England at Eden Park in history

English names, New Zealand fortress

Eden Park in Auckland, both places named for the same man, is the venue for Saturday's second Test between New Zealand and England. England have achieved the paradise of victory over the All Blacks twice - once in three matches at Auckland's famous ground.

Why Eden Park? A bit of pre-snake heaven?

Not really. Its a nice thought in a land where rugby is bliss and victory a blessing, but it takes its name from Mt Eden, which in turn was named for George Eden, the second Earl of Auckland.

And who was he? He was the First Lord of the Admiralty and then the Governor-General of India. He was born on 25 August 1784 on Eden Farm near Beckenham in Kent. He succeeded his father to the earldom in 1814. He died on 1 January 1849 at The Grange neat Alresford in Hampshire. Unmarried, he was succeeded by his brother John, a parson.

Anthony Eden, prime minister of England and later the Earl of Avon, is a relative.

There is no longer an Earl of Auckland.

Why Auckland? The Eden family home was in West Auckland in Durham, and so the first earl adopted that as his title.

Lord Auckland had a protégé in Captain William Hobson. Hobson was the man behind the founding of Auckland in 1840 and its development. Grateful as he was to his patron, he sprinkled his name about the city which he called Auckland and added several Edens for good measure.

Auckland City of Sails? What about the meaning of Auckland? Apparently it means Oakland. Perhaps, as we lookup at One Tree Hill, it should have been Pineland and we could recall the greatest Pine Tree of them all Colin Meads, who brought so much greatness to New Zealands rugby.

At first Eden was given to man,
A garden to work and to feed in;
But now we've an opposite plan,
For Man is given to Eden.

So says old bit of rhyme about the spectators who will throng to Eden Park on Saturday?

Eden Park was once a lake. Sometimes it has reverted to being a lake as when the All Blacks played Scotland in 1975 and the field was under water, the wettest Tests ever. New Zealand won 24-0, and afterwards their captain, Andy Leslie, remarked: This one of the greatest moments in New Zealand swimming.

The lake was developed into a reservoir in 1866. Near the end of the 19th century the ground where the ground Eden Park now is was a lake with a causeway.

The land was reclaimed and a sports ground developed which has become the premier sporting venue in New Zealand, but it is in a catchment area for water in a well-watered city. 

The ground is low-lying though nearby is Mt Eden, the highest point in Auckland with a great view of the city.

Because the ground is low-lying and attractive to water and because stands have grown higher and higher, the ground surface has suffered as drainage has become less effective and sunlight on the grass of shorter duration.

Traditionally Eden Park has drained well. Like all Auckland, the soil is sandy and sits on a base of volcanic rock. But this advantage has fallen away with the building of the new North Stand, which keeps part of the ground permanently in shadow.

In addition there are problems with the grass.

All of this was given a complete make-over in 2003. New drainage was laid and the American-developed, Motz Stabilised Turf system introduced.

Like Carisbrook, it was first a cricket ground, but cricket had a wonky time with its finances and invited rugby in. The Auckland Rugby Union took over the grounds lease in 1914 and made it its headquarters in 1925. It is still doubles as a cricket ground.

The first Test was played on the ground in 1921 - New Zealand vs South Africa, a match which South Africa won. Like all great grounds, there have been many memorable occasions.

This Saturday New Zealand play England at Eden Park in the second Test of the series with England smarting from their big 36-3 defeat at Carisbrook in Dunedin last week.

England and New Zealand have met three times at Eden Park. New Zealand have won twice, England once.

1963

New Zealand beat England 21-11  at Eden Park on 25 May 1963

For the very first time England ventured beyond Europe on this tour. Although they were the Five Nations champions, they went without some top players, such as John Willcox, Peter Jackson, Richard Sharp and Dickey Jeeps, David Marques, John Currie, Jim Roberts, hooker Stanley Hodgson and Peter Robbins. Their record was not great but they played well and were popular.

Fiord the first time New Zealand and England met in a Test on New Zealand soil, the soil of Eden Park.

New Zealand had a powerful pack and mediocre backs but behind those backs was the frightening presence of Don Clarke with that blasting boot. What a day the big man had - scoring in all four ways.

By half time England led 6-0 from two penalty goals by Roger Hosen and looked as if they were just able to win. Then Don Clarke kicked three long-range penalty goals, but England came back when from a maul 35 yards out they started a drive down the blind side which left John Ranson 15 yards to run for a brilliant try.

Don Clarke scored off a diagonal kick by Bruce Watt but missed the conversion. The referee ordered it taken again because Ranson had shouted to put him off. Clarke goaled.

