By STEVE MASCORD
MOUNT HAGEN, Wednesday: Riot police used tear gas and fired semi-automatic rifles into the air here today as thousands of fans without tickets tried to gain entry to the Rugby League tour match between Australia and Highlands Zone.
The game, which Australia won 28-3, was interrupted three times as tear gas wafted over the playing area, leaving players sprawled on the pitch with wet towels over their faces.
“Today was the most trying conditions an Australian side has ever had to play under,” coach Bob Fulton said.
Fulton was also critical of referee Moses Tolingling’s handling of the game. “The players showed great professionalism,” he said.
While an estimated 11,000 people inside the ground, which has a normal capacity of 6,000, were well-behaved, police battled to contain those outside without tickets.
Aside from using some 30 tear gas canisters during the course of the match, police warned crowds away from the fence by firing shots into the air.
About five minutes from full-time, disgruntled fans showered one end of the ground with rocks, scattering hundreds of spectators.
And to top off a trying day for the tourists, the players were locked inside the ground – surrounded by thousands of admirers eager to meet them – for at least 10 minutes after the game when a local policeman mysteriously disappeared with the key to the gate.
By full-time, three of the fences bordering the playing arena had collapsed under sheer weight of numbers but the presence of police and some dobermans discouraged any pitch invasion.
Brisbane TV journalist Pat Welsh, who spent the afternoon on a grandstand roof, said: “This huge rock only just missed me – and that was only two minutes into the game, so I knew we were in for an interesting afternoon.”
Australian players decided not to abandon the match or respond to the Highlanders’ rough tactics for fear of inciting a riot.
“If we had walked off, it would have been even worse,” Australian prop Gary Coyne said. “We just had to keep playing.”
It was not known if anyone had been hurt but Australian team management stressed they had held no major fears for the players’ safety, despite the total of 15 minutes they spent breathing through towels during the match.
“It’s simply a matter of the ground being too small for the number of people who want to see our team,” Australian security manager, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Dennis, said.
“From a point of view of the team’s personal security, everything went smoothly. [But] it was a provocative match because of conditions on and off the field.”
Fulton said: “If not for the tear gas and gun shots, the crowd inside the ground was so well behaved you would almost say it was a quiet day-off the field.”
The match, played largely in driving rain, was first halted in the 19th minute when players began clutching their faces and complaining that their eyes stung. The second, and longest break, occurred five minutes later and the third three minutes into the second half.
Referee Tolingling was critical of police for what he described as “indiscriminate” use of the tear gas. At one stage, Tolingling ordered Highlands to kick off while half the Australians were on their knees shielding themselves from the gas.
“I couldn’t believe it – he must have thought we were all praying,” halfback Geoff Toovey said. “That stuff really gets into your throat and your eyes and it stings like hell.
“I was rolling around the ground holding my face and all these people were laughing at me.”
Australian hooker Kerrod Walters was, however, more worried about a gash on his chin after the match than any discomfort caused by the tear gas.
“It was pretty good for my sinuses, actually,” he joked.
AUSTRALIA 28 (G Belcher. G Lazarus, R Wishart, C Johns, S Gourley tries; Wishart 4 gis) bt HIGHLANDS ZONE 3 (G Ongugo goal, field goal).
From SYDNEY MORNING HERALD via AAP, October 10, 1991
