Kangaroos tested

Press, 14 October 1986, Page 36

Kangaroos tested

NZPA-AAP Leeds The Kangaroos survived their tour’s first acid test with a pulsating 26-18 rugby league victory against the Wigan millionaires, but shed their invincibility tag in the process. Before a boisterous 30,622 tour club-record gate at Central Park, in Leeds; the Australians successfully christened their 20-match European trip, but looked rattled as Graham Lowe’s Wigan roared back from 20-2 down early in the second half. With the unenviable task of following the 1982 "Invincibles,” the Kangaroos conceded three tries in a withering 16-minute burst that threatened to up-end- the

tourists. At stages in a rousing second half the match looked to be ebbing away from Australia as Wigan ripped in with renewed gusto and exposed weaknesses out wide. The Kangaroos, anticipating a “fourth test" against the international-studded Wigan, deserved victory with a five tries-to-three margin, but the English club’s performance has breathed long-awaited new life back into the coming Ashes test series. “In the first hour we had it well and truly controlled — our tackling was spot on and hard — but in the last 15 minutes my blokes stopped,” said the relieved Australian coach, Don Fumer, afterwards.