No clear-cut favourite for vital league test

Press, 9 November 1985, Page 80

No clear-cut favourite for vital league test

NZPA special correspondent BRUCE MONTGOMERIE Harrogate The Great Britain coach, Maurice Bamford, the man behind Britain’s great rugby league revival, is wary of New Zealand in the third and deciding test at Leeds tomorrow (NJZ. time). Mr Bamford still rates the Kiwis as the best team on the circuit and says anyone who makes Great Britain favourite for the test would have to be daft. “If this test follows the pattern of the first two it

will be a cracker one,” said Mr Bamford. “The first test put us in the right frame of mind and the second was good from our point of view. “This will be a memorable game as on form New Zealand is still the best team on the international circuit,” said Mr Bamford. The pressure is on the New Zealand team to lift its game. Mr Bamford can afford to be complacent after thrashing the Kiwis 25-8 in the second test at Wigan last week-end. New Zealand scraped home in the first

test 24-22 with a last minute try but seemed to rest on its laurels after that victory which was its fifth successive test win. Mr Bamford has retained his winning combination while New Zealand, desperately trying to Improve its form, has made wholesale changes. The Kiwis have shown nothing like the form which earned them the title of the best team in the world after their great three-test series against Australia earlier this year. In contrast they have been listless and

lacked penetration. The Kiwis have gambled on two newcomers, the hooker, Wayne Wallace, and a wing, Darrell Williams. - They have also taken a chance on positional changes shifting another wing, Dean Bell, to centre, Fred Ah Kuoi to stand-off half,-Gary Prohm from centre to loose forward and Kurt Sorensen from prop to second row. The coach, Graham Lowe, has admitted the Kiwis have their backs to the wall and has sought the most penetrative line-up he can find selecting players on current

form. The Great Britain captain, Harry Pinner, thinks there will not be much in tomorrow’s test Pinner said that it will be closer than the second test last week-end. “I am not too confident we can win,” said Pinner. “We played well and finished our chances well in the second test,” he said. “Everything went right for us on the day but the Kiwis will be fired up for this one.” New - Zealand needs an attendance of 30,959 tomorrow to attract the biggest crowd to an Anglo-New

Zealand test series in England since 1951. The Kiwis have attracted 28,097 to the two tests played so far, already bettering the series figures of 13,351 in 1971 and 26,187 in 1980. This year’s test figures are only 4103 behind the 1965 test series total. A total of 59,056 watched the 1961 three test series. A crowd of 28,721 will better the 1955 test series total of 56,818 meaning the Kiwis will be the second most popular New Zealand team to tour England since 1951.