Earle Kirton and the 1986 Lions

Above: Part of the sports pages of the Dominion the morning after Wellington had beaten Auckland 23-12 and taken a major step towards winning the 1986 championship.? The grainy photo is of first five-eighth Steve Pokere ripping it wide to his outsides, one of coach Earle Kirton's key planks for this successful team.

In 1986 Wellington beat arch-rivals Auckland 23-12 in front of 25,000 people at Athletic Park en route to an unbeaten season and their third National Provincial Championship title

The team was coached by Earle Kirton, who won the NPC in just his first year in charge after taking over the coaching reins from 1978 and 1981 winner Ian Upston. Chiefs coach Dave Rennie is the only other coach to have won the ITM Cup for Wellington - in 2000.

Former Otago and All Blacks first five-eighth Kirton prepared a championship winning team that played attractive, entertaining rugby - which was his coaching mantra when he took over the team. "The plan was always to spin the ball and go for gas," he said.

"Right from when I was coaching in England [throughout the 1970s and early 1980s] I didn't see any point in playing boring rugby. Playing an attractive style of rugby is more fun for the players; every man has a run with the ball and they get extra enjoyment out of it.

"When I took over the team I also thought we had to bring rugby as entertainment back to the public. At the time we were losing a lot to rugby league and soccer, so I thought it had to be both enjoyable for the players and entertaining to the crowd."

?"One thing I used to repeat time and again was that we couldn't beat Auckland man for man in terms of the players that we had. Auckland had virtually the All Black test team at the time. So I went for nothing else but gas, and I picked a halfback in Neil Sorenson to feed the gas - and that was my philosophy in playing rugby."

Some of the inspiration for victory also came from Kirton reading the Rudyard Kipling poem "If" out to the team under the stands before they took the field.

The win against Auckland in 1986 was just the second match of that year's NPC, coming four days after the Lions had beaten Kirton's old playing team Otago 30-6 in Dunedin in the campaign opener. After Otago and Auckland, the Lions went on to win their next eight competition matches straight, to triumph in the days before the playoffs were introduced in 1992.

There were also notable wins over Canterbury (22-16) and Taranaki (25-21) at home and a big away win at Masterton in the last game against then first division powerhouse Wairarapa-Bush (39-9).

It did the trick, the Lions playing with vigour and fire from the opening whistle. Wellington led 13-9 at halftime and several times in the second half it appeared that the toll of the otago match and Auckland's strength in the loose wold come to the fore. But Wellington refused to buckle and outscored Auckland four tries to one with wing Lolani Koko scoring a double, restricting Auckland to a solitary Grant Fox penalty in the second spell.

The following year, 1987, Kirton's second and last season in charge, the Lions finished second to Auckland. Heading to Auckland to challenge for the Ranfurly Shield in the penultimate match, the two teams were level on points and the Lions had won eight in a row.

This game was very nearly won as well, but a ruled forward pass ended Wellington's challenge with the game all square at 18-18. ?

"It came from Steve Pokere who made a beautiful run from centre. He then passed to wing Paul Simonsson, who ran in front of the ball with a clear run to the line. The pass was called forward but I reckon it was flat."

This loss proved to be Kirton's only NPC defeat in charge of Wellington in 20 matches. In all games, his Wellington sides played 36, won 27, and scored 1010 points. In 20 NPC games, Kirton's Lions scored 70 tries.

Not a bad record for a coach who by his own admission says he was lucky to get the job after arriving back from the UK having coached Middlesex (and won a county championship), Harlequins and London Counties over 14 years.?

"I found it hard just to get a job in the first place, because I hadn't gone through the club system and I couldn't convince anyone in New Zealand that my English CV was worthwhile.

"I wasn't very popular; people didn't like the cut of my jib. I asked the then Chairman Graham Aitken how am I supposed to get a go? He said well, you'll never get a go here unless you get rid of that bloody scarf and that cigar for a start! In fact he was right - I had a clipped accent, I wore a camel hair coat, I had that scarf that I still have now and I used to go down behind the goalpost and have a suck on a cigar."

Kirton was persistent though.

"In the end Aitken came back asked me if I would do the sevens rugby, so I did that in 1984 and 1985 and we got to the finals of the nationals.

"They hadn't played sevens here since about 1947, so I resurrected the sevens in Wellington and with the help of people such as Pope and my brother [Rex] who was the mayor of Upper Hutt and who helped provide a ground at Trentham Memorial Park, and the Upper Hutt Rugby Club who helped out with the beer and food, started up the big sevens tournament they now play every year."

He was then surprised to get the Lions coaching job. "I just kept putting my name up." Once appointed he says he was fortunate to have a great coaching team around him, including Geoff Bridge, GC (Graham) Williams and Don Bond as the team's manager, who recently passed away.

"Geoff and Bondy were tremendous. When I took over the players complained about me too much. Bondy used to sit at the bottom of the stairs at that dungeon at Athletic Park and say to them don't get too uptight with him, he's not so bad! ?I've had a couple of chats with him and he's going to play attractive football too. He was telling all these hard nosed veterans to give me a go.

"He then became a great foil me; when the players got upset with me Bondy picked up the pieces. Don was absolutely tremendous with team spirit and a great manager.

"GC Williams was my co-selector. He was a great judge of a player. He never had much time to coach himself due to his family business commitments, but he was an excellent judge of a rugby player. I'd send him to a ground and for me, I knew what he was giving me back in terms of information was spot-on."