Wait and See

Clearly, the board is deferring the tour coverage issue until it tests the winds of public opinion further as the Springboks' arrival gets closer.

If so, it may find itself outflanked by events that give the BCNZ less and less room to manoeuvre on its own initiative.

The New Zealand Government has expressed itself against the tour proceeding, though it is not willing to do anything to actually stop the Springboks coming. The Irish Government took precisely the same attitude towards its team now touring South Africa. But Irish Television has made its own decision to restrict all coverage of the tour of South Africa to mere announcement of results, refusing to send its own TV team and declining coverage from South African or British Broadcasting Corporations.

Such a stand in a parallel situation is obviously a compelling precedent for the BCNZ to take into account - faced as it is with a practical situation that suggests that staff may well take the effective decision on tour coverage out of the board's hands.