Coach’s comments upset Coasters

Press, 24 October 1989, Page 38

Coach’s comments upset Coasters

By

PAT TAYLOR

in Greymouth comments by the New Zealand Rugby League coach, Mr Tony Gordon, after the Kiwis’ visit to Cumbria have upset the chairman of the West Coast Rugby League, Mr Ted Gutberlet A newspaper report said it was a match the Kiwis could have done without as they tried to focus on the first test against Britain. The game required a long bus trip and a night away from the Kiwi base in York, and involved a game against representatives of lowgraded clubs. “It’s a promotion game,” Mr Gordon is quoted as saying in the “New Zealand Herald.” “It’s like playing the West Coast It’s a bus trip to get there, which 1 makes it hard.” Mr Gutberlet said yesterday the West Coast had won all five of its representative matches this year, including two against first-division teams, Bay of Plenty and Canterbury. “We won the South Island second-division title over Canterbury Emerging Players, which is up to the standard of the Canterbury A team. “If Mr Gordon wants any promotions done, it should be concentrated on the centre of the North Island. All the West Coast players have been home-bred, and we didn’t require any imports to gain results.”