A FALSE IMPRESSION

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 30

A FALSE IMPRESSION

WELLINGTON, May 2G. It is the intention of the New Zealand Rugby Union to send a representative with the Maori team as joint manager and delegate to the Imperial Rugby Conference. The appointment of the officials for the tour will probably be dealt with by the New Zealand Rugby Union’s Management Committee this evening. Mr Dean, chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union, is quite convinced that the Welsh Union, in its recent decision in regard to the Maori Rugby tour in Wales, meant no slur on the Maori race, and had the Poverty Bay Union been better informed it would not have been so ready to condemn the Welsh authorities.

“The position,” said Mr Dean, “is that the invitation to the Maori team was extended by the French Rugby Federation, and it entered into negotiations with the Home unions asking them whether they would accept matches. It was suggested that the number of matches for the tour should be 25, of which 10 would be played in France and 15 in Great Britain. Not one of the Home unions is officially recognising the tour, but the English Union has agreed to allow the clubs under the jurisdiction of the Rugby Football Union to participate in matches with the Maoris. The latest information we have received from Mr Wray, the New Zealand Rugby Union’s representative in England, is that Wales was prepared to consider matches with the Maoris, provided the tour and the conditions governing it were approved by the International Board. We have not yet received any news that a definite itinerary of matches in Great Britain has been arranged, but a cable has been sent asking for this information. It will probably be found that the Welsh Rugby Union, like the English Rugby Union, while not officially recognising the tour, will permit its clubs to participate in matches with the Maoris. . . _ “Mr Rutherford, secretary of the trench Rugby Federation, in conjunction with Mr Wray, has been for some time past negotiating with clubs in order to arrange the itinerary. The information that we have received is that the French Rugby Federation has asked of its clubs desirme matches with the Maoris a guarantee of £2OO per match, eo that, judging by the takings during the tour of the 1924 New Zealand team, the clubs which are fortunate enough to have matches with the Maoris should receive substantial benefit. The control of Rugby football in England is on different lines to the control in New Zealand as the clubs in drawing up their fixtures make their arrangements, in many cases, as far as two years ahead and they have no comprehensive scheme of club competitions as we have in New Zealand. The position in regard to standing fixtures in Great Britain is more intensified than in New Zealand. When the question of a Maori tour was discussed by mo at Home the leading authorities were somewhat averse to accepting a tour from a section of any community. They pointed out that, in addition to New Zealand, they had to look to South Africa and New South Wales, and they wanted any team coming from overseas to be thoroughly representative of the country. 1 The message regarding tha Welsh Union 8 decision is taken by us to mean that no international match can be arranged.