League: Kiwis visit recalls Coast glory years

Wingham Park used to be a graveyard for visiting teams - now it's more like a graveyard.

The home of the once-mighty West Coast rugby league team would often be packed in the glory days from the mid-1940s to the early-1980s. These days, a few men and their dogs will file in to watch West Coast battle it out in the third division against the likes of Otago, Southland and Gisborne.

But rugby league fever will hit Greymouth with the arrival of the Kiwis to take on a New Zealand Residents XIII on Saturday. West Coast Rugby League chairman Peter Kerridge has even been seen painting the numbers on the seats at Wingham Park to get the great old stand ready for the expected 4000-strong crowd.

Big games have come to Greymouth before. The town hosted a test against Great Britain in 1954, won 20-14 after tries by local heroes Jock Butterfield and Frank Mulcare.

They also took great delight in beating visiting teams from the big cities, especially Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury, and regularly held the Northern Union Cup which symbolised provincial supremacy.

"Hell, yes," agreed former West Coast and Kiwis second-rower Tony Coll. "Teams hated coming to Wingham Park because it was a bit of a graveyard for teams and we loved beating the other sides."

Coll played 30 times for the Kiwis between 1972 and 1982 and was one of 60 Coasters to pull on the black and white jersey.

There were other great West Coast names to play for New Zealand: Charlie McBride, George Menzies, Bill McLennan, Ray Baxendale, Gordon Smith and Butterfield.

There were others, like Ces Mountford, who would have, had he not been snapped up by Wigan. Mountford at least had a taste of international action when he later coached the Kiwis from 1979 to 1982.

West Coast rugby league was built around the coal mines and, much like their northern England counterparts, were grizzled men who played a suitably obdurate style of rugby league.

The decline of mining and the privatisation of the forestry industry saw an economic downturn in the region and forced many, including some of the best rugby league players, to leave the West Coast.

The reorganisation of the national provincial competition also dissolved the strength of the Coast and Coasters like Quentin Pongia moved to further their careers.

Today there are five senior teams and 400 children playing league in a province of 32,000 people.

"Even now, Greymouth is still a stronghold of rugby league in the South Island," Coll said.

"The interest is still there and it's phenomenal for the Kiwis game because we will get to see guys we normally only see on TV."