Rugby Union: Officialdom takes up de Glanville's protest: One group of tourists receives RFU's 'strongest possible' complaint about alleged stamping but another's panache gains admirers

HIS left eye having been ring- fenced by an ugly, 15-stitch gash, the England threequarter Philip de Glanville yesterday invited the Rugby Football Union to take up his case with the New Zealand tour management. The invitation was accepted with some alacrity last night.

The RFU's 'protest in the strongest possible terms' forced the New Zealanders into a hurried debate about whether to take disciplinary action against the perpetrator, whom de Glanville would not publicly identify. Video evidence suggested two All Blacks may have been involved.

De Glanville, 25, who won two caps as a replacement last season and is next in the line of England centres behind Jeremy Guscott and Will Carling, claims to have been the victim of stamping during the South-West's 19-15 defeat by the All Blacks at Redruth on Saturday.

As a result of his official protest to Don Rutherford, the RFU's technical director, Twickenham has handed the matter over to the New Zealanders with more of a demand than a request for action. Rutherford and Dudley Wood, secretary of the union, viewed a recording yesterday before consulting the RFU president, Ian Beer.

Finally they contacted the New Zealand manager, Neil Gray, at Haydock, where the tourists are staying in readiness for today's match against the North of England at Anfield and invited him to do something about it. Gray said last night that he and the rest of the management would study the video before coming to any conclusion.

'The RFU very much regrets the unfortunate injury to Philip de Glanville on Saturday which it considers to be the result of dangerous play and far beyond the bounds of acceptable conduct,' Wood said. 'A protest in the strongest possible terms has been registered with the New Zealand management.'

De Glanville, who was concussed as well as badly cut, is out of Sunday's England A match against the All Blacks as a result of the injury. 'In my mind it wasn't an accident,' he said. 'A boot stepped down on my face. I had to take action for the sake of players in the future. New Zealand shouldn't be allowed to get away with rucking like that.'

Under the tour agreement a player allegedly guilty of foul play undetected by the referee or his touch judges can be formally cited by the opposing management or union within 12 hours of the end of a match. This falls outside the requisite period because de Glanville was confirmed in his view only when he saw a recording outside that limit.

Even so, there is nothing to stop the protest being made. 'The RFU trusts that the New Zealand management will examine the film and take appropriate action,' Wood added. The auguries for any action are not propitious. The last time the All Blacks were in a similar situation, after Richard Loe broke the nose of the Wallaby wing Paul Carozza, the Australian RFU's protest availed them nothing.

The situation is made more delicate for the tourists by the charm offensive which has marked their first fortnight in England and the conscious effort being made to eradicate the 'unsmiling All Blacks' image which is almost as much part of their history as winning rugby matches.

In this they have been succeeding famously but on any All Black tour what is euphemistically called New Zealand-style rucking is an inevitable focus for criticism. For instance, the All Blacks were penalised once at Redruth for tap-dancing a man lying on the wrong side of a ruck in a way that would have been perfectly acceptable at home but was regarded by the Welsh referee, Clayton Thomas, as unalloyed stamping.

All Blacks' target, page 39