Teams’ feelings ran nigh

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 6

Teams’ feelings ran nigh

NZPA correspondent

Hamilton Feelings ran high in the Springbok and Waikato dressing rooms under the grandstand while the police tried to clear demonstrators from the pitch at Hamilton on Saturday. The New Zealand Maoris and Waikato flanker, Miah Melsom, spoke for many of the players in the Waikato side when he said, “When nothing was happening (after the demonstrators ran on to the pitch) the players wanted to run out there and do them (the demonstrators) themselves.

“One of the officials came into the dressing shed and said the. match had been called off-1 have never felt so’ annoyed in all my life,” Melsom said. Waikato’s coach, Mr George Simpkin, said the Canterbury referee, Mr T. Doocey, had given the players a five-minute warning whistle before they were aware of any untoward ac-

tivity on the pitch.

“We did not know how long we would have to wait and most of the team just lay down on the floor and thought about the game. At the time when the match was actually called off, the reaction of the players was just one of total disbelief,” Melsom said. “For a lot of these fellows it was an opportunity they would never get in any other match situation and their immediate reaction was one of revenge.”

Melsom echoed remarks made by the chairman of the Waikato Rugby Union, Mr Frank O’Connor, that the crowd had been extremely restrained in its behaviour.

Describing the scene beneath the grandstand when the match was abandoned, Melsom said the Waikato players went down to the Sough African dressing room. “But it was a pointless exercise. Each party was just as disappointed and there was nothing to talk

about anyway. So we just left. It was hard to be happy,” he said.' Both Melsom and Mr Simpkin agreed that the build-up in the Waikato dressing shed was going well before the violence began on the pitch. “We have been playing it quietly up until now this season. But we were ready for this one,’’? Mr Simpkin said. The South Africans initially reacted to the situation with total silence. But one man who was in the South African dressing room was the New Zealand Rugby Union’s baggage man and masseur with the side, Mr Terry O’Connor. “I left the dressing room at the start of the team talk and walked out and they (the demonstrators) were virtually on the pitch then,” he said. “The atmosphere in the’ dressing room was a good rugby atmosphere. It was a typical build-up to the match. Everything was

right,” he said. However, just which team was the better prepared will ■ now never be known. . ' The chairman of the Waikato Rugby Union, Mr 1 O’Connor, said, “I must pay [ tribute to the tolerance of ! the police. They were under"; pressure, extreme, pressure. ? '“I can say this with com- ■ plete confidence that I speak ; on behalf of , the f i-Waikato Rugby Union for' the way they performed,” he said. The Waikato and South African teams spent Saturday evening together.;At a buffet dinner. Before they dined the two teams spent some time together in what an official called euphem- ; istrically a “happy hour.” Those present at the evening’s social function described the occasion as “very sad.” The consensus was that the two teams were participating in a possible wake for the rugby relationship between New Zealand and South Africa. >