Rugby numbers drop

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 8

Rugby numbers drop

The harsh reality of life without the Ranfurly Shield was brought home to the Canterbury Rugby Union as it disussed last week’s Taranaki game at its meeting last evening.

The appalling weather may have accounted for one of the smallest crowds ever to watch a representative fixture at Lancaster Park, but it could not explain the fact that only 50 tickets were sold before the match day. As a result the union decided that there would be no pre-game sales for the next national championship game at the park, against Walrarapa-Bush on July 23. This is in line with the prac-

tice being adopted by other major unions. "Last Wednesday’s game was one of the poorest gates we have ever had, which was a shame for the two teams turned on a wonderful dis-

play in what were most difficult conditions,” said the chairman, Les Russell. "I guess like everyone we have our good days and we have our bad ones; we can’t really complain after some of the gates we have had in recent years,” he , added. The publicity chairman, Tony Smith, got a chuckle when he said that he had an “awful lot of programmes left from last Wednesday if anyone Is interested.”