Cutler in Sydney team

Press, 24 July 1984, Page 40

Cutler in Sydney team

NZPA staff correspondent Canberra The All Blacks will once again have the Wallaby lineout ace, Steve Cutler, to tangle with when they play the Sydney representative side in the seventh match of their Australian tour in Sydney on Saturday. Cutler, who was the dominant figure in Australia’s 16-9 test win two days ago, is reunited with his test locking partner Steve Williams, in Saturday’s Sydney team which includes 11 present or former Wallabies. There are some surprises, particularly the non-selec-tion of the New South Wales representatives Bill Calcraft, James Black, Dene

Glasson and Steve Lidbury, but the team is still a strong one. The Ella triumvirate, Mark, Glen and Gary, is reestablished. The three are included in a backline which also comprises the Wallabies Michael Hawker and Philip Cox, both principals in Australia’s test win on Saturday. The presence of Cutler and Williams adds impressive strength to a forward pack which includes Wallabies in Ross Reynolds, Simon Poidevan, Peter Lucas, Lance Walker and Enrique Rodriguez. Reynolds, Poidevan, Cutler, Williams and Rodriguez took part in Saturday’s test. Walker and Lucas toured New Zealand in 1982

with Bob Dwyer’s Wallaby side. Lucas, usually a number eight, is favoured by the Sydney selectors on the side of the scrum ahead of the New South Wales breakaway and captain, Calcraft. Black has been dropped from full-back to allow Glen Ella’s selection while the Port Hacking tighthead, Mark Harding, is preferred to Glasson. Lidbury, who locked the New South Wales scrum against New Zealand two weeks ago in a team which also included Black, Calcraft and Glasson, is not surprisingly unable to win selection because of the presence of Williams and Cutler.