S. Africa barred from World Cup

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 30

S. Africa barred from World Cup

NZPA staff correspondent London South Africa is excluded from the International Rugby Board world cup tournament to be held in Australia and New Zealand in May and June, 1987. The first matches will be on Saturday, May 24. The final is in New Zealand on Saturday, June 21, the chairman of the steering committee, Mr John Kendall-Carpenter, said. Mr Kendall-Carpenter said invitations had been sent to the following 16 nations: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, France (all IRB members) and Argentina, Canada, Fiji, Italy, Japan, Romania, Tonga, U.S.A, and Zimbabwe. Speaking at a news conference in London, he said the “local arrangements are in the hands of the organisation committee constituted by the Australian and New Zealand Rugby Football Unions.” That committee is chaired jointly by Sir Nicholas Shehadie (Australia) and Mr Dick Littlejohn (New Zealand). The unions have to respond

to their invitations by September 30 this year. The IRB agreed in March to stage a World Cup, after years of opposition from British unions. But the steering committee set up to oversee the organisation by New Zealand and Australia has not until now committed itself publicly on the question of South Africa's participation. Mr John Kendall-Carpenter, a Somerset headmaster, said after the March meeting in Paris that all the ramifications of South Africa’s exclusion would have to be considered. “We’ve got to evaluate all the possibilities and see whether the whole thing is thrown away because of that, or whether you can keep it alive with one nation in cold storage,” he said. With the New Zealand and Australian Governments taking strong stands against admitting South African teams to their countries, and as the neighbouring Tasman unions campaigned hard to develop a successful cup concept, the issue has always seemed cut and dried.