Last tour of N.Z. for ‘world’s greatest player’

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 44

Last tour of N.Z. for ‘world’s greatest player’

PA Blenheim The next 10 days will mark probably the final opportunity for New Zealand rugby followers to see live the sparkling skills of the man voted the world’s greatest player. “For me, this will be the last tour of New Zealand,” Frenchman Serge Blanco said yesterday. There may have been critics here who disputed French rugby magazine MidiOlympique’s choice of Blanco as the best player in the world in 1988, ahead of the All Blacks, John Kirwan and Wayne Shelford. But the 30-year-old Biarritz fullback silenced many doubters with a coruscating performance in the first test against New Zealand at Lancaster Park last Saturday. Not only did he add the finishing flourish to two magnificent tries in France’s spirited revival early in the second half, but he augmented his display with some raking touchfinders and an innate sense of being in the right place at the right time. “It was an enormous disappointment,” he said of the 2517 loss, after the Tricolors had fought back from an 18-0 halftime deficit.

“Winning the second test will be difficult, but if we believe in ourselves, I think we can succeed.

“If you look at the game in Christchurch, we managed to put some doubts in the minds of the All Blacks.

"And if you consider recent results, France is the only team not to have been thrashed by New Zealand.”

If Blanco is selected for the Eden Park test — and only injury looks likely to rob him of place in the starting XV — he will become the most

capped player in his country’s history. At present, he shares that distinction with Roland Bertranne, an outside back who made 69 appearances for France between 1971-81. But records hold little interest for Blanco, who also toured New Zealand in 1979, 1984 and 1986, and played in the World Cup final in Auckland in 1987. "No, the seventieth match will be just the same as the others,” said the man who believes his game is still evolving.

Asked whether he will still be playing when the 1991 World Cup comes around, he replied: “I don’t know. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I’ll just take each game as it comes.” One thing Blanco is certain about is that he will turn down any invitation he might receive to take part in the South African Rugby Board’s centenary celebrations in

August. He made his test debut in the republic in 1980 and toured there again two years later as a member of a Five Nations side. “I went because I wanted to see for myself,” he said. “And I thought I could show people that a black person was equal to a white person. “But since then, things have happened there that show relations between blacks and whites have worsened.” Blanco was born in Caracas of a French mother and a black Venezuelan father. His father died when Blanco was still a child, and he moved to Biarritz at the age of two. Because the household was not well off, he was forced to leave school at 16 and begin working. His sporting prowess was recognised by Nantes soccer club, which offered him an apprenticeship, but he turned it down in favour of rugby. Blanco is now employed in the public relations department of a drinks firm with the former French captain, Jean-Pierre Rives. His rise in international rugby has been contemporaneous with the French coach, Jacques Fouroux’s own increasing profile. “There were quite a few young players starting at the same time as I was,” Blanco said. “But French rugby then was based less on teamwork than it is now. “Since Jacques Fouroux became coach, the French game has become more defined and the players are now going in the same direction. “Every player is now an important part of the team.”