Boycott over tour ‘unlikely’

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 28

Boycott over tour ‘unlikely’

NZPA Brisbane The Brisbane Commonwealth Games were not expected to come under renewed boycott threats from black African nations because of a proposed rugby tour of South Africa. A Brisbane Games Foundation spokesman said yesterday that Commonwealth nations at a special meeting in London last week objected to official team contests with South Africa because of apartheid policies. The proposed rugby tour was by individuals. At least fifteen of the 23 rugby players for the coming tour in July are from England, Scotland, and Wales,

and the tour is reported to have the sanction of the Five Nations committee representing the three countries plus Ireland and France. In London, the Commonwealth Games Federation secretary, Mr Sandy Duncan said: “We deplore anv sporting tour of South Africa.” However he was confident that the rugby move would not jeopardise the new peace between Commonwealth Games nations. The Brisbane spokesman said that more than 301)1) athletes and officials from 54 nations were now expected at the Brisbane Games, starting on September 30. The only nation to with-

draw from the Brisbane Games was the Falkland Islands, which before the crisis had intended to send a three-man shooting team. The Scottish centre, Jim Renwick, who was unavailable for the coming tour of Australia by Scotland, is in the 23-strong squad. The team, which includes 17 British Lions, will be the showpiece of the Transvaal Rugby Union’s celebration to mark the opening of the new Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg. The British Lions and Irish flanker, Fergus Slattery, who led Ireland on its tour to South Africa last year, is expected to captain the side. The team will be managed

by the former British Lions and Ireland international, Syd Millar. He was in charge of the 1980 Lions tour of South Africa. London’s “Evening Standard” newspaper said yesterday that rugby officials in Britain and Ireland were powerless to prevent the players going because it was a private visit. The team will play their first . match against Transvaal on July 17 and the following Wednesday they will take on a President’s XV, which is expected to be a Springbok side in all but name. A final match will be played in Cape Town, against a multi-racial South African side.

France will be represented by its popular captain, JeanPierre Rives, who will almost certainly be making his last overseas tour, and the winger, Serge Blanc. In Wellington, the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association chairman, Mr Roy Dutton, said yesterday that he was not prepared to comment too specifically on reports from overseas.

It was not the association’s problem, said Mr Dutton. "But I would think that any further aggravating of the question of sport with South Africa so soon after last week's meeting will only revive a lot of difficulties,” he said.