They Pushed?

Did They Fall Or Were They Pushed?

From a Suva Correspondent Ratu Penaia Ganilau, distinguished Fiji former soldier , and manager of the 1957 ( NZ ) and 1961 (Austra lia) Fijian Rugby teams could hardly he blamed for thinking there is a tour aftermath hoodoo on him.

IN 1957, a few weeks after the team returned from New Zea land, Ratu Penaia was the centre of a controversy which raged over re ports of alleged misbehaviour and drunkenness on the part of the tourists.

Ratu Penaia at the time was at his home on Taveuni. attending to the affairs of the Fijian administration, and was unable to present his side of the case for several months. When he finally did get to Suva in an angry retort he put paid to critics who were talking about something of which they did not have first hand knowledge. He made it clear that the Fijians, although they may not have been little angels, were not the ogres their critics made them out to be.

Now, after the 1961 Australian tour and a month in Malaya, Ratu Penaia returned home to find that their Australian opponents, inter viewed in South Africa, where they made a short tour, had described the Fijians as the roughest players they have met. One of them, speedy winger, Mike Cleary, was alleged to have said they were dirty players.

"Not Aiming"

Cleary twice had to leave the field m tests against the Fijians when he was knocked out.

Certainly, Jo Levula once flattened Ueary with a haymaker, but Press reports at the time made it clear mat Levula was not aiming any Punches. In fact he was swinging his rlfi arms as °ft en does and poor 5, Cleary ran into one of them, ueary claimed that once after he scored a try he was deliberately field and again had t 0 leave the th? ne the Australians claimed aat a member of the Australian am was thrown a number of feet ' a ir once and that he landed fnr S Tr" ad ‘ But ** * s nothing unusual Fijian to toss an opponent hard S aa Catchpole is only a little fel trav was qu * te likely he would lra yel some distance.

Another Australian, 16 st. 7 lb.

Dick Thornett was also knocked out, but then it is nothing unusual for players to be knocked out in hard play. Anyway, Thornett is a police man and should have been able to look after himself, and also he is not the type of player to make a com plaint if he is hurt in the rough and tumble of a test.

The reports cabled from Windhoek in South-West Africa caught up with Ratu Penaia in Sydney and left him “completely surprised”. He said he could not find any explanation for them and thought they were com pletely unfounded and untrue.

He said he thought that any dis satisfaction would come from only a few members of the Australian team.

Dumbfounded at the reports was the treasurer of the Australian Rugby Union (Mr. C. W. Blunt) who told Ratu Penaia that the views expressed in South Africa were “most definitely not the official feelings of the Aus tralian Rugby Union”.

"Fijians Welcome"

He said the Fijians would be wel come in Australia at any time in the future, and the 1961 tour was most happy.

Naturally the statements made by the Australians, if they were in fact made, would receive full treatment from the Press in South Africa.

Naturally they would be used to il lustrate the apartheid policy and as a reason why white and black should not meet on the Rugby field in South Africa. The pity is that the report emanated from the area it did where the feeling about colour is so high.

But a Sydney man who saw the Fijians in their three tests was a little sickened at one of the visitors deliberately flattening Rod Phelps, the Australian fullback, long after the fullback had got rid of the ball.

The same Fijian he said was rather careless with his boots when he moved into a ruck or arrived late for a tackle.

“The Fijians generally have a bad habit of resorting to rough play when things aren’t going their way,” he wrote. “Most other teams do too, I suppose, but it’s the unorthodox bashing barge, uncontrolled booting, and high tackle by the collar which seems to irritate.”

It is only a few players who bring Fijian Rugby into disrepute, and dif ficult though it may be it is up to the Fiji Rugby Union to weed out those men who do damage to the Colony’s sporting reputation.