No rest for South league players

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 48

No rest for South league players

By

JOHN COFFEY

South Island’s leading rugby league players should be shaken out of their summer slumber by the announcement yesterday of a 33-man squad to train for the 1982 Tooth Cup campaign in Australia.

The South coach, Ces Clark, of the West Coast, recently returned from a coaching course in Sydney and is well aware that his cup opponents will be begin-

ning their training early next month. Harry Walker, the convener of the South selection panel, has enlisted the assistance of experts to conduct regular medical examinations and to map out an offseason training programme. “1 have been advised that unless the players start running on the roads in November they will not be ready for the rigours of Tooth Cup competition next March,” Mr Walker said yesterday.

Mr Clark is to oversee the preparations of the 10 West Coast members of the squad, and the third South selector, Gary Clarke, will perform a similar function with the 23 Canterbury players.' It is intended to monitor the fitness levels of the squad members and to bring them together for combined training in Christchurch and Greymouth every few weeks. A • six-man South Island committee has been set up to administer the team’s af-

fairs, but it has not yet held a meeting. It has been confirmed, though, that Canterbury and West Coast will have an inter-provincial fixture early in the season to be followed by a coaching school in Christchurch during Easter week-end. The Tooth Cup tournament, the richest sporting event in Australasia, is expected to carry team and individual prize money totalling at least $500,000. The 1981 winner, South Sydney, received $125,000 and some

of its players carried off lucrative awards. Mr Walker said that the New Zealand coach, Ces Mountford, was also eager for South players to reach a higher level of fitness because of the Kiwi tour to Australia next June and July. New Zealand’s recent cup representatives, Auckland and Central Districts, have failed to impress. Whether this country continues to be allocated a place might well depend on South’s showings next season.

The squad is.— From Canterbury: M. W. J. O’Donnell, T. Wildermoth, D. A. Campbell, P. M. McCone, D. A. Perkins, J. Rangihuna, M. R. Clarkson, L. E. Hudson, M. J. Williams, D. C. Field, W. A. Wilson, M. R. French, T. J. Gillman, P. W. Truscott, A. P. Rushton, R. F. Baxendale, R. W. Dalzell, J. P. Cole, D. J. Carson, D. N. Adams, B. R. Edkins, W. J. Wallace, M. J. Smith. From West Coast: M. Bennett, B. J. Green, M. J. McEwen, S. Low, G. J. Smith, G. McLennan, J. C. Griffin, A. P. Coll, W. P. Dwyer, C. B. Menzies.