S.A. trip not seen as ‘calamity’

Press, 19 July 1983, Page 1

S.A. trip not seen as ‘calamity’

PA Wellington The decision by seven All Blacks to play in South Africa would be compared with decisions by the M.C.C. and French rugby authorities to cancel tours there, said the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association chairman, Mr Roy Dutton, yesterday. “That is likely to be made a lot of by the outside world,” he said. However, Mr Dutton predicted that Commonwealth Games members would not regard the trip as a calamity. The seven All Blacks—Stu Wilson, Bernie Fraser, Steven Pokere, Gary Knight, Gary Whetton, Mark Shaw, and John Ashworth—left Auckland Airport early yesterday on the same aircraft carrying the Lions to London. Mr Dutton said the association had written to the New Zealand Rugby Union about the trip, as it was obliged to do as a signatory to the Commonwealth Games code of conduct on sporting contact with South Africa. But the. association could

not write to the All Blacks individually, as it did not know who was going, said Mr Dutton. The London-based Commonwealth Games Federation would be informed of the action taken by the association, he said. The Government did what it said it would do to dissuade the players and five administrators from visiting South Africa, said the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon. The Government action was to write to the New Zealand Rugby Union, he said. Asked at a post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, why he had not written to the tourists individually, Mr Muldoon replied: “I suppose I could have.” Mr Muldoon was asked why he did not follow the example of the Labour leader, Mr Lange, who wrote to players and administrators last week. Although the players’ names were not officially given, Mr Lange wrote to the same seven who departed from Auckland last night. The Prime Minister had

previously said he did not know the names of the players, and that they could read his views in a newspaper. Mr Muldoon was reminded of the M.C.C. cancellation last week, after an appeal from the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher. Mr Muldoon said he did not believe New Zealand would now become a target for anti-apartheid protests. “It has been said, and I rather believe it, that alongside our seven will be some Brits and some French, because they are not going to play seven-a-side rugby. “So that’s three targets,” he said. The national chairman of H.A.R.T., Mr John Minto, said that he planned to inform international contacts about what had happened in New Zealand over the visit. The anti-apartheid movement had made four approaches to the Government, three in the last 10 days, without any response, he said.

The Government had made no direct approach to the Rugby Union or the individual players, Mr Minto said.