England's past adventures in NZ

How England have fared in the All Blacks' backyard

This is the sixth England trip to New Zealand. Numbers 2 and 5 were great successes. Number 1 was a flop, as was number 3 and especially number 4 - the record-breaking tour of 1998.

In 1998 England took an unusual, experimental team to the Southern Hemisphere and helped their opponents to break records. But in 1973 a team that was regarded as a poor one went and beat the All Blacks by being too clever for them.

In New Zealand England have played eight, won two, and lost six. England have scored 108 points, New Zealand 213.

Over all the two countries have met 25 times. England have won six, New Zealand 18 and one has been drawn. England have won the last two in 2002 and 2003.

1963: New Zealand won 21-11 in Auckland and 9-6 in Christchurch

Short tours started in the early Sixties. Scotland were first off, followed by Ireland and then England who went down to New Zealand.

That year England, captained by Mike Weston, played two Tests - the first at Eden Park in Auckland and the second at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. New Zealand, captained by Wilson Whineray, won 21-11 and then just 9-6.

In the first Test All Black fullback Don Clarke scored in all four ways - a try, three conversions, a penalty goal and a dropped goal for 15 points. In the second Test the All Blacks scored two tries to one.

1973: England won 16-10 at Eden Park in Auckland

England were no great shakes in the early Seventies but they had two noteworthy victories. In 1973 the Five Nations was not completed because Scotland and Wales were afraid to go to troublesome Ireland. England played four and lost all four that year.  In 1973 they took the lead by going to play in Dublin and lost. They ended up third in the Five Nations, behind Scotland and Wales.

But in 1972 this shaky team went to South Africa and beat the Springboks, victories over New Zealand in 1970 and Australia and France in 1971. In 1973 they went to New Zealand. They started against Fiji no caps, of course, presumably because Fiji were not regarded as worthy opponents and beat them 13-12.

Then they went on to New Zealand and lost to Taranaki (in the mud), Wellington and Canterbury.

Then came the Test at Eden Park in Auckland with 55,000 people to watch the match.

England attacked New Zealand where New Zealand was strongest - at scrumhalf and loose forward. They harried Sid Going into two errors which gave England tries and then worked a loose-forward move on the blind side for the third.

Kirkpatrick won the toss and played with the wind. Batty and Hurst scored tries to England's try by Squires for a 10-6 lead at half-time.

In the second half Webster made tries for Stevens and Neary. Nearys try won the match and abruptly ended the international careers of fullback Bob Lendrum and replacement wing Terry Morrison. They let the ball bounce and Neary scored and England won.

There was not a single penalty goal scored in the match.
 
Lendrum was not the only one-test player in the side. Another was Murray Jones, a prop, at 30 years of age. Two years later he drowned in Auckland Harbour trying to save his two-year-old son who had fallen from a yacht.

New Zealand: Bob Lendrum, Grant Batty, Archie Hurst, Mike Parkinson, Bryan Williams, John Dougan, Sid Going, Alex Wyllie, Ian Kirkpatrick (captain), Ken Stewart, Hamish Macdonald, Sam Strahan, Ken Lambert, Tane Norton, Murray Jones.
Replacement: Terry Morrison for Parkinson

England: Peter Rossborough, David Duckham, Peter Preece, Geoff Evans, Peter Squires, Alan Old, Jan Webster, Andy Ripley, Tony Neary, John Watkins, Chris Ralston, Roger Uttley, Stack Stevens, John Pullin (captain), Fran Cotton
Replacement: Martin Cooper for Evans

Scorers:

For England:
Tries: Stevens, Squires, Neary
Cons: Rossborough 2

For New Zealand:
Tries: Batty, Hurst
Con: Lendrum

Referee: Frank McMullen (New Zealand)

1985: New Zealand won 18-13 in Christchurch and 42-15 in Wellington

The 1985 trip was a drab affair that did little to capture New Zealand imagination. The two Tests raised just on twenty thousand spectators.

