MEMBERS of the New South Wales rugby squad, which plays Leinster tomorrow night, will visit Croke Park on Saturday to view the new facilities there. They will be joined by members of the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. It is understood that a request for the visit was made to the GAA on behalf of the touring side by the Leinster Branch.
It will be the first time that an official visit by a rugby team to Croke Park has been sanctioned by the GAA. The players are sure to be reminded that thee man widely credited with the foundation of the association, Michael Cusack, was himself a rugby player in his youth and that the present president of the GAA, Jack Boothman, played for King's Hospital as a schoolboy and later for Monkstown.
Meanwhile the GAA is going ahead with plans to mark the centenary of the playing of the first All Ireland finals in Croke Park in 1886. On March 15th of that year, the hurling and football finals of 1885 were played in what was then known as Jones's Road.
In the hurling final, Tubberadora from Tipperary beat Tullaroan from Kilkenny by 6-8 to 1-0 and Arravale Rovers from Tipperary defeated, O'Mahony's from Navan in the football match by four points to three. Teams from the four clubs are expected to take part in a commemorative tournament on March 15th.
As regards floodlighting at Croke Park, the GAA's public relations officer, Danny Lynch, said yesterday that the infrastructure for lights has been, part of the development of the new stand: "Naturally the whole floodlighting system will not be in use until the entire redevelopment is in place."
