New Zealand v England ‘a look back’ ~ 1973 ~

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Over the next few days we shall take a look back some of the Test Matches between New Zealand and England.

TODAY we look at the Test Match from 1973

the day England WON…

159th All Black Test – 661st All Black Game

 New Zealand vs England at Eden Park
Auckland, New Zealand
Saturday, 15 September 1973

Following the cancellation of a tour to the Argentine, The Rugby Union agreed to undertake a short tour of Fiji and New Zealand. After a narrow 13-12 win over Fiji, the Englishmen were beaten in all three of their provincial matches in New Zealand and they were very much the underdogs for the international.

The home side had three new Test players in Bob Lendrum, Ken Stewart and Murray Jones, all of whom had taken part in an All Black internal tour the previous month. Stewart had also been a member of the 1972-73 team on its visit to the Northern Hemisphere. Terry Morrison, later a national 200 metre sprint champion, who came on when Parkinson was injured, was also making his Test debut.

Nine players from each team had taken part in the New Zealand versus England match of the previous January.

The referee, Mr Frank McMullen, had played eleven Tests for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1960. He was the fourth New Zealand representative to control an international match.

There was a brisk westerly breeze blowing from behind the home team when Old kicked off. New Zealand attacked immediately and for eight minutes England had to defend continuously.

The All Blacks won a scrum near the English line, Wyllie picked up and fed Going on the blindside and the latter drew the opposition before transferring to Batty, who had a short sprint to score. Lendrum’s kick missed.

Three minutes later, England took the lead when Webster made a break following a scrum on the New Zealand 25 to send Squires across in the corner. Rossborough’s conversion from the sideline was a fine one.

In the twenty-seventh minute, Williams cross-kicked and his forwards won a ruck in front of the English posts. Going threw a long pass to Hurst, who eluded the opposition to score handy to the uprights. Lendrum converted to make the score 10-6, which was unaltered at halftime.

Two mistakes by New Zealand in the second half led to English tries and gave the visitors a well-deserved but unexpected victory. After eight minutes, Lendrum failed to find touch from inside his 25 and Webster caught the ball.

He ran before feeding back to his forwards who carried on the movement, Stevens eventually crossing for a try.

Five minutes from time, Lendrum failed to take a high kick and once again Webster came away with the ball. He passed to Old who in turn sent on to Neary for the flanker to score midway between the posts and the corner flag. Rossborough converted and New Zealand had to score twice to win.

The home team attacked desperately in the dying stages but the Englishmen were playing with great spirit and were determined not to relinquish their lead. They were still six points ahead at full time, thus recording a truly historic victory.

While not wishing to detract from the merit of England’s win, we feel that this must have been one of the most inept displays ever by an All

Black team. The home side, especially the forwards, played most of the game with an almost complete lack of purpose and very few wearers of the black jersey looked like internationals. There also seemed to be an alarming absence of leadership.

This was Wyllie’s last Test appearance. He had appeared in eleven internationals. It was also Murray Jones’s only Test, He lost his life in tragic circumstances, when he and his young son were victims of a boating mishap in 1975.

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Tomorrow we shall have a look back at 1985 Test Series vs England played in New Zealand

Last 10 Games played between the New Zealand v England
16-Nov-13	England	22-30	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
1-Dec-12	England	38-21	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
6-Nov-10	England	16-26	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
21-Nov-09	England	06-19	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
29-Nov-08	England	06-32	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
21-Jun-08	New Zealand	44-12	England	Jade Stadium,	Christchurch, NZL
14-Jun-08	New Zealand	37-20	England	Eden Park,	Auckland, NZL
5-Nov-06	England	20-41	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
19-Nov-05	England	19-23	New Zealand	Twickenham,	London, Eng
19-Jun-04	New Zealand	36-12	England	Eden Park,	Auckland, NZL
Games Played	36		Games Played	36
*Games Won	28		*Games Won	7
*Games Lost	7		*Games Lost	28
Games Drawn	1		Games Drawn	1
*Longest Winning Streak	9		*Longest Winning Streak	2
*Longest Losing Streak	2		*Longest Losing Streak	9
*Largest Points For	64		*Largest Points For	38
*Largest Points Against	38		*Largest Points Against	64
*Largest Winning Margin	42		*Largest Winning Margin	17
*Largest Losing Margin	-17		*Largest Losing Margin	-42
*Total Points For	861		*Total Points For	484
*Avg Points For	23.92		*Avg Points For	13.44
*Total Points Against	484		*Total Points Against	861
*Avg Points Against	13.44		*Avg Points Against	23.92
*Total Points Difference	377		*Total Points Difference	-377
*Avg Points Difference	10.47		*Avg Points Difference	-10.47
* = By New Zealand			* = By England

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Story/Stat Sources : http://rugbyredefined.com ; http://rugbydata.com ; http://stats.allblacks.com/

Acknowledgement : Men in Black 1903-1993 – ISBN: 1 86958 061 3