Lowe against ‘Kiwi’ trial

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 40

Lowe against ‘Kiwi’ trial

Graham Lowe, the Kiwi test coach, is not in favour of a team of expatriate New Zealanders playing in a trial to help the selection of the British rugby league side to tour Australia and New Zealand.

“If it is was up to me I would not have the game,” said Mr Lowe yesterday.

He is firm in his view, in spite of having been invited by British officials to stop off in England to coach the “New Zealand XIII” on his way to the French fiftieth anniversary match in Paris next month.

The English Rugby League is expected to discuss such a fixture — for which a near full-strength Kiwi team could be chosen

— at a management committee meeting this week.

“I doubt that New Zealand can refuse the proposal,” said Mr Lowe. “The players are on the books of their British clubs, and the clubs have the right to release them if they wish.” “Personally, I would prefer they didn’t play it. All the advantages would be with Britain. I would rather Britain had to wait until the first test in Auckland to find out our strength,” he said.

Mr Lowe, said, as coach, he would be in a “Catch 22” situation. His determination to win the match would be countered by a need to disguise tactics he planned to use in the test series in July.