Sport Tourists of ’85 in class of their own

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 31

Sport Tourists of ’85 in class of their own

JOHN COFFEY,

“The Press” rugby

league reporter, led a supporters’ group to coincide with the Kiwi tour to Britain and France late last year. There has been plenty of evidence to suggest New Zealand will maintain its high standing in the sport.

When the Kiwis set off on their rugby league campaign to Britain and France, they had as their objectives the winning of both test series, and the wish to develop the potential of the many young players in their squad. It is now a matter of record that a sixth intrusion by one of the touch judges — all of his entrances resulting in penalties to Great Britain — forced the Kiwis to share an exciting and controversial test series in England.

Mark Graham’s men were to return the best results against the British clubs of any New Zealand team, and, now under the leadership of Hugh McGahan, the 1985 Kiwis will also be remembered as the only side to win every game in France. But because of their comprehensive defeat at Wigan and the tied totals at Eiland Road, Leeds, history will slot this team in between the Kiwi combinations of 1971 (who triumphed in two of the British tests and had two test victories and a draw in France) and 1980 (when the series were drawn on both flanks of the English Channel).

The international fixtures apart, the Kiwis did well to recover from a first-up loss to the Challenge Cup holder, Wigan, to beat comfortably such equally imposing opponents as Hull Kingston Rovers, St Helens, Leeds, Widnes and Hull. The 46-8 scoreline at St Helens represented a new high for a New Zealand match in England. However, the amazing effort of the 10 survivors — after Howie Tamati, Clayton Friend and Olsen Filipaina had been dismissed, along with two

opponents — in overcoming a 10-point deficit to thrash Hull, 33-10, surmounted all else on tour. France is far removed from being a rugby league colossus, though the deeds of some of the provincial selections suggested improvement should be shown by the time of the 1987 tour to Australia and New Zealand.

In the two tests, the French had no answer to the experience and superior tactics of the Kiwis. For the first time one

country failed to score a point against another in a test series; and for good measure New Zealand’s biggest winning margin in any game was achieved when Languedoc-Roussillon-grabbed an early field goal and then conceded the other 66 points in the match. It is only because New Zealand has never been held in higher regard as an international force that the 1985 tour fell just short of expectations as far as -results alone were concerned. It is heartening for the code as a whole that the British have the physical (and psychological?) attributes to trouble the Australians in England later this year. The second aim, to turn potential into the finished product and find New Zealand’s “next” test line-up, was outstandingly successful. The class of ’B5 was full of honours students as it responded to Graham Lowe’s teachings. Unlike every other venture to Britain and France, there were no abject failures among this lot. There were some deficiencies, sure, but their strengths tended to balance their personal ledgers.

Vaun O’Cailaghan recovered from a disastrous start at Wigan to show that, at the age of 18, he should not be written off. The wings, Mark Bourneville and Shane Horo, used their respective assets of strength and speed to prove fine finishers, if leaving reservations about their handling (Bourneville) and confidence under high kicks (Horo). Even Mark Elia, whose devastating sidestep and acceleration in the centres carried him through and away for 12 tries in 14 appearances, needs to hone the timing of his passes and inject more authority into his defensive duties. The West Coast scrumhalf, Glen Gibb, inevitably performed in Friend’s shadow in the early stages before stamping his own mark in France, particularly against Midi-Pyrenees

in a surprisingly tough encounter in Toulouse. Of the more seasoned forwards, Ricky Cowan and, quite often, Owen Wright fell short of the standards which have made them regular members of Mr Lowe’s test squads.

Howie Tamati’s test career was closed at 24 matches when Wayne Wallace overtook him in their hooking rivalry, and Graeme West had not sufficiently recovered from injury when called in to join the touring party. It is likely that the Sorensen brothers, Dane and Kurt (who has split the family partnership by signing with Widnes for the next three British winters), McGahan and Graham will again be the nucleus of the Kiwi pack against Australia at Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane next July.

Never before have they had so much pressure imposed upon them by other claimants. Wallace could not be denied recognition for the last three tests “up north,” and James Gouldmg, Sam Stewart, Brent Todd and the transplant inside back, Ron O’Regan, all had a sample of life in the A team’s forward pack. It was an open secret that the Canterbury prop, Ross Taylor, was uppermost in Mr Lowe’s thoughts as he aproached the second British test, only for Taylor to suffer a double fracture of an arm and return home ahead of two other casualties, Graham and Joe Ropati.

Adrian Shelford, who graduated from the secondrow to virtually a specialist front-row role, must have been tantalisingly close to test recognition, too.

Shelford’s work-rate waa invariably high, and if the British and French had been generous in shelling out “man of the match” awards,the Canterbury player would have reaped a good proportion of them. The proud tradition of southern forword strength was maintained by Wallace,

Shelford, Taylor and Todd.

The latter arrived as a replacement, having been plucked from a Sydney water polo pool, and took part in seven of the eight remaining games, culminating with a brief test appearance as a substitute at Perpignan. Even more sensational was the entry of Marty Crequer. He had been an original tour selection, then was an enforced withdrawal because of a broken jaw, and finally the reinforcement filling the gap left by

Ropati. Six fixtures remained when Crequer arrived and he was to be involved in all of those 480 minutes (or thereabouts, for some French referees seem to tailor their timing to suit the situation). He showed no hint of his long layoff in making a tryscoring debut in that magmificent shambles of a match at Hull, and two more tries against the largely-Australian . line-up labelled “Rest of the World” at Narbonne had Crequer

close to test honours. Darrell Williams is the logical successor to Gary Kemble as New Zealand’s premier full-back, and while the exceedingly safe Kemble continues to wear the No. 1 jersey, his challenger will be a candidate in his alternative wing role. The skilful Shane Cooper temporarily supplanted FiliC* a at stand-off half, and cause to be well satisfied with his deeds overseas. Filipaina, the only consistent goal-kicker available, responded admirably.

It is an interesting exercise to rate the 1985 tourists on points out of 10. In spite of a temptation to give Bell the maximum, it must be admitted that the perfect footballer has yet to be found. The rankings are: -

Nine points: Bell, Dane Sorensen, Kurt Sorensen. Eight points: Crequer, Friend, Graham, McGahan, O’Regan, Shelford, Todd, Wallace, Williams. .

Seven points: Cooper, Elia, Goulding, Stewart, Taylor.

Six points: Bourneville, Filipaina, Gibb, Howie Tamati, Wright. Five points: Cowan, Horo, f O’Callaghan, Ropati.