Tour decision may rest with Sorensens

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 28

Tour decision may rest with Sorensens

By

JOHN COFFEY

The final decision on whether the outstanding former Kiwi forwards, Dane and Kurt Sorensen, become available for the New Zealand rugby league tour to Britain and France later this year will probably rest with the players themselves. Mr R. G. McGregor, the New Zealand Rugby League president, said from Auckland yesterday that preliminary negotiations with the Sorensen brothers’ adopted Sydney club, Cronulla-Sutherland, had been favourable. “Cronulla would not look at releasing them for the home tests against Australia last month because their contracts did not allow for it and they had club commitments in the Sydney premiership,” Mr McGregor said. “But there were suggestions at the time that favourable consideration would be given for the Sorensens to represent New Zealand in the Australian off-season. If Cronulla agrees, then it depends on the attitudes of Kurt and Dane,” he said.

A similar situation prevails with the former Canterbury and New Zealand prop, Bill Noonan, who, at 33 years of age, is still in top form in his eleventh season in Sydney. A recall of Noonan would certainly create in international record, for he last appeared for New Zealand in 1969.

Mr McGregor said that no problems would be expected obtaining the services of Olsen Filipaina, from Balmain, or Mark Graham, from Brisbane

Northern Suburbs. They transferred to Australia at the start of the present season and are eligible for New Zealand for three years. It seems certain that all players will have completed their Australian requirements by the time the Kiwis leave for Britain on September 23. None of

the Sydney clubs involved are among the first five in the premiership and are most unlikely to reach the championship grand final on September 27. “A decision on whether the Sorensens or Noonan would be needed will be made when the final trialists are chosen on August 16,” Mr McGregor said. “It will be done in consultation with the national selectors and the N.Z.R.L. football subcommittee.” “By then, the selection panel should be able to gauge our domestic

strength. We have not considered bringing the overseas players back for the trial on September 6, although it is feasible that someone might be sent to have a look at them in action,” he said. Mr McGregor agreed that attitudes towards players accepting Australian contracts had changed

in recent years. So, too, have the regulations. International rules now stipulate that a player must stand down for two years before joining an overseas club, but New Zealand has the right to release those — for a fee — with backgrounds of six or more tests.

It was under that clause that Filipaina and Graham were cleared. Dane Sorensen’s three-year availability term expired at the end of last season, Kurt Sorensen underwent the then 12-month transfer

suspension, and Noonan’s move occurred under now well-outdated agreements. “The present thinking is that players should be available for three years — the period they sign for their first Australian club — so that both country and club benefit from not imposing stand-downs. But it is still up to the New Zealand selectors to decide if they want them,” Mr McGregor said. “In a case of all things being equal, the player who stays in New Zealand would get preference.

However, the image of the game is very important. Rugby league is buoyant at club level, but it is international results which impress people one way or the other.

“This tour of Britain and France will be a tough one, and success would be a considerable achievement. If we are to be competitive then we must have experience, especially in the forwards, and our task as administrators is to assist the selectors bv finding whether the expatriot players are available,” he said. It is possible that Cronulla might attach some conditions to any release of the Sorensen brothers, such as insurance cover or even part repayment of the five-figure fees that were paid to the N.Z.R.L._ Eventually, though, it could depend on whether Dane, who was married earlier this year, and Kurt have the enthusiasm to abandon the sun and surfsoaked beaches of Sydney for a 70-day Khyi rugby league campaign in the Jess attractive setting of northern England.