Thorny Encounters

Matt Elliott

Description

In 1905, Vic Cartwright's England rugby team lined up against Dave Gallaher's touring All Blacks at Crystal Palace - the first ever meeting of two national teams. Ensuing matches, in both the amateur and professional eras, have been dramatic and controversial, steeped in the historical rivalry of the traditional home of the game for the nation that has claimed rugby as its own. Men in white (such as Wakefield, Beaumont, Carling, Leonard and Johnson) versus men in black (Meads, Lochore, Fitzpatrick, Lomu, McCaw). Hakas drowned out by rousing renditions of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'. Grinding forward tussles on cold, murky afternoons and sweeping back-line movements on sun-lit grounds. Thorny Encounters chronicles the first 40 Test matches between England and New Zealand, in which giants of the sport have measured themselves against each other. In the professional era, the match has become the clash of the hemispheres.

Sujets

• Nueva Zelanda
• Inglaterra
• New Zealand
• England
• Nouvelle-Zélande

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785314803
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2018
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Matt Elliott, 2018
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-446-9
eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-480-3
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Notes to the text
On Facing the All Blacks
1905 Crystal Palace, All Blacks 15 England 0
1925 Twickenham, All Blacks 17 England 11
1936 Twickenham, England 13, All Blacks 0
1954 Twickenham, All Blacks 5 England 0
1963 Eden Park, All Blacks 21 England 11
1963 Lancaster Park, All Blacks 9 England 6
1964 Twickenham, All Blacks 14 England 0
1967 Twickenham, All Blacks 23 England 11
1973 Twickenham, All Blacks 9 England 0
1973 Eden Park, England 16 All Blacks 10
1978 Twickenham, All Blacks 16 England 6
1979 Twickenham, All Blacks 10 England 9
1983 Twickenham, England 15 All Blacks 9
1985 Lancaster Park, All Blacks 18 England 13
1985 Athletic Park, All Blacks 42 England 15
1991 Twickenham (RWC), All Blacks 18 England 12
1993 Twickenham, England 15 All Blacks 9
1995 Newlands (RWC), All Blacks 45 England 29
The Professional Era
1997 Old Trafford, All Blacks 25 England 8
1997 Twickenham, England 26 All Blacks 26
1998 Carisbrook, All Blacks 64 England 22
1998 Eden Park, All Blacks 40 England 10
1999 Twickenham (RWC), All Blacks 30 England 16
2002 Twickenham, England 31 All Blacks 28
2003 Westpac Stadium, England 15 All Blacks 13
2004 Carisbrook, All Blacks 36 England 3
2004 Eden Park, All Blacks 36 England 12
2005 Twickenham, All Blacks 23 England 19
2006 Twickenham, All Blacks 41 England 20
2008 Eden Park, All Blacks 37 England 20
2008 AMI Stadium, All Blacks 44 England 12
2008 Twickenham, All Blacks 32 England 6
2009 Twickenham, All Blacks 19 England 6
2010 Twickenham, All Blacks 26 England 16
2012 Twickenham, England 38 All Blacks 21
2013 Twickenham, All Blacks 30 England 22
2014 Eden Park, All Blacks 20 England 15
2014 Forsyth Barr Stadium, All Blacks 28 England 27
2014 Waikato Stadium, All Blacks 36 England 13
2014 Twickenham, All Blacks 24 England 21
The Game that Never Was (Going to Be)
Red Roses and Black Ferns
Series Statistics
Bibliography
This book is dedicated to my big little brother, Peter
and to the memories of
Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky (1916-1940) and Jonah Tali Lomu (1975-2015)
Nowhere else have I come across the one-eyed bias you find in the southern hemisphere. In New Zealand s case, they just didn t respect our rugby and couldn t really get their heads around the fact we can actually play the game in the northern hemisphere.
- Lawrence Dallaglio (ENG 1995-2007)
For me there s something special about playing England. Maybe it s because they re always talking themselves up. Maybe because it s the mother country - the home of the game. Whatever, playing England really spins my wheels.
- Jonah Lomu (NZ 1994-2002)
Rugby is a democratic game. One has the right to play it in any way one chooses.
- Andrew Mulligan (IRE 1956-61, 1959 Lions in New Zealand)
Acknowledgements
My sincere thanks are due to the following for the various ways in which they have helped with this project:
I am indebted to Mike Slemen, Phil de Glanville, Nigel Redman and Izzy Noel-Smith for generously sharing their thoughts and reminiscences.
Toby Goodman s enthusiasm and introductions are greatly appreciated.
Dinah-Lee Tui, Henry Liu and Phil O Malley (Glenfield Library); Keith Giles (Principal Photographs Librarian, Auckland Libraries).
M.J. Ford (Cambridge); Howard Ahmun (Cardiff).
Paul and Jane Camillin, Pitch Publishing; Duncan Olner; Graham Hales; Becca Wells; Dean Rockett.
As always, my wife, Melissa, son Peter - How s your rugby book going, Dad? - and Murray for his ongoing interest.
Introduction
E XCLUDING a Rugby World Cup (RWC) final, is there any bigger occasion for the Rugby Football Union (RFU) than hosting the All Blacks at Twickenham?
