ALL BLACKS' TOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23384, 28 June 1939, Page 15

ALL BLACKS' TOUR

ITINERARY CRITICISED KIMBERLEY GAME TOO SOON HIGH LEVEL AND HARD GROUND [nr TKLKGRAm —Pit ESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday An alteration to the provisional itinerary of the All Blacks' tour of South Africa next year will be recommended to the New Zealand 1! ugby Council by tho Canterbury Union. At a meeting of the union's management committee members condemned the proposed arrangement, whereby the team plays its second match of the tour at Kimberley, a centre noted for its difficulties of acclimatisation on account of the altitude and for the crops of injuries which teams suffer there because of the hard flinty ground. It was decided to recommend that the matches at Durban, Port Elizabeth. East London and Oudtshoorn lie played before the match at Kimberley. Chance to get Broken In During the discussion the president. Mr. .J. Iv. Moloney, said that the experience of the 1928 team that toured South Africa should have been sufficient warning for the New Zealand Union. No amount of bandaging and padding could prevent players suffering cuts and abrasions on the Kimberley ground, and ho thought it quite unnecessary that this ordeal should be faced at the beginning of the tour before the players were hardened and fit. The first match would be at Durban, at sea level and on a ground of the soft grassy kind familiar to New Zealanders. Obviously the South African board could arrange tho itinerary so that the team played a few matches along the coast before going up to Kimberley. "We always give teams touring tho Dominion as easy a programme as possible in the early stages," said Mr. Moloney. "Our team should be given a chance of getting broken in." He moved that the union recommend the New Zealand council to look into the matter with a view to having the programme altered. "Impossible Conditions" Mr. A. E. McPhail said that when the programme had been considered by the New Zealand Union in Wellington Mr. Mark Nicholls, a member of the 1928 team, had given his views. He understood that the provisional itinerarv was the one he recommended. Mr. W. C. Dallev: I heard he was not asked. Mr. McPhail: That is not correct. Mr. Dalley added that the Kimberley ground was as gritty as a road. Mr. D. I. Mac Donald said that D. P. Lindsay, who, like Mr. Dalley, was a member of the 1928 team, had unhesitatingly urged that the itinerary be arranged so that the grassless grounds in high altitudes be avoided as much as possible, especially in the early 6tagcs. J. T. Burrows, another 1928 All Black, confirmed this view. Mr. Dalley: Every member of the team would give the same answer. "It is not a matter of the quality of the opposition, it is the conditions," said Mr. Moloney. "Why should wo be put under these impossible conditions?"