|
Newport RFC |
New Zealand |
Points |
3 |
0 |
Tries |
|
|
Conversions |
|
|
Penalties |
|
|
Drop Goals |
|
|
Goals From Mark |
|
|
|
Venue |
Home |
Game Category |
Touring |
Attendance |
29000 |
Referee |
G. Walters (Gowerton) |
|
An article in the match programme for Newport v New Zealand in 1989 recalls that 5th All Blacks, captained by prop forward Wilson Whineray from Auckland, were renowned for their tough, fast forwards. Often it was said they were over-vigorous, but the captain was never involved and he was a player who was respected on every ground in the U.K.
Among the great forwards were Colin "Pinetree" Meads, Kel Tremain, Ken Gray, Brian Lochore and Waka Nathan. This rugged pack of ruthless intent, allied to the deadly accuracy of the boot of Don Clarke, made the All Blacks an irresistible combination.
This quite outstanding touring team were to succeed in beating Wales at Cardiff, where three previous teams had failed; winning against Ireland in Dublin, England at Twickenham, and France in Paris and it was to return home with a record:-
Played 36, Won 34, Drawn 1, Lost 1, Points for 613, Points against 159.
The drawn game (neither side scored) was against Scotland at Murrayfield, but it was at Rodney Parade that the All Blacks met their Waterloo!
This was the third match of the tour and the first in Wales. Oxford University had been beaten by 19pts to 3pts and Southern Counties (at Hove) by 32pts to nil. Several of the Newport players and the coaching staff had seen the All Blacks in action and a game plan was decided upon. As the captain, Brian Price, has recalled, "Our plan to beat the 1963-64 All Blacks might be classed as completely negative and defensive by modern standards. The priorities were to avoid giving away penalties; to kill the ball at maul and ruck and in the conditions to eliminate fancy running behind the scrum. The half-backs, Bob Prosser and David Watkins, who were superb opportunists, were to decide the attacking moves and keep Clarke on the run."
A late change in the pack meant that a raw youngster from Blaenafon, 20 year-old Keith Poole, who had played only one first team game, packed down in the back row instead of the injured Brian Cresswell. Keith was to establish a club record by making three appearances against major touring teams - and never on the losing side. He was in the Newport team which drew with the 1966 Australians and in the 1969 team which beat South Africa. From 1963 to 1978 he wore the Newport jersey on 486 occasions. This would be the one to remember!
Newport had not made a very impressive start to the season, having already drawn two and lost four of their games, and although a crowd of some 29,000 was there to cheer the home side, the All Blacks were certainly favourites to win. They strengthened their team making nine changes to that that defeated Southern Counties. The scene was set........
From the match programme:-
"NOTES"
"By Jack Davis (South Wales Argus)"
"There is no team more sure of a welcome at Rodney Parade than All Blacks, for we in Monmouthshire have a sincere affection for the people of New Zealand and are wholehearted admirers of their rugby. For many of us old enough to have seen them, the 1924 All Blacks, led by C. G. Porter, were the greatest combination the game has ever seen, and the match then won 13 - 10 at Rodney Parade the finest ever played at Rodney Parade."
"Today we shall cheer on to the field the fifth team to play here in the famous black jerseys embellished by a fern, and while we do so we remember with pride that in all the other four games our teams have yielded only because of New Zealand's superior goal kicking."
"In 1905 the margin was a penalty goal and a try to a penalty goal, and 19 years later came that historic match of 1924 which New Zealand won by the skin of their teeth, a try in the dying minutes by their wing Svenson, giving them victory by 13-10."
"Bill Friend had the honour of being the first player to cross the All Blacks' line on that tour, following neat work by Evan Kitson, Wyndham Jones and Jack Wetter, and as Wetter converted, Newport led 5-0 at the interval. Newport held their own till the second half was well advanced. Then Cooke crashed through. Mill scored under the posts and Nicholls converted. A line out penalty enabled Nicholls to put New Zealand ahead, but when Wetter sent wide of the mark with a drop for goal, George Andrews followed up and scored a cheeky try. A brilliant conversion by Fred Barker and Newport were sitting pretty with a 10-8 lead and not many minutes to go. But, regret at the end, failure to find a safe touch presented Svenson with a grand try, and Nicholls converted."
