Cats in floodlight dispute
February 28, 2002

As if the Cats won't have a tough enough assignment in beating the Brumbies on Saturday, they now face a battle with the Canberra municipality as well.

Frans Ludeke's troops were on Wednesday given permission to have a training session at Bruce Stadium - the venue for the match - on Friday evening, but only if they foot the bill to have the floodlights turned on.

The practice is vital to the Cats' chances as it would give them an idea of the match conditions they could expect on Saturday.

It seems to be the latest trick by Australian authorities to make visits by South African sports teams as uncomfortable as possible ahead of a big match.

Team manager Mac Hendricks has already lodged a complaint with Super 12 tournament director Murray Reid, but was still awaiting an answer on Thursday.

Cats chief executive Johan Prinsloo also expressed his disappointment, saying: "It is something that will have to be addressed if this situation cannot be resolved," he was quoted in Die Burger.

"The competition has been running for a long time and one would think something like this would have been discussed and solved at a Sanzar meeting before.

"It is important for the Cats to have this practice under lights because there are a lot of new players in the squad and this field would be something new to them," he added.

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