History says New Zealand
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:25
England and New Zealand have met 31 times since 1905. New Zealand have won 24, England six and one has been drawn. There is not much comfort for England in history and not much in recent results.
New Zealand have won the last six and England have just lost to Australia and South Africa. At home England have been better but not enough to bring confidence. In England the sides have met 16 times. New Zealand have won 11, England four with a draw.
This time the two teams will be playing for the Hillary Shield, named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand adventurer who became, as far as we know, the first man to scale Mount Everest and he did it in the year Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England. The Shield was designed and crafted by English trophy manufacturer Thomas Lyte Silver, who have created a number of major rugby trophies and are also responsible for the care of the FA Cup and the Ryder Cup.
New Zealand vs England, 15-0 at Crystal Palace, London, on 2 December 1905
England met New Zealand in a rugby Test for the very first time, and the Original All Blacks ran away with the match.
They were the first side to be called the All Blacks an serendipitous error by an journalist, it seems, who was so impressed by their 15-man game that he wanted to say that it was as if they were all backs. It came out as All Blacks and after black was far and away the predominant colour in their uniforms.
Just short of 103 years later they are still all in black and they are still playing an exciting game of running rugby.
In 1905 they scored five tries - not a conversion. With Daniel Carter there that would be a minimum of 35-0 today - a big win.
Five tries excessively optimistic? In their three Tests so far on this tour the All Blacks have scored 11 tries - four against Wales, three against Ireland and four against Scotland. For the England match they have the added incentive of a Grand Slam.
When the All Blacks achieved the Grand Slam in 1978, they came to England after playing Ireland and Wales. They scored but one try in each of those matches. In fact in the four Tests on that tour they scored a total of six tries. Now they have 11 tries and conceded none.
In 1905 Dave Gallaher's team scored 13 tries, in days when scoring tries was rarer than it has become with law changes to make scoring tries easier. The most Gallaher's team scored in a single Test was against England - five, and four of them went to one player.
The match was played at Crystal Palace. In days before Twickenham, English rugby had no fixed abode. Tests were played at Blackheath's Rectory Field, Welford Road in Leicester, Richmond's Athletic Ground and further afield at Kingsholm in Gloucester, Fallow field kin Manchester and Meanwood Road in Leeds. But this was going to be a bigger occasion and so a more commodious ground was needed and off they went to Crystal Palace.
Just as well, for a record crowd of 45 000 came to the match, producing a record profit of £1 039 13s 11d. (Don't you like the 11 pence?) It is believed that another 30 000 spectators got into the ground without paying. People were simply not geared for huge crowds in those days.
Crystal Palace was originally built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851 but then moved to South London where its reconstruction was completed by 1854. It was destroyed in a great fire in 1936. The football club, Crystal Palace, was founded there in 1905, the year Dave Gallaher brought his men to play.
England had eight new caps for this first-ever encounter between England and New Zealand, six of them backs,. The only backs with previous experience of Test rugby were Alfred Hind and John Raphael. In the pack the newcomers were loose forwards Richard Russell and George Summerscales whose only cap this was.
England played with a rover/wing forward - seven forwards and one out in the New Zealand way. John Raphael was England's wing forward, Dave Gallaher his immediate opponent. (For the wing forward controversy, click here.).
It took New Zealand just five minutes to get the scoreboard going, and the first All Black to score against England in a test match was Duncan McGregor. He went on to score two more tries in that half - a hat-trick in the first half against England. The first and the third of the tries were replicas. Scrumhalf Fred Roberts broke down the blindside, drew his man and fed McGregor who scored.
In the second half he scored a remarkable fourth try - the only All Black to score four tries in a Test against England till Jonah Lomu equalled the feat at Newlands in 1995, 90 years later. On the tour the speedy wing scored 16 tries in 14 matches. Fred Newton whose nickname was Fatty scored the other try from a maul near the England line.
In the wet the normally reliable boot of Billy Wallace, who played with his hat on, was unreliable. In the second half fullback George Gillett took over the kicking, also without success.
England nearly scored at the end when McGregor just beat Alfred Hind to the ball in the New Zealand in-goal.
The outstanding England player was their new fullback Johnny Jackett.
McGregor had not played against Scotland and Ireland and came into the side only because George Smith was injured. He was not much talked about in New Zealand rugby for years and years because in 18908 he "defected" to rugby league and so was banned for life. Only recently a policeman found his unmarked grave in the lovely South Island town of Timaru. His jersey is on display in the Museum at Twickenham.
After the match the two teams enjoyed a dinner together at the Trocadero at which many compliments were paid the All Blacks.
A later comment on the tour says that the Original All Blacks had done much to stop the decline of rugby football in England which had started with the great schism of 1893 when there was the breakaway to for rugby league.
Scorers:
For New Zealand:
Tries: Mitchell 4, Newton
Teams:
New Zealand: George Gillett, Duncan McGregor, Bob Deans, Jimmy Hunter, Billy Wallace, Billy Stead, Fred Roberts, Dave Gallaher (captain), Bronco Seeling, Alexander McDonald, Fatty Newton, Francis Glasgow, Bubs Tyler, Steve Casey
England: John Jackett, Alfred Hind, Reginald Godfray, Harry Shewring, Henry Imrie, Dai Gent, Jacky Braithwaite, John Raphael, George Summerscales, Richard Russell, Ernest Roberts, John Mathias, Charles Hammond, Vincent Cartwright (captain), Basil Hill
Referee: G Evans (England)
Results down the Years
1905: New Zealand won 15-0 at Twickenham,
London
1925: New Zealand won 17-11 at Twickenham, London
1936: England won 13-0 at Twickenham, London
1854: New Zealand won 5-0 at Twickenham, London
1963: New Zealand won 21-11 at Eden Park, Auckland
1963: New Zealand won 9-6 at Lancaster Park, Christchurch
1964: New Zealand won 14-0 at Twickenham, London
1967: New Zealand won 23-11 at Twickenham, London
1973: England won 16-10 at Eden Park, Auckland
1973: New Zealand won 9-0 at Twickenham, London
1978: New Zealand won 16-6 at Twickenham, London
1979: New Zealand won 10-9 at Twickenham, London
1983: England won 15-9 at Twickenham, London
1985: New Zealand won 18-13 at Lancaster Park, Christchurch
1985: New Zealand won 42-15 at Athletic Park, Wellington
1991: New Zealand won 18-12 at Twickenham, London
1993: England won 15-9 at Twickenham, London
1995: New Zealand won 45-29 at Newlands
1997: New Zealand won 25-8 at Old Trafford, Manchester
1997: Draw 26-26 at Twickenham, London
1998: New Zealand won 64-22 at Carisbrook, Dunedin
1998: New Zealand won 40-10 at Eden Park, Auckland
1999: New Zealand won 30-16 at Twickenham, London
2002: England won 31-28 at Twickenham, London
2003: England won 15-13 at Westpac Trust Stadium, Wellington
2004: New Zealand won 36-3 at Carisbrook, Dunedin
2004: New Zealand won 36-12 at Eden Park, Auckland
2005: New Zealand won 23-19 at Twickenham, London
2006: New Zealand won 41-20 at Twickenham, London
2008: New Zealand won 44-12 at Jade Stadium, Christchurch
2008: New Zealand won 37-20aat Eden Park, Auckland
