SPOKE HIS MIND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 117, 20 May 1939, Page 23

SPOKE HIS MIND

RUGfcY UNION DELEGATE

COUNTRY NOMINATIONS

Although some of his views were not popular, and he probably knew they would not be before he gave expression to them, nevertheless Mr. D. G. McMillan, representing the Thames Valley Union, showed no timidity in speaking his mind at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

His references in the morning session to some of the refereeing in the matches with the South African team in 1937 resulted in the Hon. J. McLeod (Taranaki) charging him with having made an unjust and untrue reflection upon referees appointed to those matches.

Then during the afternoon Mr., McMillan spoke up just as strongly, this time expressing the view that the sending of nominations of players from the smaller districts to the Rugby Union Council in Wellington was an absolute farce.

He contended that the country player had the hardest job in the world to gain recognition in this way. This prompted a question from Mr. S. S. Dean.

"You have no faith then in the

selectors?" he asked Mr. McMillan.

It was not that, replied Mr. McMillan. He thought that the selection system was entirely wrong; a selection should be made in some way in the country. TOO LIGHTLY?

The nominations of players were sent on to Wellington, and they were treated too lightly or not at all. Mr. Dean: By whom?' Mr. McMillan: By the powers that be.

Mr. Dean: To whom do you refer?

Mf. McMillan said he wished to 2s*fefc -the point perfectly plain. n A country selector sent his nominations jto "WfillingtaP and the selector or selectors of the teams for major engagements had not the means of summing these men up.

Mr. Dean: The trouble is that some selectors think their men are the best in the world, but other selectors think differently.

Mr. McMillan: I am putting forward a plea for country players for bigger matches. That is all. "The nominations go forward now and they are never heard of."

Speaking as one who had handled nominations of players over a long period, said Mr. Ted McKenzie, the New Zealand selector, Mr. McMillan was mistaken in his idea of what happened or had been misinformed. Every nomination that was sent forward to the New Zealand Union was forwarded to him. If Mr. McMillan