CHOOSING OF TRIAL TEAMS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 70, 20 September 1927, Page 6

CHOOSING OF TRIAL TEAMS

ABE ALL PLAYERS ELIGIBLE?

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, 19th September. At a meeting of the committee of the Otago Rugby Union to-night, Mr. H. Harris asked if all players taking part in the trial match at Carisbrook next Saturday were prepared to go to South Africa if selected.

Mr. Mitchell, one of the selectors, said that two members at least of the combined North Otago-Otago-Southland team had informed him that they would not go. The idea of the selectors had been to give players who could make the trip everfc. assistance in" giving them strongest supporting players in preference to selecting others who had no chance of selection.

Mr. Harris said he did not think that was a fair procedure. He thought the selectors should have picked only those who were available to go. It had been shown-by the northern tour of the Otago team that several of their players had shown form quite beyond local expectations, and now have to stand down and give way to men who could not make the trip.

Mr. Mitchell said that that was so. A weak point seemed to have been that the combined team was picked too early. It was pointed out that no definite ruling had been received from the New Zealand Union regarding the manner in which teams should be nicked, and that to this extent the governing body should have been more explicit.