Taylor fit to play

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 72

Taylor fit to play

The All Black and Canterbury second five-eighths, Warwick Taylor, will play his first game of rugby this year when he appears for his University club at Lancaster Park this afternoon. Taylor’s last game was for the All Blacks against Scotland at Murrayfield in October. He had to leave the field with a badly damaged left knee and underwent an operation in London before returning home. Taylor has been training with University for more than a month, but it was only this week that he received a medical clearance to play. “The knee has taken longer than expected to come right, but it feels okay

and I have no worries about my general fitness,” said Taylor yesterday. University may need Taylor. Ordinarily it would be expected to beat its opponent today, Suburbs, without much trouble, but University will be without a number of its best players. Dale Atkins, Rob Moffat, Merv Aoake and Craig McDowell are all on tour with New Zealand Universities, and Andrew McMaster is in doubt because of a knee injury he suffered while playing for Combined Services against Wellington this week. On top of this, Suburbs, with wins in its last three games, is having one of its best seasons. The game will be very

important for Taylor, both as a test for his knee and his general fitness. He has been nominated for the All Black trials later this month and the trial teams will be named next week. Tayior said yesterday that he was keen to make the trials, and his form today might well determine whether or not he wins a place. One ground change has been made for today’s senior round. The Marist v. Hornby game has been switched from Denton Oval to Warren Park, still at 2.45 p.m. The fourth grade curtain-raiser, Hornby A v. Parklands A, is also shifted to Warren Park. It will be played at the same time.