Rank and file make their feelings plain

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 36

Rank and file make their feelings plain

NZPA staff correspondent Wellington New Zealand rugby’s rank and file went to rare steps yesterday to make it plain that it is not entirely happy with the way the game is run.

In an annual New Zealand Rugby Football Union meeting that some delegates saw as historic, three members of the decisionmaking council were tipped out and the strength of the game’s amateur fabric was tested time and again.

North Auckland, got through on the first ballot. But for the rest it was a long process of elimination with an incumbent, Paul Mitchell (Wanganui), falling by the wayside on the third ballot and Peter Wild (Counties) and a former All Black coach, J. J. Stewart (Taranaki), battling it out to the fourth, with Mr Wild winning by a whisker. Mr Stewart, who had failed before despite his obvious ability, was articulate: “Life is only experiences and memories and life gets out of balance a bit if experience is not tinged with disappointment from time to time.” And Mr Wild was honest: “If there was a message to be received, it has been received.” In the vote for the sevenman, Wellington-based executive, a former All Black manager, Pat Gill, was ousted by a referee and Wellington auctioneer, Jack Forsyth. Mr Forsyth, who said he was not there as a referee, was, he said, for once lost for words. Mr Gill was pragmatic: “You elect the people to do the jobs,” he said. Mr Guy was elated. “I want to contribute my ideas and my ideals.” The other member to lose was Otago’s Pat Beaumont who retired from the council to stand for the vicepresidency but missed on the first ballot. His strategy has precedents but other councillors who have moved

up to the three-year vicepresident/president cycle have served for more years on the council that Mr Beaumont’s five.

His place on the council was taken by a fellow Dunedinite, John Dowling, joining the re-elected Ray Harper and Russ Thomas. The 1.R.8.’s decisions, those of March this year and even those of 80 years ago, came in for much discussion and criticism but little resolution. The annual meeting, unless a written remit exists, has power only to recommend to the council, not direct it. The division in Auckland’s administration was apparent when the union’s chairman, Malcolm Dick, and its man on the council and previous chairman, Mr Don — sitting side by side — disagreed with each other over sponsors’ names on jerseys. Another Auckland delegate, Rob Fisher, wanted the N.Z.R.F.U. to support the principle of sponsors’ names on jerseys but Mr Don successfully opposed it on the ground that the issue went far wider than just that. “The thin line between amateurism and professionalism is getting harder to define,” he said, arguing that increased sponsorship in clubs could lead to more player poaching to the detriment of smaller, less wealthy clubs.

Voting for the 18-man council took all morning and half the afternoon as delegates from the country’s 26 provincial unions sweated over changes at the top. Interspersed between the scrutineers trooping out for up to four ballots on some votes, delegates — and some councillors — questioned and challenged decisions made by the International Rugby Board in London.

One re-elected councillor, Tom Johnson, from Levin, who threatened not to stand unless he thought change likely, described the meeting as refreshing and encouraging. Changes on the council are rare and usually occur only when someone retires voluntarily, but delegates were thinking back more than 10 years to the last time three retired involuntarily. The vote for the four North Island seats on the council was the most tense — and the longest. Three bf the candidates, Auckland’s Ron Don, Bay of Plenty’s Dick Littlejohn and a newcomer, Ritchie Guy, of