Students in league

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 19

Students in league

Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea will take part in the inaugural Universities Rugby League World Cup tournament in New Zealand next August and September.

The five nations are to compete on a round-robin basis between August 23 and September 2. A World Universities team will then be chosen to meet a New Zealand Kiwis XIII at Carlaw Park on September 6. "The concept of the World Cup arose as a result of the New Zealand Universities tour to Britain and France in 1984,” said the cup director, Mr John Haynes, of Christchurch. “After discussions between officials of all competing countries, there was agreement that a World Cup format would provide intense competition and would be very marketable in terms of sponsorship,” he said. It is intended that a cup tournament be held every three years so that all students would have a chance to compete during the normal duration of a university course. The

1989 event Is to be allocated to a Northern Hemisphere host. Support has been gained from the International Rugby League Board, the New Zealand Rugby League, and the Universities Sports Union, said Mr Haynes. The latter body is keen to extend the proposal to other sports.

An Australian Universities side toured New Zealand as long ago as 1922 and beat Auckland twice. But the sport’s growth in universities world wide can be traced back to 1967, when pioneers concurrently introduced the code in schools in New Zealand and England.

New-Zealand and Australia have exchanged tours on an irregular basis since 1969, and British and French internationals have been held annually for 13 years. Australian Universities had two narrow wins over their Papua New Guinea counterparts in 1984. In contrast to the professional side of the sport, university rugby league is truly national in England — not confined to traditional strongholds such as

Leeds, Hull and Huddersfield, but also played with enthusiasm at Oxford and Cambridge — and the Welsh are strong enough in numbers and standards to oppose the English.

Two recent British test players, Joe Lydon and Wayne Proctor, are students, as are the French internationals, Pierre Lacroix and Jean Baloup.

France has firm claims to favouritism in the cup contest. It has never been beaten by Britain, and was an 8-0 winner over New Zealand’s 1984 tourists. It is no coincidence that the president of the International Rugby League Board and French Rugby League, Mr Jacques Soppelsa, is also president of the University of the Sorbonne in Paris. The New Zealand Universities squad is to be announced in June, and Mr Haynes said it was planned to arrange games against provincial sides to act as trials and later to prepare for the cup tournament. JOHN COFFEY