Welsh referee praised

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 36

Welsh referee praised

The Welsh referee, Clive Norling, whose control of the game was widely praised by the New Zealand management, sternly warned Shaw for the incident.

Six minutes later, another gilt-edged opportunity slipped through the New Zealanders’ hands when the centre, Arthur Stone, seized upon a high . Jamie Salmon punt (as he has done several other times on tour) and Mourie found himself with only one player to beat.

The New Zealand captain, however, paid heed to Salmon’s call in support and the patch that would have

made the try a formality was deflected by the French defence. The miss did not prove too expensive because from a scrum on the French 22metre line a minute later, the half-back, Dave Loveridge, who had a marvellous game, produced one of his blindside specials. His acceleration away from the scrum accounted for Berbizier and a superb dummy took the wing, Serge Blanco, out of the play. The Taranaki half-back then drew Gabernet to give Stu Wilson a clear run to the corner.

With half-time almost on the clock, Hewson raised New Zealand’s stocks even higher when he dropped a thirty-seven metre goal after a McKechnie. attempt had been charged down Mr Norling surprisingly elected to have over two minutes of injury time at the end of the first spell even though there had been no stoppages. He evened this up by playing only an extra minute in the second half when there were several fairly long injury breaks, but his first-half decision allowed the French to draw back to 6-10 after 42

minutes through a Guy. Laporte penalty awarded against the All Blacks for collapsing a scrum. It quickly became apparent that the All Blacks had gone off the boil a little in the second half, but they still had the chance to put the game probably out of the reach of the Frenchmen in the fifty-fourth minute. Mexted put Stone into,an excellent attacking position but at the. French 22-metre line, the Waikato centre, making his test debut, failed to hear the wing, Bernie Fraser, in support outside him and put in an inconsequential centre kick.