League lure strong

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 19

League lure strong

NZPA London] Mr Cliff Jones , president of the Welsh Rugby Union,! believes that more top play-1 ers might turn professional l if rugby league increases in popularity in the London area. 1 The Cardiff lock, Peter! Souto, signed for Fulham; last week, but although Mr I Jones sees no sign of a trend starting yet, he thinks that it might happen, just as it did during the Depression; of the 1920 s and 19305. “Fifty years ago players left Wales to find work in' the north of England,” said| Mr Jones, who won the first of his 13 Welsh caps ini

[1934. “The north does not 'hold the same attraction now, but London does. ! “If more rugby league I clubs spring up in the London area we might see a drift of players away from Wales. These things tend to I come in cycles anyway — there are slack periods and [than peak periods." I South Wales has one of the highest unemployment rates in Britain at present, and Mr Jones said that he [would bear no grudges [against players who were attracted by the professional I game. | “It is a free world, and attitudes have changed a I lot,” he said.