Campese offers little comment on Griffiths joining Saints

Press, 16 May 1989, Page 36

Campese offers little comment on Griffiths joining Saints

NZPA-AAP London The Australian rugby union wing, David Campese, has offered little comment on St Helens rugby league club snaring the 24-year-old Welsh halfback, Jonathan Griffiths, for a reported fee of £150,000 ($NZ272,000). “That’s good news for him,” Campese yesterday said from Italy, where he finished his off-season stint with the Milan Club at the week-end.

St Helens, waving a cheque for about £300,000 ($NZ818,000), lias been after Campese since the record-breaking Wallaby scored a hat-trick of tries for Australia in its 55-6

win over Italy in the Bicentennial tour last December.

St Helens, humiliated in the 0-27 loss to Wigan at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final three weeks ago, has made no secret of the fact it is after some top class rugby union players in a revamping of its player lists. The club named Griffiths and Campese as two it was talking to. St Helens put 13 players on the transfer list last Thursday. Asked if Griffiths’ signing had taken any pressure off him or changed St Helens’ offer for him, Campese said: “I leave all that now to my advisers

in Sydney. “I let them handle everything so I can just get on with playing rugby.” The 26-year-old wing said his friend and adviser, Darryl MacGraw, had been the one talking to the St Helens chairman, Joe Pickavance.? Meanwhile, Griffiths said he. had spokemjwith his former Welsh rugby captain, Jonathan Davies — now with Widnes — before signing a five-year contract with Saints. He signed just before kick-off in the first division premiership final at Old Trafford at the weekend between Hull and Widnes. Griffiths, selected

for Wales for the end-of-season tour to Canada, was also sought by Warrington. The capture of Griffiths makes amends for Saints’ failure to capture a trio of big name players in recent seasons. Saints missed out to Hull-Kingston Rovers for the Welsh rugby union scrum-half, David Bishop, two seasons ago and then lost a legal tug of war to Wigan for the New Zealand test prop, Adrian Shelford. Saints fans were also bitterly disappointed when Davies turned down the first division club’s offer and then opted for Widnes in January.