Ashworth doubtful starter for All Blacks

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 34

Ashworth doubtful starter for All Blacks

By

JOHN BROOKS

The Kaiapoi seniors may be the only rugby team to benefit from the considerable skill and strength of the All Black loose-head prop, John Ashworth, when the 1981 footballing season comes around. Ashworth has returned from the successful New Zealand tour of Wales to face a forbidding workload on his North Canterbury farm, and. at this stage he cannot see himself being available for any rugby above club level next winter. A Canterbury A representative on 82 occasions since 1972 and an All Black since 1977, Ashworth might have to sever his links with both sides, reluctantly, next season.

I But he acknowledged 'yesterday that the end of a tour was a bad time to be saying too much .about the future. A re-examination of the position closer to the beginning of next season might be of more value.

Ashworth and his wife, Joanna, farm a 280 ha .property in the Sefton region. They have a big development programme under way, and this will mean a lot of hard work in the coming months. Ashworth stated his priorities clearly last year when he declared himself unavailable for the tour of England and Scotland because of his farming commitments. If he is destined not to play for his province or country again, the 30-year-old tight forward will have the satisfaction of bowing out while he is at the top. Earlier this year he displaced the All Blacks’ No. 1 loose-head prop, Brad Johnstone, for the three-test series against the Wallabies on the Australian tour, but he was himself edged out of the position by Rod Ketels for the international against Wales at Cardiff recently. He shrugged' off this development by saying that it was because of “the bounce of the ball" and "the

fortunes of rugby.” He enjoyed the tour of Wales and North America, and felt fit and in form, but once a top team was sorted out on a short tour it was difficult to force changes. "Once that Swansea game was over the writing was on the wall,” he said. “On a short tour you have to make the most or each moment.”

The failure of the Welsh team to make a traditionally spirited showing in the test

was surprising, Ashworth said. “There wasn’t the fire and enthusiasm - that you associate with Welsh teams. They didn’t lift their game to any extent, which was extraordinary, considering it was their centenary.” The New Zealanders, on the other hand, were a lot fitter and more enterprising than their opposition, and the variation on the Australian style which was developed by the team had the effect of giving the threequarters room in which to manoeuvre.

Ashworth referred to this method as the “slick flick.” The inside backs stood in a shallower formation, and close together, to move the ball quickly to the wings, often with Doug Rollerson providing variation by running in from full-back. “This meant that the ball was in the air much less between passing and receiving.” And what was the reaction of the Welsh people to an unbeaten tour by the All Blacks? - Nothing but plea-

sure, according to the Canterbury prop, who was at .the centre of an angry outcry after the Bridgend incident involving J. P. R. Williams, the Welsh fullback, and himself two years ago.

“They were different people to what they were in 1978,” he said. “There was nb ‘aggro;’ they consistently made us feel very welcome. “There was none of those remarks Hke ‘Wait until you get to Swansea, boyo.’ Instead we were often asked ‘Are you enjoying the tour?’ and ‘We are please to see you here’.” The visit to the Bridgend club made by a small party of All Blacks at Ashworth's instigation was a distinct success.

“They appreciated that we had made the effort to go, and it turned into a very pleasant evening," Ashworth said. “It w’as basically to wish J. P. R. well in his bid for Welsh selection again. We had a couple of pints,

and the gathering was most harmonious.”

Controversy was noticeable by its absence during the tour, Ashworth said. "Probably because the eyes of the rugby world were on them, they made sure that there was no controversy to spoil their centenary. It is possible that .the Welsh loss to England last season might have made I them take stock of themselves.” Ashworth and his fellow farmer and All Black . tight forward, Graeme Higginson, flew back to Christchurch over North Canterbury pasture showing the effects of the drought “It looked as brown as Bahrain from the air,” Ashworth said.

But the sound of rain drumming on the roof at the week-end eased the furrow from his brow. It was an ideal coming-home present for a man whose preoccupation, for the next few months at least, will be with the soil.