Will the Maoris

come to the party?

The Maori All Blacks may want to join the rest of the Pacific. But will New Zealand politics allow them to?

By Atama Raganivatu

THE possibility of a New Zealand Maori representative team being invited to enter the South Pacific rugby union championship, alongside the established participants Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa has again been mooted by the media in those countries and discussed informally by rugby officials there.

At face value, the concept has great merit. The Maori team would offer tough competition, they are already accepted as members of the “Pacific rugby brotherhood”, their involvement would provide the New Zealand Rugby Football Union with a means by which to make partial amends for having con spired in the South Pacific nations’ omission from the recently devised southern hemisphere professional com petitions and the newcomers would attract sufficiently large crowds to guar antee the championship’s continued financial well-being.

However, internal political consider ations may well force the NZRFU to kill the notion, should an official invita

tion to the Maori be extended. Maori sovereignty is the hottest potato in New Zealand politics at the current time and it is a vegetable with an ever-increasing temperature. The NZRFU realised long ago that providing a vehicle for Maori to characterise themselves as a separate entity is very contentious and yet they are committed to the development of Maori rugby.

The administrative body in Wellington simply does not know what to do with Maori rugby and, it must be conceded, they are caught in an invidi ous position.

The New Zealand Maori XV’s fix tures against major international touring sides provides many a past season with a highlight.

However, long tours are now a thing of the past and Maori All Black selec tions are today fielded infrequently; for occasional overseas sojourns, to meet minor touring teams or for meaningless short internal tours. Only two games have been arranged for the indigenous people’s combination this year against first division outfits King Country and Waikato in July (won 44

28 and 60 22 respectively).

Most of the great Maori rugby play ers have admitted feeling as much pride in gaining selection for the Maori All Blacks as the “authentic” All Blacks and true Kiwi rugby enthusiasts, if hav ing any sense of their national game’s great traditions, will wish to see the team play regularly and flourish.’

And, the team would most certainly flourish if pitted against South Pacific opponents. Four members of the New Zealand side that finished as runners-up at this year’s World Cup are Maoris Glenn Osborne, Zinzan Brooke, Mark Ellis and Robin Brooke. In addition, they could call upon many more high

profile players, including Eric Rush,

Arran Pene, Jamie Joseph, Norm Hewitt, Stu Forster, Norman Berryman, Slade McFarland and Kevin Nepia. The first five are All Blacks of recent years and the latter three appear destined to represent their country in the near future.

By consenting to New Zealand Maoris’ participation in the South Pacific championship, the NZRFU would prove that the remorse they dis played after agreeing to the exclusion of Tonga, Fiji and Western Samoa from

the Southern Hemisphere professional

circuit was more than just crocodile tears being shed and they are genuinely concerned about their small neigh bours’ welfare. In addition, one of their most worthwhile representative selec tions would be given a new lease of life. A