Canterbury man league pioneer

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 42

Canterbury man league pioneer

By

JOHN COFFEY

A former Univerity of Canterbury forward, Richard McConnel, was a prime instigator in the playing of the first rugby league match between the renowned English universities, Cambridge and Oxford, in London yesterday. McConnel, a New Zealand Universities representative in 1969, went to England as a Rhodes Scholar the next year, and is now a lecturer at Cambridge. Rugby league has been

played at Oxford for some years, but, with McConnel’s encouragement, a team was formed at Cambridge this (northern) season and it was a logical progression that the universities should meet. Fittingly, the match was held at the Fulham ground in London, with Oxford winning, 16-9. Fulham is itself a modern rugby league pioneer, having become the first British soccer club to concurrently field teams in both football codes.

John Rosanowski, a longserving player and official in universities rugby league in Christchurch, said yesterday that he had been informed of McConnel’s participation by Ashley McEwen, another former New Zealand Universities representative now working and playing rugby league in England. Being associated with rugby league milestones is nothing new to McConnel. In 1969, having played hockey and rugby union, he joined

the University of Canterbury team which made its debut in the inter-club grades. After only nine matches he had reached a century of points with accurate goalkicking and consistent tryscoring from the second-row. He toured New South Wales with the first New Zealand Universities side to travel overseas. The introduction of rugby league fixtures between Cambridge and Oxford would probably come as

some surprise to those who have taken delight in bestowing upon the code a “clot! cap” image. However, the history’ of rugby league in British universities can be traced back to 1967 when a group of Leeds Universities chemistry students decided that it should be added to the sporting curriculum. It was not too long before regular competitions were held between more than a dozen universities and polytechnics in northern

England, and an administrative body was set up in 1969. Representative matches have been held against French Universities since 1973. The development of university rugby league has also been assisted by the British Amateur Rugby League, which administers the competitions played by thousands of amateur and junior footballers. It is intended that Cambridge will become part of one of the southern amateur leagues next British winter.