TRAINER “ NURSES ” ALL BLACK TEAM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18550, 25 August 1928, Page 7

TRAINER “ NURSES ” ALL BLACK TEAM.

IS HARDEST WORKER ON RUGBY TOUR. (Written for the “Star” by GRAHAM E. BEAMISH). JOHANNESBURG, July 17. “M-it-u-m. can. I have a rub down now?” “What about a hot pack for my knee. Mum?” “What have you done with the iodine. Mum?” “M-u-u-m, I want a new ankle bandage for this afternoon,” “Will you give us some padding? This ground is hard.” And .“Mum,” with a volley of questions like this fired at “her” before every match, smiles through it all. “Mum” is a great worker, a genial personality, and as deservedly popular with every one with whom "she” comes in contact as “she” is indispensable on this tour.

All the more credit must go to “Andy” Mercer, for although he is far from being in a position to carry the tour out, he has taken it on for the pure love of the game. Andy Mercer is actually a Rugby fanatic. lie is the kind of man who takes Rugby for his creed.

He dreams about the All Blacks. He has been known to talk about members ol the team in his sleep!

With the members of thp team who arc playing in a match, Andy Mercer is like a hen with her new chicks. He fusses and he frets until he has every man of the fifteen fit and well to take the field. He works on them day and night. He rubs them in the morning after training and he rubs them at night before they turn in. In between time*, he looks after those who are ill and those on the injured list. “Mum” is first up in the morning and last to bed at night. He sticks to the team through thick and thin. When outings have been arranged, he will not leave the hotel in case one of the sick or injured needs attention during the day r . Wild horses will not drag “Mum” away from her "children.” Ii the team is beaten, "Mum” believes in "her” heart that "she” is. responsible, for the loss. "Andy” blames himself, because he did not have right. He should have put one more pack on his knee. If he had spent a bit more time on , he would have been able to last the distance without any effect. So seriously does Andy throw his whole heart into the business, that a defeat of the All Blacks is viewed by him as a national calamity. A loss plainly affects him. A peculiar temperament has A. W. Mercer. No man could possibly put more work into his job than Andv and the 1928 All Blacks consider themselves feted by Fate in having such a man.

At present Andy is out at Orange Grove, a quiet little Johannesburg suburb, training his "thoroughbreds” for the second test, and he will not be seen until the match is over. He has got eighteen to look after, eighteen men highly strung, because this next test means so much, and he handles them with the utmost care. Besides all that he does in the way of training, Andy looks after the baggage of forty-seven men. He not only worries about the “traps” belonging to the members of the team, but he looks after (and has done since the beginning of the tour), the baggage of the little party of New Zealanders travelling with the team. He worries as much about those bags as he does about those belonging to the team. Of course, actually the bags of the travelling party do not concern him, but his good nature prompted him to keep an eye on them. When "Mum” was ill the last time the team was in Johannesburg, there was quite a path worn to his bedroom by members of the team and the travelling party who went to see him. He was to be given medicine every four hours. At least one member of the team would always be there to give it to him. A tribute to Andy’s popularity. Andy Mercer has several fine performances to his credit. He trained the New Zealand first test team against the Springboks in 1921 and he also trained the South African athletes who came to New Zealand. A. E. Porritt was another man whom Andy “brought out.”

"Mum,” hustled and bustled as "she” is by twenty-nine players all eager to keep fit, smiles and laughs through it all, enjoying every minute of it. What would the 1928 All Blacks do without "Mum?” Andy Mercer has the confidence and the respect of every man in the team.