England may have been drab but it took the boot of Kieran Crowley to beat them in Christchurch. England scored two tries that day but Crowley kicked six penalty goals for all his sides points. It was not quite the Lions of 1958 when Don Clarke did the same thing but almost so. The second Test, which included a massive and damaging punch-up, was a differ met matter.

On the tour England played seven matches. They beat North Auckland, Poverty Bay, Otago and Southland and lost to Auckland and New Zealand. They scored 146 points to 123.

1998: New Zealand beat England 64-22 in Dunedin

In 1998 England went on a Southern Hemisphere tour. They played seven and lost seven. They had a big touring party that included 20 uncapped players, 14 of whom were capped on the tour. The Southern Hemisphere countries felt insulted.

They lost 76-0 to Australia in Brisbane, a record. They lost 64-22 to New Zealand, a record. They lost 40-10 to New Zealand, a record. They lost 18-0 in the wet to South Africa, a record.

In the seven matches they scored 88 points and had 328 scored against them.

They played five matches in New Zealand, losing to New Zealand A, New Zealand Academy, New Zealand Maori and the two Tests.

The first of the Tests was Englands first at Carisbrook in Dunedin, where the first Test in 2004 will be played. As is the case this year, the second Test will be in Auckland.

NZ scored its biggest win over England, scoring nine tries to three.

To make Englands job harder Danny Grewcock was sent off for kicking the head of Anton Oliver in the first half. Grewcock was banned for five weeks. Grewcock will be back for England at Carisbrook this week.

Grewcock off, NZ scored three quick tries and led 26-8 at half-time after hooker Richard Cockerill had scored a try just before half-time.

In the second half the 14 Englishmen fought back in a lost cause.

New Zealand: Christian Cullen, Jeff Wilson, Mark Mayerhofler, Walter Little, Jonah Lomu, Andrew Mehrtens, Ofisa Tonu'u, Taine Randell (captain), Michael Jones, Josh Kronfeld, Robin Brooke, Ian Jones, Olo Brown, Anton Oliver, Craig Dowd.
Replacements: Todd Blackadder for M Jones, Mark Robinson for Tonu'u

England: Matt Perry, Tim Stimpson, Nick Beal, Josh Lewsey, Austin Healey, Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Dawson (captain), Steve Ojomoh, Ben Clarke, Pat Sanderson, Danny Grewcock, Garath Archer, Phil Vickery, Richard Cockerill, Graham Rowntree.
Replacements: Tom Beim for Wilkinson, Will Green for Rowntree (bleeding) and for Vickery, Ben Sturnham for Ojomoh, Phil Greening for Cockerill, Dave Sims for Archer.

Scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries: Cullen 2, Randell 2, Wilson 2, Lomu, Kronfeld, Mayerhofler
Cons: Mehrtens 5
Pens: Mehrtens 3

For England:
Tries: Cockerill, Dawson, Beim
Cons: Stimpson 2
Pen: Stimpson

Referee: Wayne Erickson (Australia)

2003: England beat New Zealand 15-13 in Wellington

There was a stage in this match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington when England had two players in the sin bin. Reduced to 13, they still played manfully against the All Blacks.

This time, unlike 1985, the All Blacks were beaten by the boot as Jonny Wilkinson kicked four penalty goals and a dropped goal to give England a 15-13 victory. Wilkinson kicked most of his while Spencer missed most of his.

Of the English side who played in that Test, Steve Thompson, Richard Hill, Lawrence Dallaglio, Mike Tindall, Ben Cohen and Josh Lewsey are back.

Doug Howlett, who scored New Zealand's try, is back but on the wing and not at fullback, Joe Rokocoko, Tana Umaga, Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall, Richie McCaw and Chris jack are back. In addition Mils Muliaina and Keven Mealamu came off the bench in Wellington.

The match was played on 14 June 2003, almost exactly a year before this Test.