Security tight for rugby

Press, 20 September 1980, Page 1

Security tight for rugby

Extra policemen are expected to be-at Lancaster Park for today’s representative rugby match between Canterbury and Counties, as controversy over the Springbok tour mounts. . A police spokesman said last evening that the police knew that anti-tour protesters might be at the ground. “We have contingency plans. Enough policemen will be on hand to keep an eye on things,” the spokesman said. , Halt All Racist Tours does not intend to picket

the match, but it will .set up an information desk outside., the ground, according to its Christchurch representative, Mr R. Harrison. “We. decided at a meeting during the week not to picket the match as an organisation,' but I cannot speak for individual members,” Mr Harrison said.

He does not envisage a repetition of what happened at Auckland last week, when H.A.R.T. members carried banners round the field, opposing the tour, during the Fiji-New Zealand XV match. H.A.R.T. intends to distribute leaflets at today’s match, to educate the public on its stand, and to show the Canterbury Rugby Union its opposition to the tour.

“When the president of the South African NonRacist Olympic Committee, Mr Sam Ramsamy, visits Christchurch in October, we hope to draw the Canterbury union into an open debate or forum, maybe even in the Town Hall,” Mr Harrison said.

However, the president of the Canterbury Rugby Union, Mr B. J. Drake, said that there was no chance of H.A.R.T.’s drawing the Canterbury union into an open debate.on the proposed South ■ African tour.