Swansea bans N.Z. match

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 20

Swansea bans N.Z. match

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON.

The All Blacks will not play a combined Swansea and Neath team on the New Zealand Rugby team’s tour of Britain next season.

The management committee of the Swansea club said yesterday that it had barred the game.

It also protested that the Welsh Rugby Unions’ decision to abandon Swansea’s usual fixture with the All Blacks and make it a combined game with Neath was taken without consultation with the Swansea club. The committee said that this was a direct slight on, Swansea’s prestige.

The New Zealand Union is powerless to take any action about the controversy, its secretary (Mr R. E. Morgan) said yesterday. It had no say about venues of composition of sides the All Blacks would meet on the tour.

Swansea’s record equalled that of any single side and was better than any combined team. The St Helens ground had always produced the highest revenue outside Cardiff Arms Park. LEASE REFUSED

Swansea City Council, landlords of the St Helens ground, decided some weeks ago not to lease the ground to the Welsh union for the proposed match. In the past, the Welsh “big four”—Newport, Cardiff, Llanelli and Swansea—have had individual fixtures against major touring sides. Swansea, which has a fine record against overseas teams, beating the All Blacks in 1935 and drawing with the 1953 side, has fallen away in recent seasons. NZ “POWERLESS”

Mr Morgan said that New Zealand could only object to the itinerary because of travelling difficulties or if there was insufficient space between test matches. “This is a domestic matter between the four Home unions," he added. “It is something that they will have to sort out for themselves.”

Croquet.—Officers elected by the New Zealand Croquet Council meeting in Nelson were:— President, Mrs M. Peake <Otago); North Island vice-presidents, Mesdames E. Hight (Thames Valley), R. G. Moffitt (Auckland), Mr W. B. McNaught (Wanganui); South Island vice-presidents, Mesdames A. Kirk (Christchurch), E. Nettle (Weat Coast); secretary, treasurer, Mrs H. C. Wills (Hawera). .