Then the All Black pack took over, and with twenty minutes left, New Zealand went ahead for the first time when Ralph Caulton broke through Malcolm Phillips's tackle to score. Five minutes from the end Watt went blind and sent Caulton over for his second try. In the dying seconds of the match Clarke dropped a goal.

Scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries: DB Clarke, Caulton
Cons: Clarke 3
Drop: Clarke
Pen: Clarke

For England:
Try: Ranson
Con: Hosen
Pens: Hosen 2

Teams:

England: Roger Hosen, John Dee , Mike Weston  (captain), Malcolm Phillips, John Ranson , Phil Horrocks-Taylor , Simon Clarke, David Perry, Budge Rogers, Victor Marriott , Thomas Pargetter, Alec Davis,  Philip Judd, Herbert Godwin, Ron Jacobs.

New Zealand: Don Clarke, Ralph Caulton, Ian Uttley, Thomas Wolfe , Donald McKay, Bruce Watt, Des Connor, David Graham, Kel Tremain, Waka Nathan, Allan Stewart, Colin Meads ,  Wilson Whineray  (captain), Denis Young, Ian Clarke.

Referee: Chisholm Robson (New Zealand)

1973

At the insistence of the New Zealand government, the NZ RFU cancelled its proposed tour to South Africa. At the same time England's tour to Argentina was cancelled on the grounds of political instability in the country and the threat of kidnap. The two cancellations brought England to New Zealand on a hastily arranged tour.

England had beaten New Zealand at Twickenham in January but they battled on this tour, winning only one match - but that was the one that really counted

England beat New Zealand 16-10 at Eden Park on 15 September 1973.

England had lost to Taranaki in the mud, Wellington and Canterbury before they came to Eden Park for the Test and one of rugby's big upsets with 55 000 people to watch the match.

England's plan was to attack NZ where NZ was strongest - scrumhalf and loose forwards. 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 scored early on when Going made the running from a five-yard scrum and sent the feisty wing over in the corner. But England soon his back when Webster and the loose forwards worked a move from a scrum and Peter Squires went over in Batty's tackle. Rossborough converted. 6-4.

Bryan Williams crosskicked, Ian Kirkpatrick charged, Going sent out a long pass, and Ian Hurst scored for a 10-6 lead at half-time.

In the second half England played with the wind. Webster and Ralston made a try for prop Stevens at the posts. From then on its was all England. Webster kicked high. Bob Lendrum and Terry Morrison bungled, Webster got possession and Tony Neary scored. Nearys try made the match safe and abruptly ended the international careers of Lendrum and Morrison.

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

Scorers:

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

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

Teams:

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

Referee: Frank McMullen (New Zealand)

1998

This was the annoying tour of the weakened England team. It created records for its opponents wherever it went, but not at Eden Park because it had already established a record at Carisbrook in Dunedin.

New Zealand beat England 40-10 at Eden Park on 27 June 1998.

England stood up well for a while and by half-time the All Blacks led only 14-7 and England had had a try disallowed but eventually the All Blacks ran away with the match.

The margin of victory in Dunedin in 2004 was bigger than this margin of victory, but not as big as 64-22 in Dunedin in 1998.

Scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries: Wilson 2, Mayerhofler, Vidiri, Maka, Randell
Cons: Spencer 3, Mehrtens 2

For England:
Try: Dawson
Con: Dawson
Pen: Dawson

Teams

New Zealand: Christian Cullen, Jeff Wilson, Mark Mayerhofler, Caleb Ralph, Jonah Lomu, Andrew Mehrtens, Ofisa Tonu'u, Taine Randell (captain), Todd Blackadder, Josh Kronfeld, Robin Brooke, Ian Jones, Olo Brown, Anton Oliver, Craig Dowd.
Replacements: Mark Carter for Jones, Norm Hewitt for Oliver, Carl Hoeft for Dowd, Isitolo Maka for Blackadder, Carlos Spencer for Mayerhofler, Joeli Vidiri for Lomu, Dowd for Hewitt.

England: Matt Perry, Austin Healey, Nick Beal, Jos Baxendell, Tom Beim, Josh Lewsey, Matt Dawson (captain), Tony Diprose, Pat Sanderson, Ben Clarke,  Dave Sims, Rob Fidler, Phil Vickery, Richard Cockerill, Graham Rowntree
Replacements: Steve Ravenscroft for Healey, Phil Greening for Cockerill, Tim Stimpson for Beim, Ben Sturnham for Sanderson.
   
Referee: Peter Marshall (Australia)