Rugby league series start delayed

Press, 15 October 1985, Page 40

Rugby league series start delayed

PA Auckland The national inter-dis-tricts rugby league series will begin later next year as the result of the rejection of a series of selection matches proposed by the national coach, Mr Graham Lowe.

The Kiwi coach had wanted a series between his selection and each of the inter-districts teams as a guide to selection of the 1986 Kiwis to tour Australia and Papua New Guinea. But delegates at the New Zealand Rugby League national committee of leagues conference in Auckland have rejected the proposal as unnecessary and likely to cause too much interruption to club programmes. In a season already loaded with representative football and the proposed World University Championship matches, fitting the extra selection matches into the year’s fixtures was not welcomed. The inter-districts matches, which were to have been played before the selection matches, will now be played from May 24, with the final match between Auckland and South Island at Auckland on June 15.

Immediately after the match, the final teams will be named for the trial on June 18. Auckland will have two away games in the 1986 inter-districts series. They will play Northern Districts at Rotorua on June 7, and Central Districts in Wellington or New Plymouth on May 24. The South Island plays Northern at Greymouth on May 25, and Central at Christchurch on June 8. Central plays Northern at Gisborne, New Plymouth or Wellington on June 14. Delegates heard that the five-year plan of the N.Z.R.L. was on target with the junior programme under the guidance of Mr Bob Hall, the assistant national coach. “One or two of the Junior Kiwis who toured Australia are already potential Kiwis, and others have only to work a little harder to be in the same position,” said Mr Ron McGregor, the N.Z.R.L. president.