History against Lions at Lancaster Park

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 11

History against Lions at Lancaster Park

By

RAY CAIRNS

Featuring: 2nd Test, British Isles v New Zealand and Congress of Asian and Pacific Rugby countries.

Though successive Lions teams must look askance at Lancaster Park — they have won no tests in five attempts, and only six of 15 games altogether — the ground was not kind to the All Blacks for a long period.

Since 1959, the All Blacks have won nine of their 10 games in Christchurch, the sole loss being the lastgasp victory by the 1965 Springboks. But before that happier run started, the All Blacks won only five games in the period between 1905 and 1958, and lost seven Australia, three times, and New South Wales (twice) accounted for five of the Josses; the others were to the 1937 Springboks and Canterbury in 1957.

But since the very good 1959 Lions were demolished 22-8, in the third test and by far the outstanding perfonnance of that year’s All Black teams. New Zealand has been a very difficult opponent in Christchurch. In the last 18 years, the Lions have thrice bowed the knee, France and Australia have each been beaten twice, and England and Wales have succumbed too.

The earliest British teams did not play tests at Christchurch, and the first to strike the Lancaster Park bogy was Douglas Prentice’s team of 1930. The first Lions had made a happy start to the test series, after losing early to Wellington and Canterbury.

The unforgettable Ivor Jones broke clear 75m from the New Zealand line, drew George Nepia, and passed to the flying Jack Morley, for him to score the winning try with only a minute or two left. There was not the same high drama in the second test at Christchurch, marked by the triumphant return to test rugby of the great Mark Nicholls, and the end of Jimmy Mill. Dropped after the Dunedin test, along with Herb Lilbume, his first five-eighths that day, Mill was succeeded at Christchurch by Merv Comer, and he had an excellent debut.

But the match really belonged to the clinical Nicholls. After only Bmin, he coolly kicked a goal from a mark, one of the rare occasions on which such a method of scoring has been seen in test rugby. The last was also at Lancaster Park: by Don Clarke, against the 1963 England team.

Great Britain led only once in the game, although the “All Whites” eventually won by 13-10. That was when the magnificent England centre, Carl Aarvold, later a High Court judge, scored for Prentice to convert. Before the first half was over, however, the Canterbury wing, George Hart scored a try which Nicholls converted. And Nicholls in the second half, made the match

safe when he launched a swift attack, “swerved like lightning” as a contemporary writer phrased it, and Don Olliver scored the try. Nicholls’s conversion made his personal contribution seven points, but his influence on the game could not be measured in points alone. Nor could the contributions of the great Nepia and the All Whites forward pack be overlooked, and for the British team, in their dark blue jerseys, they suffered a heavy loss in the injury to the scrum-half, Paul Murray.

The second test of 1950 is almost certainly the most forgettable of that series. The Lions snatched a 9-all draw in the first test; the third test occupies an heroic page as one of the bravest exhibitions by a New Zealand pack, reduced to six by injuries and with its crippled captain, Ron Elvidge, scoring the winning try. And in the fourth test, there was the magnificent try scored by Ken Jones and created by Lewis Jones.

The second test was a non-event by comparison. New Zealand won, 8-0, Pat Crowley and Roy Roper scoring tries and Laurie Haig — strangely, not Bob Scott — kicking a conversion.

The 1959 Lions are fondly remembered as one

of the most attractive sides to tour New Zealand, and they would not have been considered fortunate if they had won the test series. Don Clarke kicked 18 points from penalties for New Zealand to win the first test, 18-17, at Carisbr.ook; and the same big full-back scored a try on the stroke of time to snatch the second test from the Lions at Wellington, 11-8.

The visitors went on to deservedly win the fourth test, 9-6, but the series was decided by that time. The All Blacks, superb in the forwards, won the third test, 22-8. Colin Meads was superb; Mark Irwin and Ron Hemi, restored to the colours, not far behind him. And Clarke had one of his finest fullback games, stopping a certain try by David Hewitt. All the Lions could offer were a try to the brilliant young Hewitt and a conversion and penalty by John Fault The 1966 Lions had a coach, John Robins, with no power, and a captain, Mike Campbell-Lamerton, who attracted no respect. He was to play prop, rather than lock, in the third test at Christchurch but found he could not handle the position when packing down in training against Ray McLoughlin.

So Delme Thomas, a splendid lock and line-out jumper, was drafted into the front row at short notice, not that it did the Lions any good. Waka Nathan, the “black

lan Kirkpatrick on the way to score one of the greatest tries in All Black history. It occurred in the second test against the 1971 Lions at Lancaster Park. “Kirkie” seized the ball in a maul, worked his way through the press of players, and startled the Lions by bursting clear on their side of the maul. His powerful legs then parried him on a spectacu-

panther” but engaged in working with brown products on this tour, was superb in scoring two tries; Tony Steel got the other; and Mick Williment kicked a penalty goal and two conversions.

Although losing 6-19, the Lions contributed the best two tries of the game, to Ron Lamont and David Watkins.

The 1971 Lions lost only one game, and that was at Lancaster Park in the second test, the All Blacks dominating the line-outs and the rucks, Bob Burgess playing splendidly at first five-eighths, and Bryan Williams being awarded a penalty try. But the try of the match was that scored by lan Kirkpatrick, described below and pictured in its early stages. Apart from Kirkpatrick and Williams, the All Blacks tries were scored by Sid Going and Burgess, twice. Laurie Mains, who replaced Fergie McCormick as full-back, kicked two conversions and a penalty goal.

Gerald Davies — the man who conceded the penalty try — scored two himself, and Barry John kicked a penalty goal and a dropped goal, but the Lions were well beaten, 22-12.

History is really .on the side of the All Blacks on Saturday. Not only have the Lions yet to win a test at Lancaster Park, but not since 1956 have the All Blacks lost the second test of a major home series.

lar run to the goal-line, 50 metres away. He fended off two defenders, including the redoubtable J. P. R. Williams, and outran two others before plunging triumphantly across the goal-line at the southern end of the ground. Bruce Hunter, the New Zealand right wing, ran in support of Kirkpatrick all the way, but was not needed.