Get ready for the fireworks ...and some dubious calls!
BRENDAN GALLAGHER sets the scene for next week’s Test opener with a tour through the ages
“The first Test in ‘71 was probably the most intense game of rugby I ever played in”
- Ian Mclauchlan
Experience shows us there is nothing quite like the first Test of a Lions series in New Zealand, with the initial locking of horns between the great historical rivals producing some of the best and most explosive Test action in history.
It’s the rarity value that sets it apart. Since the Lions last played New Zealand there have been three World Cup finals. On the field of play next Saturday there will not be one player to add a thread of continuity from 12 years ago although remarkably on the sidelines Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith are still going strong from the Kiwi coaching team from 2005.
Sometimes that period between a Test series can leap a generation because of World Wars. When the Lions ran out in 1930 it had been 22 years since the two sides had previously met and, in much the same way, the build up to the first Test in 1950 lasted 20 years. With all that energy and emotion needing to go somewhere no wonder many of the games have been dramatic and feisty.
And yet there is a still strange immediacy about these matches despite the timespans involved. It might be 24 years ago since we rose at some ridiculous hour and watched the first Test of the 1993 tour, but it seems like yesterday that Dean Richards got done in cold blood with that ludicrous last minute penalty which cost the Lions the match and series. That still rankles, mainly because the memory is still fresh and raw, the last but one occasion the Lions played New Zealand in a first Test. The mind compresses the years.
The build up to the first ever Lions Test against New Zealand in 1904 was massive, it was more than a mere rugby game it was a milestone event in the history of a young nation.
New Zealand had played only one previous Test match – away to Australia the previous year – and although they had hosted teams from New South Wales and Queensland, this was the first time a national New Zealand side wearing the soon-tobecome famous shirts had played an international on home soil.
It was a day of celebration, a forging of New Zealand’s national identity and that was reflected in the 20,000 crowd at Wellington, a huge gathering for those times. As for the rugby, New Zealand were convincing 9-3 winners, a massive wake up call for the ‘mother country’ who had marched triumphantly through Australia and were perhaps expecting to relax a little as the tour wound down gently to its conclusion.
New Zealand were packed with quality players, the likes of Billy Wallace, Billy Stead and Dave Gallaher, whose reputations grew further when they toured Britain the following year.
Just four years later the opening Test was a non-event for the Lions who were crushed 32-5, but in 1930 came that momentous thing, a Lions Test win over New Zealand in the series opener. Llanelli flanker Ivor Jones produced a moment of magic to clinch the issue at Carisbrook Dunedin.
Ahead of the game there was drama. The Lions dropped their skipper Doug Prentice for the in-form John Hodgson and the All Blacks argued long and hard before agreeing to change their shirts to avoid a clash with the Lions who that year were playing in dark blue tops.
Then there was the weather. The forecast was for a wintry storm blowing off the Southern Ocean and that duly arrived with vicious bursts of hail, sleet, rain and eventually snow, not that it deterred a capacity 27,000 crowd.
Going into the last minute it was still 3-3 – one try apiece – with the All Blacks pressing hard on the Lions line and likely to score when Jones intercepted the ball and used his exceptional pace to sprint upfield towards halfway, with wing Jack Morley running hard alongside in support.
On halfway George Nepia was patrolling for New Zealand and the legendary Maori full-back was renowned for his defence in such situations. What he did was to scuttle backwards at extreme pace to tempt the man in possession to delay his pass while subtly forcing him towards the touchline to cramp his style a little.
Jones though could easily have been an international centre and was having none of it. He knew his Wales colleague Morley had plenty of gas and that his job was to run directly at Nepia, pin the defender, and draw the man to leave the Newport wing with a straight run for the corner. It was a glorious and dramatic score for 6-3.
World War again descended on the planet and it was 20 years later before the sides next met. The Lions could and should have won that first Test in 1950 in Dunedin – where the Lions have generally been seen at their best – with excellent tries from Jackie Kyle and GB Olympic sprinter Ken Jones, a silver medallist from the 1948 Games. New Zealand hit back with a fine try by Roy Roper before a late game-saving effort for 9-9 from their skipper Ron Elvidge, who defied injury to return to the fray.
Next came the glorious but infamous 1959 series opener – again at Dunedin – when the Lions outscored New Zealand four tries to nil but somehow managed to lose, Don Clarke kicking a then world record six penalties to win the match.
One of the most talented Lions back divisions in history ripped into the All Blacks with Malcolm Price scoring two tries and Tony O’Reilly and Peter Jackson one apiece. Fatally, however, their goalkickers were enduring a bad day with just the one conversion from Bev Risman and a penalty from Ireland’s David Hewitt.
Even so it should have been enough with one of Clarke’s penalties hotly disputed to this day by those who stood under the posts and insist it drifted well wide. The Lions touchjudge Mick England – in those days the tourists provided one of the touchjudges at every game – indicated no goal while the New Zealand touchjudge seemed uncertain as he slowly raised his flag. Referee Mr Fluery confidently signalled a successful kick, however.