"The 1935 New Zealanders kicked two dropped goals, a penalty goal and a goal from a mark in addition to a try to beat Newport 17-5. The late John Evans led a young Newport pack, which included "Bunner" Travers, then on the threshold of his great career, and the forwards more than held their own against the All Blacks pack led by Jack Manchester, but New Zealand had the vital pace and skill behind the scrum. E. W. Tindill, their outside half-back, dropped the two goals, and full-back Gilbert kicked the penalty goal. A forward, R. M. McKenzie, who got the goal from a mark, confessed that it was the first he had ever kicked! Wing-threequarter N. J. Ball, scored the try and right at the end Jack Knowles scored one for Newport and John Evans converted."
"Finally, the fourth All Blacks won here 11 -6 in a game Newport supporters will specially recall, for the great display put up by Onllwyn Brace. The date was January 21st, 1954, and Brace and Roy Burnett had established a clever attacking combination at half-back. But Burnett had been injured in a previous game and broke down again early in the match. It was left to Brace to play a lone hand, and he led the All Blacks a rare dance. Full-back J. W. Kelly converted an early try cleverly scored by M. J. Dixon, the New Zealand right wing, and the All Blacks led 5-0 at the interval. Then in a second half of many thrills. Brace, Gordon Morris and John Lane brought off a neat move for Lane to score. Back came New Zealand and Kelly kicked a penalty goal. Newport were not done with and in a rally, Brian Jones kicked a long-distance penalty goal, but the All Blacks came back and clinched a good win with a dropped goal by D. D. Wilson, their other wing."
"A real tale of goals this, and here we have today probably the greatest goal-kicker of them all - Don Clarke. Ah well!"
"JONES AND JENKINS"
"Brian Jones, who was only 18 when he played against the fourth All Blacks in 1954, is the only member of that Newport team playing for the club today. But Leighton Jenkins, a former Newport captain, who also opposed New Zealand on that day, played for the Southern Counties against the current All Blacks last Saturday."
The match itself:-
The Black and Ambers attacked from the start and Earl Kirton, the New Zealand five-eighth, who was playing his first game of the tour was given a torrid time. The All Blacks spent most of the first half defending desperately as David Watkins forced the cumbersome Don Clarke to turn on the slippery grass by using some well-placed kicking.
After 17 minutes the little outside-half made a penetrating break and when the Newport forwards won possession after Stuart Watkins had cross-kicked, Bob Prosser found John Uzzell in space in front of the posts. Although he appeared to consider haring for the corner the young centre checked and dropped for goal. The ball sailed low over the bar and the crowd went berserk!
In the second half with the wind in their favour the All Blacks fought back desperately, but the Newport pack, with Davidge playing his greatest game for the club, and all the forwards simply magnificent, there was no way through for them. Brian Price was superb in the line-out, hooker Graham Bevan took three vital heads from John Major and Alan Thomas and Keith Poole were first to the break-down. Props Nev Johnson and David Jones were solid scrummagers and ever-present in the rucks and mauls, while Colin Meads was subdued by Ian Ford.
Behind the scrum the tackling was fierce and uncompromising. Brian Jones and John Uzzell often took out Nathan and Whineray who peeled off from the lines-out, and only late in the game did the All Blacks leave their own half. Ray Cheney hit the bar with a long range penalty and several Newport counter-attacks almost brought points.
A virtual full strength test team whad been put to the sword by a Newport XV who had not made the best of starts to the season. Four games had already been lost against Bristol, Neath Cardiff and Gloucester with a further two drawn. However on the day in question Newport coped well with everything that household names such as Colin Meads, Waka Nathan and Kel Tremain could throw at them.
Newport's game plan was based around not allowing legendary goal kicker Don Clarke any opportunities to strike and they also managed to move this player, then regarded as the best full back in the world, around the pitch from his full-back position. It was a master plan that worked perfectly. The skill of the Newport backs was supplemented by an awesome display of doggedness from the Newport pack.
