Lochore attacks S.P.C.

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 31

Lochore attacks S.P.C.

PA Wellington A former All Black captain and coach, Brian Lochore, has described the South Pacific rugby championship as “the worst thing for rugby in New Zealand that has ever happened.” Mr Lochore, the No. 8 and captain of the All Blacks from 1966 until 1970, and coach for three years including the World Cup in 1987, said he had written to the New Zealand Rugby Union in 1984 about the bad effects of intermingling club and representative rugby. "My views on the South Pacific series haven’t changed since it was first mooted,” Mr Lochore said. Auckland’s All Black lock, Gary Whetton, has voiced

concern at the demands on top players by early-season tournaments, followed up by the national championship and international play. Two leading Wellington club coaches, Maurice Standish (Marist-St Pat’s) and Malcolm Bridge (Wellington), have also blamed the S.P.C. series for disrupting club rugby. This year another preseason competition, the C.A.N.Z. (Canada, Argentina, New Zealand) tournament involving Otago, Waikato and North Auckland, has begun and there are suggestions of another involving mid-North Island provincial teams starting next year. Mr Lochore admitted his World Cup-winning All Black

side received some benefit from the S.P.C. series, which began in 1986 and comprises Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Queensland, New South Wales and Fiji.

“When the 1985 All Blacks in Argentina first heard about it there were groans all around the room. No player was ever asked his opinion about the concept. The administrators have forgotten that the players enjoy playing for their clubs and now they are not being given the opportunity to do so.”

Mr Lochore added the S.P.C. series left a “grossly unfair” club competition in the three New Zealand provinces, with all the leading players called away on earlyseason representative duty.