Kiwis facing stern test

Press, 8 November 1980, Page 64

Kiwis facing stern test

NZPA correspondent London New Zealand’s final countdown to the third rugby league test will begin tomorrow when the Kiwis meet the tough first-division side, Widnes. The Kiwis’ manager-coach j Mr Ces Mountford, who had I I delayed naming the Kiwi :team for the game, said yesterday that the Widnes game j would not be a time for experimentation. . “It will almost be a test side," he said. “It on injuries, but we will field the strongest team we think we have io give them a ■week to settle down and

train for the final test.” Next Tuesday, against Leigh, Mr Mountford will field a second-string side with little care about the effect it may have on the tour record so far of six wins, four losses, and a draw, so long as it helps the test side to another international win. “It's the test that counts now,” he said. Only the captain and loose forward, Mark Graham, is I still on the injured list, suffering from the severe groin ‘ kick that forced him out at half-time in the second test. However Graham is responding quickly to treatment, and is thought certain to be i available for the Leeds test,

even if he misses the Widnes match. Other players out with minor injuries — the hooker, Kevin Tamati, and the three-quarters, John Whittaker and Bruce Dickison — have now recovered. The Kiwis might be given a stiff work-out by Widnes. The Lancashire club is in the top section of the first! division, and while it is I without the strength of its j long-serving prop, Jim Mills, who has retired, it has sev'eral other players whose skills are known to the New Zealanders. Mills, the most sent-off player in league history, was banned from playing in New Zealand.

But Widnes has three sec-ond-test players in the prop, Glyn Shaw, Keith Iwell, and Les Gorley. A leading British coach, Alex Murphy, has told British league clubs to examine carefully previously accepted fitness standards after the Kiwis’ success.

“Bulk and strength seem to have become the criteria in the game, with only wingers- expected to be quick,” Murphy said yesterday. “The example of the New Zealanders could have a stimulating effect on the game in Britain if- it brings improved all-round standards and fitness in out teams,”