Best of West

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 25

Best of West

The Kiwis had good reason to be satisfied with their second decisive rugby league victory over France at Auckland bn Sunday, but 12 of them took particular pleasure from the outstanding display'by Graeme West. That very contented group was with West during the successful tour to Britain and France last year, and had many occasions to appreciate the effectiveness of the tall Taranaki second-row forward.

But that tour was given rather limited media coverage and, in the opinion of most of the 13,000 spectators at Carlaw Park last Sunday, West still had to prove himself before his “home" crowd. West's international career has not run smoothly. He made his debut, as. a prop, when the Kiwis were well beaten by Australia in 1975 and was ignored by national selection panels for the next four years. When he returned for the series against Britain in 1979, this time in his specialist second-row role, he was burdened with the captaincy. A virtual stranger to many of his team-mates. West could not lead the test side with the authority that he had shown for Central Districts, and he was dropped after the second match.

A replacement in both tests against Australia 12 months ago, West did little in his brief appearances to

endear himself to the Auckland spectators. It was something of a surprise that West should return to the test pack overseas, but he thoroughly justified his selections.

Although W r est performed creditably in the first game with France earlier this month, he shared in the general handling . errors which disrupted many of the New Zealand manoeuvres

Inevitably. West suffered the jeers of some sections of the crowd as the players were called into position on Sunday. But there was no scoffing when he surged on to his first pass, or as he began to mount an impressive tackle count.

It was West who virtually ended the French challenge by breaking away on the left flank to provide Dane O’Hara with the try that gave the Kiwis a 10-point advantage at the interval. Eight minutes after the resumption West ran clear to initiate a try for James Leuluai, and he later did all the lead-up work for Mark Graham’s touch down.

West certainly stamped his mark on his twelfth test, and his sixth at Carlaw Park. The impact that he made was obvious from the aftermatch comments: suddenly everyone wanted to know "Westie."

JOUK COFFEY