As the New Zealand Herald match report recorded: “Perhaps the surest index of the average reaction to the All Blacks penalty parade was seen in the final two minutes following Clarke’s final goal. As one man the thousands of spectators took up a chant ‘Red, red, red’ as the Lions surged down the field in a tremendous rush.”
Even in those final two minutes it looked as though Roddy Evans – who died only last November – had scored a dramatic match-winning fifth try after seemingly picking up a loose ball to score after a charge by Noel Murphy. Mr Fleury however called play back ruling that Evans had handled in a ruck.
The Herald concluded that: “New Zealand had won a victory no New Zealander could possibly glory in. In fact it looked the saddest victory in New Zealand rugby history. The opposition Daily Star went with the headline ‘Clarke 18 British Isles 17’.
In today’s scoring values the Lions would have won 25-18 and the discrepancy between what had seemed a commanding Lions performance on the pitch and the actual score line continued to vex the rugby authorities although the value of a try wasn’t increased to four points for another 12 years.
That delay was partially responsible for a fairly turgid decade of rugby in the 60s which featured some dire play with the risk involved in trying to score just three points sometimes hardly seeming worth the effort when a penalty was worth precisely the same. The modern day five-point try was introduced in 1992.
Moving quickly on from 1966 which had little to commend it as the outclassed Lions got hammered, let’s concentrate on the epic contest in 1971 when the Lions produced a Rorke’s
Drift type of performance to win 9-3 at Dunedin, a game very much at odds with the all-singing all-dancing Lions who had carried all before them up to that point.
It was also a contest in which a number of unsung heroes came to the fore on a tour dominated by the Lions stellar names behind the scrum.
Ray “Chico” Hopkins only played one Test for Wales and one for the Lions and this was the latter, replacing Gareth Edwards who went off with a hamstring strain after ten minutes – Edwards had tweaked when running into a pothole during the Lions last training session before the Test.
Hopkins, Maesteg’s finest, always knew he would be on sooner rather than later and proceeded to produce the game of his life while at blindside flanker England’s Peter Dixon, uncapped by England at the time, had a stormer. Meanwhile prop Ian Mclauchlan scored the only try of his 51 Test career with an invaluable charge down in the first half.
“The first Test was over in the blink of an eye and was probably the most intense game of rugby I ever played in,” recalls Mclauchlan. “They just came and came and came at us all the time. The All Blacks are generally pretty clinical, if they have a two-on-one they tend to finish it off, but that day they seemed to pass when they should have kept it. Our tackling was ferocious. I don’t know how many tackles I made but it was a lot and when we came off the field we were elated but on our knees.”
In 1977 the Lions missed a massive opportunity in a tight game. They were 12-9 up just before half-time when they broke thrillingly from their half in the style of the ‘71 team to create a three, or was it four, man overlap to the right. It should have been a simple runin but flanker Trevor Evans delayed his pass and All Blacks wing Grant Batty in best ‘Hail Mary’ fashion went for a s*** or bust intercept. Rather to his surprise it came off and the stocky Batty sprinted 60 yards to score by the posts.
In the stands manager John Dawes, the master of the perfectly timed pass, buried his head in his hands. What should have been an 18-10 lead suddenly became a 16-12 deficit which was to be the final score. Ironically it was virtually Batty’s last meaningful contribution on a rugby field. He had been suffering from chronic knee injuries for the last two or three years and his match saving/match winning burst was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He announced his retirement the following week. There was a strange prelude to that first Test with Dawes suddenly ordering a savage ‘naughty boys’ fitness session in midweek the day after the dirt-trackers had lost 21-9 to New Zealand Universities. It made no sense whatsoever. Only a couple of the team that played the Universities were involved in the Test, yet a couple of days before the most important game of the tour the entire squad were flogged senseless on the training paddock.
There is no question that Kiwi nerves can be on edge in an opening Lions Test and, it should be added, the referees often fail to do themselves justice. The opener in 1993 was another case in point which left the Lions fuming. In the first minute Grant Fox hoisted a high ball which Ieuan Evans fielded in goal, fiercely challenged by Frank Bunce who got part of his hand on the ball as
Evans touched down. Clearly a 22 to the Lions except Australian referee Brian Kinsey, a fair distance from the action, had a brainstorm and inexplicably ordered a try.
Later in the first half Jerry Guscott put Will Carling away for what appeared to be a certain try when Kinsey called play back for a penalty to the Lions for a shirt tug on Guscott by Michael Jones. What happened to the advantage law? Three points instead of seven.
And then, to compound matters, the Lions were done in cold blood at the death after they had fought back and played exceptionally well to lead 18-16 going into the last minute. Dean Richards wrapped up Bunce in one of his trademark tackles and when the whistle went everybody in the ground expected the All Blacks centre to be penalised for failing to release. Even the Kiwis looked surprised – and delighted – when Kinsey awarded a penalty against the Lions.
Officialdom also had a nightmare in 2005 when both the touch judge – who had a good view – and the referee failed to acknowledge the assault on Brian O’Driscoll by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu and the citing officer caught the dawn plane back to South Africa the following morning before the incident could be investigated. It certainly didn’t cost the Lions the match – losing eight of their own line-out throws and an inability to mount any coherent attacks did for them in that respect – but it did leave a nasty smell that lingers still.