Wellington against international teams: versus Wales 1988

Match Details:

Result: Wellington 38 – Wales 22
When: 21 May 1988
Weather: Overcast
Crowd: 32,000

The Tour:

The All Blacks were in their pomp in 1988, having won the previous year’s inaugural Rugby World Cup and, with players such as John Kirwan, Michael Jones, Sean Fitzpatrick and Grant Fox in their prime, they lay in wait for Wales.

For the first time in 19 years, Wales sent a team to New Zealand for an eight-match, two-Test tour in May and June.

High hopes were expected of Wales, who had gone on to finish third at the 1987 Rugby World Cup after being thrashed by the All Blacks 49-6 in one semi-final and who had jointly won the 1987/88 Five Nations Championship with France.

The hopes were not realised, however, and the Welsh ended the tour with a poor record. Their record of two wins, five losses and a draw was woeful. 

Worse still were the two whopping losses to the All Blacks. They lost the first Test 3-52 (Kirwan three tries, Terry Wright two tries) and the second 9-54 (Kirwan and Wright two tries each).

They also lost provincial games to Waikato (19-28), North Auckland (9-27) and Wellington (22-38), whilst drawing with Taranaki (13-13) and beating Otago (15-13) and 1988 NPC Second Division champions Hawke’s Bay (45-18).

The Welsh contained two players who had toured New Zealand with the Lions in 1983, Robert Norster and Staff Jones, and an up and coming first five-eighth, Jonathan Davies (later to go to rugby league). Of note, fullback Anthony Clement had played club rugby in Wellington for Poneke the previous year.

Wellington’s two All Blacks that started both Tests were fullback John Gallagher (Oriental-Rongotai) and lock Murray Pierce (Wellington), whilst wing Mike Clamp (Petone), midfielder John Schuster (Marist St Pat’s), prop Brian McGrattan (Marist St Pat’s) and hooker Hika Reid (Hutt Old Boys) wee all All Blacks.

The Match:

In 1988, Wellington’s slogan was “We’re going to hang tough…Wellington’s Pride is out on the Park.” A stirring song accompanied the words. As a side note, if anyone has the audio please email it to editor@clubrugby.co.nz

There wasn’t too much to enthuse about with their early season form though, which had been patchy. A month previously they had been smoked 0-58 by Auckland in the South Pacific Championship (SPC). Their other SPC results had seen them lose 3-29 to Queensland but beat Fiji 42-21, New South Wales 22-16 and Canterbury 21-15.

Wellington was coming off an error ridden win over Wanganui (31-3) just a few days before this one that left coach Alan Muir with more questions than answers as to how they'd go against an international side.

From the get-go, Wellington’s pack tore into the Welsh and established dominance.

There was a flurry of early scoring by both sides, including a try to Wellington to hooker Hika Reid, and Wellington led 12-10 after 20 minutes.

Wellington put on the afterburners over the second quarter, running in three more tries to No. 8 Emosi Koloto (Avalon), John Schuster and wing Denis Tocker (Marist St Pat’s) and they raced to a match-winning 28-10 lead at halftime.

Wales came back early in the second half, but Wellington sealed victory with two more tries, scored by Mike Clamp and Koloto (his second). To make matters worse for Wales, they lost their captain Bleddyn Bowen to a broken hand, forcing him out of the tour.

The Evening Post summed up the loss for the the tourists by stating that “unless a rash of minor miracles occur within the next week the Welsh rugby ship is steaming towards disaster.”

“What Waikato achieved with its backs midweek, Wellington managed through a magnificent and committed set of forwards.

The players:

Former All Black Hika Reid was playing in his first season for Wellington after transferring down from the Bay of Plenty Steamers.

Reid was the Player of the Match in this win for Wellington, leading from the front and producing several invigorating runs up field after breaking from rucks and mauls.

Sunday Times writer Stephen Jones said this of Reid’s performance: “Reid gave the greatest display of running from a forward I have ever seen. Terrifyingly, Reid is not even on the bench next Saturday for New Zealand in the First Test.”

Reid had just recently moved to Wellington, after playing for his home province Bay of Plenty 85 times between 1978-87. In that time, the blockbusting hooker played 40 matches and nine Tests for the All Blacks, but he hadn’t played for the All Blacks since 1986 and was considered past his best. Such was his form in this game and subsequent matches that he was re-seelcted for the NZ Maori side later this season and was a key cog in Wellington’s engine room that saw them finish second in the NPC.

No. 8 Emosi Koloto was the game’s outstanding loose forward. Koloto had recently moved to Wellington from Manawatu and his impact in his one and only season playing for the Lions was to prove prolific – scoring 17 tries. He also played for Tonga in 1986. In 1989 he switched to rugby league to the Widnes Vikings and went on to play five Tests for the Kiwis in 1991.

The Teams:

Wellington: 1.Dunn Kaiwai, 2. Hika Reid, 3.Brian McGrattan, 4.Mark Verhoeven 5. Murray Pierce 6.Mike O’Leary,7. Dirk Williams, 8. Emosi Koloto, 9.Neil Sorenson,10. Peter O’Shaughnessy, 11. Mike Clamp, 12. John Schuster, 13, Mike Gibson 14. Denis Tocker, 15. John Gallagher

Wales: 1.David Young, 2. Kevin Phillips, 3. Anthony Buchanan, 4. Roland Phillips, 5. Kevin Moseley, 6. Robert Norster, 7. David Bryant, 8. Tim Fauvel, 9. Johnathan Griffiths, 10. Johnathan Davies, 11. Ieuan Evans, 12. Bleddyn Bowen, 13. John Devereux, 14. Carwyn Davies, 15.Anthony Clement

References:

• The Dominion and Evening Post newspapers, May 1988
• WRFU. The Winds of Change: Wellington’s Rugby History Part 3 1979-2004. WRFU, 2004.
• The Visitors - The History of International Rugby Teams in New Zealand by Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. MOA Publications, Auckland, 1990
• The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby By Ron Palenski, Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland 1998