Accolades for Green, Smith

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 24

Accolades for Green, Smith

Two Canterbury backs, Craig Green and Wayne Smith, are among the five “players of the year” for 1985 chosen by the “DB Rugby Annual.” (Moa Publications; 157 pp; $24.96.) The other three are Kieran Crowley (Taranaki), Steve McDowell (Auckland) and Wayne Shelford (North Harbour). Green was an obvious choice after his earlier selection as the national “Player of the Year,” and while fairly describing him as “a wonderfully versatile footballer” the annual heaps praise on Green for his tryscoring abilities. Green, himself, may get a chuckle from the description of him as a fleet-footed wing. For quite a' while after he moved from the midfield to the wing in 1982 lack of true speed was seen as his one drawback. Smith is described as one of the best attacking first five-eighths New Zealand has produced, and the annual bemoans the fact that he was- denied the opportunity to show what he could do on the firm South African fields in 1985. Against the Springboks Smith, it is suggested, might have been a match winner. Crowley, if only for his goal-kicking, and McDowell, the outstanding player in the epic Canterbury-Auck-land Ranfurly Shield match, are choices which should be well received, while Wayne Shelford was undoubtedly the player to make the most

progress in 1985. On the score of achievements alone, Shelford is deserving of recognition. There was certainly not much he missed out on. He began the season by going to Hong Kong with the national sevens side, played for the North Island and New Zealand Maoris, went on tour with the New Zealand Emerging Players team, became an All Black in Argentina and then took off for Britain with the New Zealand Combined Services .side. Between times, Shelford led the North Harbour union from the third to the second division in its inaugural year. In his review of the year, the annual’s editor, Bob Howitt, comes down heavily on the New Zealand Rugby Union for various actions, and inactions. He laments the cancellation of the tour to South Africa, but goes no further than to say that “there was plenty to criticise surrounding the High Court case on the South African tour, which the N.Z.R.F.U. lost so ignominiously.” He does add, though, that by the time the tour was cancelled rugby people were heartily sick of the arguments for and against. “Once the High Court judge delivered his judgment, the tour was over. And that was that. Rugby Hie know when they are sn and there wasn’t any point in protesting.” Howitt says that the cancellation of the tour trans-

formed the season into a purely domestic one and the N.Z.R.F.U.’s decision not to allow a live telecast of the Canterbury-Auckland Ranfurly Shield game was rendered an even bigger blunder. Others, according to Howitt, were ignoring the experts and applying the depowered scrums to the senior levels; the charging of $l6 for a stand seat to the England tests; and allowing the game’s most famous trophy, the Ranfurly Shield, to be commercialised. On the brighter side, Howitt mentions North Harbour’s excellent first year, the fine advertisement for rugby that the CanterburyAuckland shield game was, and the success of the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour to Argentina, a country which has much to offer New Zealand rugby. In what must have been a concerted production effort, the annual contains full coverage of the Argentine tour. In keeping with the reputation it has built up in its fifteen years of existence, the annual provides very full accounts and statistics of the domestic season. The Canterbury-Auckland game is given due attention, including some excellent colour photographs, and the record-equalling shield reign that that game ended is favourably reviewed. A few insights into the reign are revealed in an interview with the Canterbury coach,

Alex Wyllie. As always, the annual is a rugby buffs delight. It has all the facts, and the pre-

sentation is such that .its worth extends beyond that of a mere reference book. K.J.M.