Newport fullback Ray Cheney missed four penalty kicks at goal including one late effort that rebounded off the cross bar but it didn't matter as Newport held out against a fierce onslaught from both the All Blacks and the driving rain. The all-important drop-goal, forever captured in flight by the iconic 'Swansea Post' photograph, was the only score and Newport had won (and deservedly so), an historic victory. Gracious in defeat, Wilson Whineray was to shoulder his way into a crowded Newport dressing-room after the game and congratulate the victors.
The Times of 31st October 1963 carried the following report of the match:-
"EXPLOSIVE NEWPORT START UNHINGES ALL BLACKS"
"FORWARD RALLY TOO LATE TO SAVE GAME"
"From Our Rugby Football Correspondent"
"Newport 3pts., New Zealanders 0"
"A dropped goal a quarter of the way through the game gave Newport victory over the touring New Zealand team yesterday. Towards the end of the match, moreover, Newport were within inches of three more points when the ball bounced off the crossbar from a penalty kick, so the visitors could in no way be said to be unlucky. Beforehand nobody would have given much for Newport's chances, but in the event they played well above anything expected of them. A breeze from the sea carried slanting rain with it, and conditions worsened as the game progressed, so that latterly it had to be followed almost as much by ear as by eye. The All Blacks rallied with great spirit in the closing stages, but rain and mud had by then washed out hopes of constructive play by the backs, and it was too late for the brave efforts of the forwards to bear fruit."
"Newport started off so explosively that the visitors were taken out of their stride, and they never really regained it, with Newport continuing to thrash away boisterously in the second half, although they were tiring. What is more, it was the first time, although it was their third match, that the All Blacks had been properly bounced about. Anything in black was felled instantly and unceremoniously, yet it was noticeable that there was no stoppage for a visiting casualty. These chaps can certainly take it."
"ON THE OTHER FOOT"
"Newport's pack, a hard robust lot, excelled themselves in their avowed object of blunting the sharp, attacking potentiality of the New Zealand forwards if they ever hit it off smoothly with their backs. Rather was the boot on the other foot until handling became a hazardous business, with D. Watkins, well plied with the ball throughout by his partner, Prosser, a constant irritation, wiggling his posterior in making sharply angled darts all over the place and kicking shrewdly. Cheney was a safe full back, even if in his place kicking he favours the now fairly widespread round the corner technique, with which it is difficult to control the ball's flight, especially if there is any wind."
"The All Blacks had said that an unbeaten record was not their first object, and this early defeat could be a blessing in disguise for them, since a string of unbroken victories can become a mental burden as well as a physical joy. They are not unused to soggy conditions, but yesterday they met them for the first time on this tour, and they also met a team with a club's playing intimacy for the first time. Both factors had some influence, but the last people to cry their eyes out will be the sporting visitors themselves."
"QUICK TO IMPROVISE"
"Once more we saw their forwards' devastating peeling off from the line-outs, when the man with the ball is able to go as far as he can, in the certainty that others are at his elbow, instead of having to look around for assistance. Again, too, there was the thrilling, driving momentum of their massed backing up, but on this occasion they met mounds of solid flesh that must have made them think that they were butting their heads up against a brick wall. Their backs had few chances to develop designed movements, but were, as usual, quick to improvise, although Clarke's kicking was for him strangely inaccurate."
"Rodney Parade was full, with the crowd pegged at 25,000, and the All Blacks played into the wind in the first half. Cheney, teeing the ball up mountainously, had several shots at penalty goals during a period of violent Newport initiative, and in their kicking they tried to exploit Clarke's slowness in turning on a slippery surface. After 20 minutes S. Watkins put over a cross-kicked when checked at the end of a good move on the right, and the end product was a sudden dropped goal by Uzzell, which, as things fell out, was to be the only score of the match, although, before half-time some mighty charges by their forwards suggested the New Zealanders might be starting to find their form."