After the anthems, the All Blacks take their places for the haka, an important piece of cultural and sporting theatre and a tradition that connects the All Black teams of the 21st century with those who first stepped out onto the muddy Crystal Palace field in 1905. As the men in black begin their challenge of Ka mate or Kapa o pango , in response a large proportion of the crowd begin singing the low notes of the appropriated negro spiritual, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot . The crowd is announcing their own challenge to the visitors. They will be heard.
This is where fevered sporting rivalry combines with another English tradition, that of theatrical pantomime. There will be booing and hissing of the villains and rousing cheers for the heroes.
The crowd will get in the ear of the referee, too. Even the best officiators can t resist looking at a big screen when repeated boos ring out across the ground. ( He s behind you! )
There is no venue the All Blacks have a greater dislike of losing at, though many also name Twickenham as their favourite venue outside New Zealand. There is no greater scalp for England to claim on their hallowed ground than that of the All Blacks.
The rivalry between the two teams, their respective administrators and supporters, is not based on geo-political histories. It is mostly about differing philosophies of how the game should be played or governed. It is a rivalry of opposites. White v black. The traditional home of the game against the colonial upstarts who have claimed it as their own. Players representing the largest, wealthiest union with the biggest home ground from a country of 50 million people in which rugby is not the number one sport, against players from a country with a tenth of the population, a smaller player base and a number of small (by comparison) regional stadia that host their national team, allowing fans of the country s main game to see their heroes. England s players are contracted to their clubs, New Zealand Rugby (NZR, previously the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and New Zealand Rugby Union) centrally contracts players.
In the amateur era, rugby fans attended Twickenham, the ground variously known as Rugby Football Ground or Headquarters , with much hope but little glory when it came to defeating the men in black. Match programmes were in praise of the rugby gods who had arrived from the bottom of the world. (The use of the word gods is no exaggeration by the author.) Tries by the visitors brought great cheers from the attending English public.
The visitors held an advantage. They had been travelling together for a number of weeks and had been able to field shadow Test teams against the more highly regarded district combinations they faced.
On the contrary, the England team had to abide by the rules of the International Rugby Board (IRB) which prevented Test teams assembling more than a couple of days before a match. Thus, the well-drilled side that had been able to try tactics and planned moves in the match environment ran out against 15 players who had enjoyed little time together. Most of the English Test XV would have faced the All Blacks in tour matches but in some instances that only added to the awe in which they viewed their opponents.
In the professional era, with ten-month seasons, the challenges of end-of-year tours to the northern hemisphere have never been greater for the All Blacks.
England didn t send a team to New Zealand until 1963. The subsequent once-a-decade visits, with challenging itineraries of time and opponents, were a curiosity for local fans and warmly welcomed.
Then along came a tournament called the Rugby World Cup. At last a team could justifiably call themselves the world champions. For four years. Being the traditional team of excellence, or the best in your hemisphere, no longer counted. There was a trophy and with it came bragging rights. For national unions and their coaches, it became THE measure of achievement.
The rivalry between the All Blacks and England changed, much of it fuelled by ever more strident, parochial media. The 1993 win by England at Twickenham was a key game in that change. England went into the game wanting revenge for defeat in the 1991 RWC pool game. Then, at the 1995 RWC, the All Blacks sought revenge for the 1993 loss.
Surprisingly, perhaps, England s record of wins against the All Blacks is worse in the professional era than in the amateur days. It is small consolation that it remains superior to the combined results of neighbours Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Should it be better than it is?
A reading of the opportunities missed and player reactions to losses within this book suggests that it should. But then, it isn t by accident the All Blacks have fashioned the best winning record across the history of the game. As former Scottish international, coach and four-time coach of the British and Irish Lions, Sir Ian McGeechan, has said, All Blacks are created by the system and the environment, not just by pulling on the jersey every player in the country understands the game so well, and that is why they are difficult to beat. Sometimes you might have a better team, but the All Blacks might have a better understanding, and that can be crucial.
In recent years, a succession of England coaches have provided plenty of