Race against time for John Schuster and Alan Whetton

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 32

Race against time for John Schuster and Alan Whetton

By

DAVID LEGGAT

of NZPA in Swansea Two All Blacks, Alan Whetton, and John Schuster, face a race against time to be fit for the rugby international against Wales on November 4. Both suffered injuries during yesterday’s 37-22 win over Swansea. The blind side flanker, Whetton, has the worst injury, a bad hamstring strain, and is unlikely to be ready to play until just before the test. The second five-eighths, Schuster, reactivated a groin strain he suffered at training on Thursday. He is expected to be ready to return about three days before the test. The coach, Alex Wyllie, said he was reluctant to speculate on the injuries until they had “settled down in a couple of days.” However, he has an able replacement for Whetton in the rugged Canterbury loose forward, Andy Earl, who is in excellent form. Schuster’s backup is North Harbour’s Walter Little, who has shown himself to be well up to

the highest class, but is on only his first overseas tour with the All Blacks. • Swansea did the Welsh team a favour with its spirited performance yesterday according to the coach, Alun Donovan. Swansea reinforced the thinking that Cardiff instilled in the first match of the All Blacks tour in Wales last Saturday.

“We have to stop thinking they’re superhuman. We showed they’re not superhuman — they’ve got two legs just like us,” Mr Donovan said after his team had given the All Blacks a tough contest yesterday. Mr Donovan and his captain, Robert Jones, believed the final scoreline was not an accurate indication of Swansea’s performance. “We played the way we wanted to and the scoreline didn’t reflect the character of the game. “We scored 19 points in the second half and not many teams have done that against the All Blacks,” he said. Jones, possibly the player of the match on a cold, windy day, was rightly proud of his players. “There was a lot of satisfaction. We went in as no-hopers and people were writing us off. “I don’t think the score justified our performance. At several stages of the game the All Blacks had their backs to the wall but we didn’t put enough pressure on,” said Jones. Mr Wyllie was happy to pick up a crucial six points right on half-time which gave the tourists a 21-3 lead at the interval, having had the wind at their backs. Mr Wyllie would not be drawn on

whether his side was flattered to be that far ahead. “That was a vital score because they did play very well. It’s points on the board that matter. Whether you deserve to have them or not doesn’t count,” he said. In the end the All Blacks won by a margin of 15 points, which was satisfying, but it conceded three tries in the match. “If you win by 10-15 points you can’t complain, but we want to work on the number scored against us. That’s something for us to look at,” Mr Wyllie said. • Swansea failed to beat the All Blacks yesterday, but it did get its name in the record books. In going down 37-22 at the St Helen’s ground, Swansea scored three tries against the All Blacks. No non-international side has done that to the All Blacks since the French Selection managed three in its 23-19 loss to the tourists at Clermont-Ferrand in 1986. Swansea became the first Welsh side to score more than 20 points against the All Blacks, and it equalled the try-scoring achievements of the Swansea and Welsh teams of 1935-36. Match report, page 18