"LOUDLY BOOED"
"The question at the start of the second period was whether or not Newport had taken too much out of themselves, but not a bit of it, and the two packs hurled themselves at each other with complete abandon. Hereabouts the New Zealand forwards were loudly booed for being too rumbustious, but this was not altogether fair, for the Newport collection were far from being angelic. In due course the All Blacks will discover that although Welsh crowds can be most generous in greeting the finer points of opponents' play they can seldom be accused of impartiality."
"When Cheney hit the crossbar with a resounding thwack with a penalty attempt excited pandemonium broke out and the crowd burst into the strains of 'Cwm Rhondda'. Their confidence was borne out, but they had some nasty moments before the end while the All Blacks were throwing in everything that they had."
"NEWPORT. - R. Cheney; S. Watkins, J. Uzzell, B. J. Jones, D. Perrott ; D. Watkins, W. R. Prosser; N. Johnson, G. Bevan, D. Jones, B. Price, I. Ford, K. W. Poole, G. Davidge, A. Thomas."
"NEW ZEALANDERS. - D. B. Clarke; W. L. Davis, I. R. MacRae, P. T. Walsh, R. W. Caulton; E. W. Kirton, K. C. Briscoe; W. J. Whineray, J. Major, I. J. Clarke, R. H. Horsley, C. E. Meads, W. J. Nathan, B. J. Lochore, K. R. Tremain."
"REFEREE. - G. Walters (Gowerton)."
During Newport's Centenary Season the match programme for the game against Tonga on 9th October 1974 included the following article:-
"WILSON WHINERAY REMEMBERS NEWPORT!!"
"There are, of course, happier places for a rugby captain to be than in the opponents' dressing room extending congratulations on their victory - especially so if the victory was beyond question and you have nothing to offer as an excuse. I have always much preferred the reverse situation."
"However, I recall very clearly the scene in the Newport changing room at Rodney Parade on that grey afternoon in late October 1963. I had somehow found my way through the milling masses back to our room and spent a few minutes with the team, slipping off my boots and replacing my rain and mud soaked jersey with a warm sweater."
"It wasn't hard to find the Newport rooms for the noise was like a radio beacon to a bomber pilot and in stockinged feet I slipped quietly into the room. I waited momentarily wondering how I could get a word in, when almost magically I was noticed by several people at the same time and an immediate and rather unnerving hush settled over the whole room. The time wasn't appropriate for many words, least of all by me, but I wished to acknowledge their clear and decisive victory, won by a team that out-played us, in virtually every department on the day. Indeed, I spoke for the whole New Zealand team in saying that in fairness, Newport should have won by a further three points, had full-back Cheney's kick not hit the crossbar and bounced away."
"Our trouble started - as they inevitably do in rugby - up front and at no stage did we establish any sustained superiority with our pack. True, we had our moments but for much of the game the fire and skill of the Newport pack, and the mud, forced all of our forwards to commit themselves, and did not allow the loose forwards to range freely as Tremain, Nathan and Lochore did so well and so often on that tour. Price and Ford held their own in the lineout, hooker Bevan had a decided edge in the scrums and with the tight core going so well the loose trio of Poole, Davidge and Thomas made life pretty miserable for Briscoe, Kirton and Walsh."
"Behind the scrum, Prosser and Watkins were never under pressure and Watkins in particular skimmed over the mud and kept us moving backwards. We changed our defensive pattern after this game, placing more pressure on the opposing fly-half, but our efforts this day were too little/too late."
"In the final analysis we were beaten by a side of dedicated individuals, wonderfully prepared for the game by Bryn Meredith, each man knowing his part in the team pattern and playing for victory with unswerving resolution. These are the very qualities that we recognised, admired and sought ourselves."
"Amongst the few football photos that I've bothered to display, and you would understand that most of them depict happy moments, is one showing the ball sailing over our goal posts after leaving Uzzell's boot. For me this is a reminder of one of the great truths in sport and indeed in life - that dedication, purpose and enduring resolve usually lead on to victory."
"I congratulated you then - and still do."
"Could I conclude by congratulating the Club on its endeavours over the past hundred years, and wish you all great success and many victories in the years ahead."
"W. J. Whineray"
© 2003-2017, Friends of Newport Rugby Trust |
|