

of the All Black pack,” wrote Tasker.

“The tourists, for certain, will seek to hammer the new links in the Australian chain.” Tasker wrote that whether the Australians could win tomorrow depended a great deal on Carson. “Something of a punching bag for selecting committees over the years, he is back on Saturday purely because of his greater capacity for dealing with “bad ball” than the man he replaces, Phillip Cox. “Carson is renowned as a scrambler, a courageous operator who can flick the ball away quickly from the toes of an All Black pack, or worm it away from a lineout as all hell falls about him,” wrote Tasker. He also wrote that the All Blacks recognised the advantages in their forwards but continued to be totally frustrated in the backs, who appeared to have no idea of how to engineer a try.