Mr Blazey denies Games code relevance

Press, 17 June 1983, Page 1

Mr Blazey denies Games code relevance

By

JOHN BROOKS

Amid fermenting controversy over the prospect of certain All Blacks playing in South Africa, the executive head of New Zealand’s rugby, administration, Mr Cecil Blazey, yesterday took a sharp cut at the Commonwealth Games Code of Conduct, adopted in Brisbane last year. One of his principal rugby lieutenants, Mr Ivan Vodanovich, who is in the spotlight’s glare because he has accepted an invitation to coach an international fifteen in South Africa, expressed his firm belief in international understanding through sports contacts. Mr Vadanovich, who coached the 1970 All Blacks

in South Africa — when Sid Going, Bryan Williams, Buff Milner, and Blair Furlong swept racial differences under the carpet — proclaimed himself unashamedly as a breaker down of barriers and a builder of bridges, in the sporting sense. “Don’t forget,” he said in rain-swept Wellington yesterday, “that a game of ping pong broke down big barriers between the United States and China.”

Mr Blazey said he could not accept that the code had any relevance to rugby, and he made pointed reference to the reported statement by Mr Roy Dutton, the chairman of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Associa-

tion’s executive, that the proposed invitation to some All Blacks to play in South

Africa would be a test case. “A test of what?” asked Mr Blazey. “There is no way, nor should there be, that they are able to impose restrictions on individuals.”

Mr Blazey said he had previously described the Brisbane Code of Conduct as “extraordinary, arrogant, and intolerable,” and he still subscribed to this point of view.

“It is extraordinary because it is a decision which seeks to impose restrictions on sports bodies with no relevance to the Commonwealth Games Association,”- he said. “The resolution encompasses people entirely outside its jurisdiction.

“The attempt by a spor.t-

ing body to impose restrictions on governments is arrogant, and to deny individuals the right to do what they want to do is intolerable.”

Mr Blazey acknowledged that there had been speculation over his personal views on the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand, and they had never been disclosed. “But there are no doubts in my mind. that this (the code of conduct) is quite wrong,” he said. “It is against fundamental principles to deny individuals the right to decide for themselves. That is not on.” Mr Vodanovich cited Colin Meads as saying what significant strides South Africa had made in striving for a more genuinely integ-

rated society between the All Blacks tours of 1960 and 1970. The former New Zealand coach said he hoped to see evidence of further progress on his visit. “The coming together hasn’t been as quick as some people would like,” he said. “But I have a lot more patience.” Mr Vodanovich is regarded as a sort of international globe-trotter as far as coaching rugby is concerned. He has assisted teams in Rumania, Japan, Canada, Western Samoa, Fiji, and the United States, and has visited Russia, although he found that had to be purely an academic trip. On another visit to South Africa he coached rugby in the Transkei, and he intends'

to coach away from the international arena on his projected trip.

A leading South African sports journalist, Gerhard Burger, of Johannesburg, writing in this week’s edition of the New Zealand “Rugby News,” speculated that the international team matches could be held on July 23 and August 30. The first match would be against Western Province, and the second against a South African XV, he wrote.

However, Mr Blazey and Mr Vodanovich both snorted with derision at the length of time between matches.

“What would the players do in between? Have a grand old holiday?” Mr Blazey said.

The July 23 date would be logical, because that was the first Saturday after the Lions ended their New Zealand tour with the fourth test against the All Blacks at Eden Park, he said. Lions, All Blacks, and Frenchmen , have been named as probable participants in the Western Province centennial celebration matches.

Mr Vodanovich said he had not been informed of the dates, but Mr Blazey said he thought July 30 might be a more realistic date for the invitation team’s second game in South Africa.

“But we (the New Zealand Union) have had no communication from South Africa,” he said.