All the balls got stolen
How a Kiwis-kangaroos test descended into chaos
Missing match balls, thousands of extra fans and a miserable winter’s night turned a test match into a circus. George Heagney looks back at an infamous night in rugby league.
When Australian hardman Paul Harragon heard the ground announcer pleading with the crowd to behave, he knew something wasn’t right.
A heaving crowd lined the sidelines at Palmerston North’s Showgrounds for the June 1993 rugby league test between the Kiwis and Kangaroos on awet and cold night.
So much so players struggled to make their way through the maelstrom of nearly 20,000 people to get on or off the field and every time a ball was kicked into the crowd it vanished.
Australia won the game 16-8 but the shambolic and comical way the match ended is what is remembered.
Before the game, rugby league officials had kicked balls into the crowd as giveaways, so when match balls were kicked into the crowd during the game, fans thought they could help themselves too.
Australia scored a 79th-minute try and with the Kiwis desperately trying to fight their way back into the match, there were no balls available.
Staff were frantically running around in the grandstand trying to inflate balls so the match could continue, while the players waited.
Aball was finally inflated and the final seconds were played out before the crowd spilled on to the field.
One Australian player sprinted for the dressing rooms as soon as the hooter sounded.
Kangaroos prop Harragon remembered the players being swamped by people on the field when they ran out to play.
‘‘It was bucketing down with rain,’’ he told
Stuff from Australia. ‘‘I remember the ball going out and not coming back.
‘‘The crowd was playing up and I think [the ground announcer] had to chip ’em a few times.
‘‘It was a really great game to be involved with and it was exciting in away because of themud and the conditions really.’’
The crowd, oversold by about 4000 people, were packed in like sardines and inches from the field.
Harragon, the bloke they call Chief, said the game felt like a time warp with people everywhere and the Australian players were mystified about the match balls disappearing.
‘‘The balls weren’t coming back. ‘‘I may be wrong but I think I can remember a guy over the microphone talking about people settling down and doing the right thing. It was a bit rattling.’’
In the dressing rooms afterwards the Australian players could not get over the scene they had witnessed. They went out for a couple of drinks later in the evening and were still talking about it.
Palmerston North police chief Mike Charles told the Manawatu¯
Standard at the time that if police numbers had been doubled it would not havemade a difference and said crowds should not be allowed on the playing field.
‘‘The crowd the other night simply would not do what they were told and if barriers are required, so be it.’’
There were two arrests for breach of the peace.
The Kiwi players were equally confused at what happened with the balls.
Five-eighth Tony Kemp, whose family had come from Taranaki, told Stuff his late uncle was in the crowd and ended up with amatch ball.
But Kemp does not knowwhat happened to the prized footy.
‘‘The passion of someone even wanting to keep a ball from a Kiwis-kangaroosmatch, what an honour really.’’
The players were standing around in the last four minutes because the balls were not coming back on to the field and the game was almost over.
‘‘From a player’s perspective we were quite enjoying getting the extra rest, as a test match you got to have a bit of a breather.
‘‘It did look a bit Mickey Mouse but I never thought anything of it.’’
In those days the crowd was allowed on to the ground at the end of games and the spectators spilled on to the field on fulltime, much to the chagrin of the commentators.
It was in the glory days of the Winfield Cup, with New Zealanders keen to get up close with stars such as Malmeninga and Laurie Daley.
Kemp said there was no way of holding the crowd back and it was hard to get across the field to the changing rooms because of all the people.
Colin Dyerwas the manager of the-then Showgrounds and worked to bring the first major rugby league games to Palmerston North in 1989. He called the 1993 test a ‘‘tragedy’’.
He said the promoter, New Zealand Rugby League, was responsible for selling tickets and they sold more than the venue’s capacity would allow.
‘‘I was concerned, I kept hearing tickets were still for sale. I found out they had 25,000 tickets on sale instead of 15,000.
‘‘At that point I managed to get them to stop. But that meant the ground alreadywas at the capacity.’’
It is believed amemo to the promoter before the game stated the embankment’s capacity was 16,000, rather than 12,000.
Dyermanaged to withdraw about 2500 tickets and the official crowd figure reported in the
Manawatu¯ Standard was 19,937. Dyer organised extra seating from around the region to put on the embankment and in the three days before the game, he and a builder were madly constructing extra seats.
Kiwis fullback Morvin Edwards, who lives in Penrith, remembered the freezing night and how the crowd was so close to the field.
Edwards said the Kiwis were desperate to get on with the game because they were behind, while the Australians were happy for the game to be delayed.
‘‘When things like that happen and you can’t find a ball, it was just giving Australia a breather and letting them regather themselves in defence.’’
He said people ran on to the field after the game and he joked how it would have been rude for the ones who took the balls to ask for a signature.
‘‘I would have said: we’ve been looking for that. It probably cost us the win, mate.’’
The Kiwis had been pumped up for the game after a draw in Auckland the week before but the wetweather turned it into a grind.
Kiwis coach Howie Tamati was not happy about the test’s farcical finish and told the Standard the city was not up to hosting international games.
‘‘I will be recommending we don’t come back unless something is done about crowd control.
‘‘People standing on the sidelines yelling at us and then stealing footballs ... It is just ridiculous.’’
But what happened did not stop Palmerston North hosting tests, with the Kiwis returning to the city in 1995, and twice in 1996, without incident.