ALL BLACKS’ TOUR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 16

ALL BLACKS’ TOUR

NORTH OF ENGLAND GAMES Shabby Treatment Alleged The next team of Rugby Union AH Blacks is not in England until 1935-6, but already their itinerary is known, at least that part of it in which the North of England is directly concerned. Again the North is expected to be content with shabby treatment, says a writer in an English paper. There are to be three matches—a Yorkshire and Cumberland combined in late September, and amalgamations of Lancashire and Cheshire and of Durham and Northumberland respectively in early October. Are the various counties going to accept this inadequate programme with the same humility shown when the New South Wales and the South Africans were last here? When the last All Blacks were here in 1924, the Northern Counties had separate fixtures. True, none of the six won, but they failed in good company, for the tourists returned with an unbeaten record. For the Waratahs and the Springboks, the Rugby Union magnates thought fit to combine the Northern counties into couples, and this they are arranging to do again. Is it not time the county committees of the North and the clubs also made a combined protest against this gratuitous cutting into their independence? If private protests are of no avail then I hope some of the club representatives will attend the annual meeting of the Rugby Union and express dissatisfaction at the unfairness. O.ur Northern representatives are too little inclined to show their mettle and

let the rest of the Rugby Union know what North Rugby men think on national matters. A little more energy and outspokenness would be welcomed.