Hayden and Co rehearsed their deception
Paul Rees reveals the lengths to which the All Blacks went to avoid defeat by Wales in 1978
It was an unusual way of preparing for a match. On the eve of their 1978 encounter with Wales in Cardiff, a number of All Blacks waited for their captain, Graham Mourie, to go to bed before gathering in the foyer of their hotel and indulging in a quick training session.
The story was recounted during the 1993 Lions tour to New Zealand by Frank Oliver, who made up the New Zealand second row with Andy Haden. The pair acted as choreographers as the forwards practiced diving out of a lineout, a ruse they had come up with should the expected tight encounter with the Five Nations Grand Slam champions go to the wire.
“We were thinking that if we needed a penalty to win the game in the last couple of minutes, we had to come up with a plan,” said Oliver, who died in 2014, four years before Haden. “There is no way Graham Mourie would have allowed us to rehearse something that was not in the rules, but for us it was all about winning, any way we could.”
And so it came to pass. There were a couple of minutes left and Wales, who had not beaten New Zealand for 25 years, were leading 12-10 having been ahead for most of the game. The home side had a lineout on their 10metre line and Bobby Windsor threw the ball to Geoff Wheel at the front.
The Swansea second row put his left arm on the shoulder of Oliver. The English referee, Roger Quittenton, was on that side of the lineout and had a clear view of what he considered
to be a foul. What he did not notice was that Haden had already dived out of the lineout despite being nowhere near his opposite number, Allan Martin, while Oliver’s intention, as he admitted later, was not to jump but to jump out and he needed no help from Wheel.
New Zealand were awarded a penalty and full-back Brian McKechnie, who was on the field as a replacement, stepped up to kick his side to victory. Three years later McKechnie was the victim of underhand tactics when, batting for New Zealand against Australia in Melbourne and needing a six to win off the last ball, Trevor Chappell sent down an underarm delivery along the ground.
Wales have not come closer to beating the All Blacks since that afternoon 33 years ago: they lost by a point in 2004 in Cardiff, unable to follow up Gavin Henson’s late penalty.
There were no big screens in the amateur days or television match officials and the first the spectators knew of what had happened was when they got home and turned on the television.
“We felt cheated and robbed,” said Graham Price, below, one of the renowned Pontypool front row. “There had been barging going on in the lineout all game so why only do something about it at the end? The referee should have been assertive and laid down the law at the first lineout, but he let it go.
“I remember playing for Pontypool at Birmingham in the 1970s when Quittenton was in charge. One of their players had a gash on his leg and the referee told both captains to check the studs of their players. He should have done so before the game and it was that attitude that cost us against the All Blacks.”
Oliver and Haden were unapologetic about their deception. An adage in those days was if you cannot win by fair means foul and if you cannot win by foul means cheat. Haden denied that it amounted to cheating because there was nothing in the rules that said you could not dive out of a lineout but even in those days when Rugby Union seemed to be played by the rules of the Wild West, attempting to con a referee was not considered to be in the spirit of the game.
“It showed the effort New Zealand would go to win,” said Martin, who had faced Oliver and Haden in 1977 on the Lions tour to New Zealand. “Their mentality was that they would not be beaten. It was the way they were brought up and it was a bit different in Britain where there was more of an emphasis on playing the game.
“Warren Gatland changed Wales’s mentality when he coached the side. They were not playing for the sake of the game but to win and I have always admired that about New Zealand. I would have grabbed Andy Haden’s arm at that lineout but he was nowhere near me. I thought someone must have punched him. “Yes they conned the referee, but it was one of those things. I became friendly with Andy afterwards, but he never admitted to it. I remember training in Porthcawl not long afterwards and a guy whose house backed on to the ground came up to me and said when the All Blacks had prepared for the game against us there, he had heard them talk about manufacturing a penalty at a lineout if the game was close and they were in striking distance.”
Matches between Wales and New Zealand tended to be close then, in Cardiff at least. When they won 13-8 at the Arms Park in 1953, Wales led 3-1 in the series between two rugby nations, but they lost by single figure margins at home in 1963, 1967 and 1972 while going down heavily in each of their two matches on tour in 1969.
They barely laid a glove on New Zealand for 26 years after 1978, the crushing 23-3 defeat in their centenary year in 1980 a portent of what was to come with the All Blacks scoring at least 34 points in the next nine matches between the sides. When the Rugby Championship winners arrive at the Principality Stadium on Saturday, they will be looking to extend their winning run in the series to 32 matches.
“New Zealand are still hard-nosed and with Wales not able to pick their players who are based in England and missing others because of injury, I do
not see the All Blacks picking a side that is some way below full strength in response,” said Price. “They always do what is required, and while you cannot dwell on the past, we should not be looking back nearly 70 years to our last victory over them.
“We were the better side that day in 1978. We had them in the scrums and had most of the territory. Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett had retired at the end of that year’s Five Nations and I think they would have made the difference. That is no disrespect to Terry Holmes and Gareth Davies, who went on to have fine international careers, but they were just starting out then and had a lot to learn.”
Outside-half is an issue for Wales head coach Wayne Pivac this week with Dan Biggar and Callum Sheedy unavailable because they play for Premiership clubs. Gareth Anscombe, who this season resumed his career after two years out with a knee injury, and Rhys Priestland, the 34-year old who won the last of his 50 caps in 2017 and is available again after joining Cardiff from Bath, are the options.
“The match sold out very quickly, but I hope the public do not expect too much,” said Martin, who will watch the match on television while attending his grandson’s 18th birthday party. “It will be a learning experience for Wales and I hope the players take something from the game to use moving forward.
“In 1978, we were coming towards the end of what had been a very successful cycle for Wales. A number of us had been together for some time, the products of a brutally tough, competitive club game.
“The one blot was that we never beat New Zealand, although we were the moral victors back in 1978. We won every phase in the forwards, lineout, scrum and we even outrucked them, which was saying something then.
“The Wales players have to cherish the experience at the weekend. The game is totally different from when I played and the All Blacks could not get away with diving out of a lineout because so many eyes would be on them. The lads of today will probably not have the memories of my generation because you could get away with much more then.
“We played for fun, not money, and representing Wales was even better than the Lions because you had a crowd behind you, urging you on when the chips were down.
“There were times when you would sit in the dressing room after a game and you could hear a pin drop. People expected you to be celebrating but you were too knackered to do anything.
“I hope the players rise to the occasion on Saturday because the All Blacks bring an intensity all of their own. We may not have beaten them for a long time, but they still hold a fellow rugby nation in high regard. They will feel they have to play to beat us, even if I do not think they will be warming up with some suspect lineout routines.”