Coll to make delayed “debut” for Canterbury

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 10

Coll to make delayed “debut” for Canterbury

Fourteen years ago a young rugby league forward twice pulled on a Canterbury jersey, only to sit on the reserves’ bench as his team beat Wellington B and lost to Wellington A during a quadrangular tournament in Wellington.

He was in good company. On the field were five forwards who had or were to represent New ZealandRod Walker, Alan Rushton, Jim White, John Greengrass and Jim Fisher. The only non-international was Rod MacKenzie, now a prominent referee.

But the youngster was never to carry his Canterbury jersey into action. The next season he returned to the West Coast, and a year later he made the first of his 30 test appearances at the World Cup tournament in France.

That omission from Tony Coll’s proud record will be rectified on Easter Sunday when, by invitation, he plays for a Canterbury XIII against New Zealand Marist at the Show Grounds. Coll came to Christchurch in 1970 as a second-row or loose forward for exceptional potential. The previous winter, aged 18, he had been a reserve for a strong New Zealand Marist side

which included nine Kiwis and was good enough to challenge Auckland. The pace and penetration displayed by Coll assisted the Marist-Western Suburbs club to reach the championship grand final and there was no doubt in the minds of those who appreciated his emerging talent that he would have an extensive first-class career.

When Coll retired from representative football after the 1982 season his statistics were indeed impressive: 65 appearances for his country, 58 for West Coast and 227 senior matches for the Greymouth Marist club

which he served from his schoolboy days. Coll virtually held a monopoly on his province’s “sportsman of the year” award—sometimes in company with his Kiwi teammate, Ray Baxendale—during the 19705. Coll’s ability to slip the tackles of his opponents, and his determined defence were among the few consistencies as New Zealand soldiered through a difficult decade against far more S' sional rivals. He capthe Kiwis in the 1977 World Cup series. But two of Coll’s greatest leadership achievements were with South Island. In 1967 he captained the side which upset a formidable Sydney Metropolitan, 18-17, and four years later saw his team through an even more tense time in its 12-11 triumph over Australia.

Spectators at the Show Grounds have long had cause to appreciate Coll’s skills, even if he was frequently wearing the West Coast’s red-and-white gear and plotting Canterbury’s downfall. On Easter Sunday they will at last have the opportunity of seeing him in the Canterbury colours. JOHN COFFEY