Press ganging the press

Press, 30 May 1986, Page 20

Press ganging the press

The “fun” day of the Cavaliers’ rugby tour of South Africa is when the mail arrives from New Zealand. Each mail or each arriving wife brings vast piles of clippings from the New Zealand. newspaper coverage of the rebel tour.

The players quite often assemble in a group and solemnly read their way through the thousands of words.

Then having lit upon something that does not take their fancy, they look about to see if the offending reporter is within reach. Sometimes,

they may find something they like and one or two will perhaps offer a compliment. But generally, they are over-sensitive about any reports that irritate them and one or two of the younger reporters have been severely chided by Andy Dalton, whose business it may be as captain, and by Andy Haden, whose business it is not. The more experienced South African reporters with the tour were aghast at the Cavaliers’ rather cavalier attitude to them early in the tour. The local reporters

need many stories, preferably of personal nature, to feed the vast rugby publicity machine in South Africa. They were astounded when the Cavaliers were so stand-offish at the start. However, sometimes things change. A. C. Parker, the veteran Cape Times rugby man, wrote a sharp indictment of Haden’s hectoring of the touch judge during the Western Province match. The next South African reporter who approached Haden was given a very terse send-off. However, while this

was happening, one of Haden’s teammates pointed out that the same reporter was lending them his car that evening. AH of a sudden there was peace and light — and the required interview. The New Zealand media people tend to get most of the stick and not only from the players. A young reporter and a Radio New Zealand man were ticked off very severely at an aftermatch cocktail party by one of the players’ wives. She criticised the reports they had sent home.

In any case, she said, they should not be in South Africa and the whole tour would go more smoothly without them. She was really warming up when she was interrupted by the rather more official, speechmaking of the evening. It is not uncommon on official All Black tours for the players to keep the media at arm’s length. There has been a wall between the two for some years. This time there is sometimes barbed wire along the top. DON CAMERON