Abundant league potential

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 24

Abundant league potential

New Zealand rugby league followers have good reason to look forward to continued success in international competition. according to Mr Norm Stephens, of Auckland, who coached the New Zealand Juniors on their recent tour of Australia. Although well beaten by Australian Combined High Schools in their second meeting at Tweed Heads last Friday night, the youthful Kiwis performed very creditably. In their previous game the New Zealanders came within a whisker of ending Australia’s sequence of 23 victories in a nine-year period which spanned two tours to Britain and France. The New Zealanders had started with a loss to New South Wales Catholic Schools, and had wins over A.C.T. Schoolboys, South Queensland High Schools, Queensland Independent High Schools and New South Wales Combined High Schools. "There is no doubt that the tour was well worthwhile,

By

JOHN COFFEY

and we must look to more in the future,” Mr Stephens said. “The Juniors played in conditions which ranged from a hot, dry 26 degrees at Brisbane, to temperatures of three degrees at Forbes, to heavy rain and a waterlogged ground at Lismore. “Although some of the team members suffered from influenza, there were no shirkers and everyone had at least three full games of the seven on the itinerary,” Mr Stephens said. New Zealand’s feat of extending Australia to a 26-25 result at the Sydney Sports Ground drew widespread praise from the critical Australian observers — and attracted the attention of the Sydney talent scouts. “The scouts had a field day at Sydney, but they were given the message that every player had been placed under a two-year contract by the New Zealand Rugby League. I understand that one of the Sydney-based Kiwis made some approaches on behalf of his club," Mr Stephens said. Encouragement was given to the Juniors by quite a number of former Kiwis now resident in Australia. Fred Ah Kuoi, Bill Snowden, Olsen Filipaina and Dane and Kurt Sorensen were with them for a time in Sydney, as were Gary Phillips, Sei Belsham, Bernie Lowther and Ray Williams in Brisbane. “We had our chances to tie the series at Tweed Heads, particularly as we were only down by 8-2 at half-time after having had a try disallowed. I do not like complaining about referees, but we had expected to have the test official, Eddie Ward, for the match. Instead, the referee was a local man who was not experienced enough — New Zealand was

penalised five times when in possession," Mr Stephens said.

After their close call at Sydney, the Australians deviated from their intention of retaining the same 17-man squad at Tweed Heads. Injuries enabled them to make additions, and the newcomers went directly into the team proper to counter New Zealand's potentially dazzling back manoeuvres. Mr Stephens had considerable praise for all eight of

the Canterbury representatives in the team. Tony Wildermoth, the vice-captain, was the top scorer with 47 points in six appearances and John Rangihuna shared with Philip Harrison (Auckland) the distinction of being the leading try-scorer. “Wildermoth performed equally well at stand-off and full-back, and was responsible for a great try against Australia at Sydney when he ran smartly, kicked ahead, regathered the ball and touched down. He was truly an ideal tourist, on and off the field," Mr Stephens said. “Rangihuna had a very good tour and was outstanding with his two tries in the

first ’test.’ He has a deceptive side-step, is fast off the mark and displayed exceptional skills on attack. There was quite a lot of interest in him.

“I could not give too much praise for David Peach's second-row performance in the second ‘test.’ He was a workaholic in all four of his games — moving up on defence and backing up in support — and at Tweed Heads he knocked over Australia’s boom prop, Neil Herbert, so hard and so often that Herbert had to go off. Peach, still a schoolboy, has a great future,” Mr Stephens said.

The Canterbury hooker, Colin Archer, was described by Mr Stephens as “a Kiwi of the not too distant future.” Although used in his specialist role, Mr Stephens considered Archer’s all-round abilities such that he could be placed elsewhere in the pack. As a bonus. Archer contributed three tries. The two scrum-halves from Papanui, Alan Whitley and John Blazey, also justified their inclusion. Blazey, the younger of the clubmates, impressed with his explosive style, of running, while the solid Whitley was used as a replacement in both “tests” and especially showed out against New South Wales.

John de Goldi, also from Papanui, was the “player of the night" at Lismore and proved to be a most mobile prop until slowed by an ankle injury. Greg Hamburger, of Eastern Suburbs, shared the loose forward duties with the sole West Coast representative, Terry Jenkins — who, at 16, was the youngest member of the squad. Hamburger started and finished strongly, having been ill in mid-tour, and Jenkins advanced in standing with each match and also gained three tries.