League call applauded

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 36

League call applauded

The rarely-debated subject of reinstatement of players who have gone to league and want back into union raised some voices and. brought a couple of “hear, hears.”

Rugby players who have been paid in league cannot be reinstated, the 1.R.8. says. “Up the board,” Mr Stewart told cheering delegates. “Whether they were paid or not, we want them back in the game. It’s simple.” The chairman, Ces Blazey, reported on the 1.R.8.’s March meeting, at which he was one of two New Zealand delegates. Discussion on New Zealand proposals, such as a communications allowance and relaxation of the rule outlawing players who profit

from books — both rejected — was in committee in London, he said, and therefore he could not report on it. The book issue was discussed at length in London, though, and Mr Blazey said there was more support than there appeared to be on the surface. “The climate is changing and in due course there will be achievement,” he said. “Our job is to go back and back again until we achieve what we believe in.” New Zealand’s World Cup proposal, being mounted now in tandem with Australia, will be submitted next year after a detailed study. Mr Blazey said that the trans-Tasman working party had agreement from

the 1.R.8. that its plans would not be rejected out of hand. “It would be completely and utterly unforgiveable if it was,” he said. Mr Johnson, regarded as the council’s liberal, responded to Mr Blazey by saying that rugby is tending to “fly by the seat of its pants.” “Some of the old methods of doing things are not going to solve anything,” he said. “They (the 1.R.8.) to a degree epitomise status quo management and that is not good enough.” Mr Johnson’s comments on the World Cup were to the point. “If the 1.R.8. won’t do it, we should tell them we’ll do it on our, own.”