Papers predict ‘bloodbath’

Press, 4 November 1989, Page 96

Papers predict ‘bloodbath’

PA Cardiff Two British newspapers yesterday predicted a violent confrontation in Sunday’s rugby test between the All Blacks and Wales. The “Daily Mirror” ran a large piece on the test under the giant headline “Bloodbath” while “The Sun” quoted the Welsh prop, Mike Griffiths, warning the All Blacks not to start any trouble. The “Daily Mirror” rugby writer, Colin Price, predicted that a Welsh win will be

achieved at a cost — “a trial by terror.” “Events in the last week have taken such an ugly turn that noone is in any doubt that an historic win for Wales will have to be written in blood,” he wrote. Price singled out incidents on tour, including the trampling of the Llanelli lock, Phil May and the punch of the Newport flanker, Andy Pocock, which cost him three teeth, in saying the All Blacks have retained their rugged image. “With flying boots and bony

knuckles they have shown that the old habits haven’t entirely been abandoned whenever anyone dares to stand up to them.” The Newport team “paid a sickening price for trying to mix it with these unsmiling tourists.

“Time was when battered players would go off with their arms round their opponents, straight to the bar and strike up lifelong friendships.

“But these new All Blacks are utterly professional and waste little time in the old-fashioned niceties.”