It is 30 years since the Australian Kangaroos completed a full tour of Britain, incorporating games against club sides as well as a three-test series. Our time machine travels back to 1994 to savour the highlights.
SHAUN WANE says it would be the “pinnacle” of his coaching career to face Australia in a home Ashes series.
And he has urged the powers that be to ensure that if the much-mooted visit of the Kangaroos next year materialises, it’s the pinnacle of the fixture list.
Wane has even backed the return of the non-Test, usually-midweek matches which were a key feature of tours before the summer era, something Australia coach Mal Meninga enjoyed as a player and has also suggested.
So let’s take a look back to the last old-style Ashes tour of 1994, when the mighty Meninga and Great Britain star Garry Schofield both reached notable playing milestones.
It might not have been quite as expansive as the first visit by Australia in 1908-09, when the journey was made by sea and 45 games were completed over more than five months by a 34-strong squad, the Lions winning the first Ashes series 2-0 (the first Test was tied). But it still involved 28 players, took in 14 matches in England and Wales, stretching from Workington and Gateshead in the north down to Cardiff and London, plus a further four in France, and lasted 10 weeks.
For the third consecutive Anglo-Aussie series, Great Britain, without an Ashes success since 1970, were able to win one of the opening two Tests, but failed to clinch the decider (it was to be the same in 2001, while in 2003, the Kangaroos claimed victory in all three).
The 1994 win came in the first showdown at Wembley, edged 8-4 by Ellery Hanley’s side, but otherwise, and despite controversy when forward Dean Pay failed a drugs test, Australia rampaged through the land, recording a 51st consecutive tour win outside the Test arena with a 54-10 romp against Great Britain Under 21s at Gateshead International Stadium in the 13th fixture.
That run had started with a 34-2 win over Hull at The Boulevard in October 1978 (the Kangaroos captain for that tour, Eastern Suburbs halfback Bob Fulton, was their coach in 1994).
And 16 years later, Cumbria (at Derwent Park, Workington), Leeds, Wigan, Castleford, Halifax, Sheffield Eagles, Wales (at Ninian Park, Cardiff), St Helens, Warrington and Bradford Northern (for the half-century) were seen off as well as the young Lions.
When they continued on to France, Australia defeated a President’s XIII in Evry, a Catalans XIII in Perpignan and France B in Avignon ahead of a 74-0 Test win over Les Tricolores in Bezier, so stretching the triumphant non-Test run to 54 since reigning league champions Widnes won 11-10 at Naughton Park in 1978 (Australia had lost 15-12 to Warrington at Wilderspool earlier on that tour).
Great Britain’s tour preparations had been disrupted by coach Malcolm Reilly’s shock announcement a month before the Aussies jetted in that he was to leave his post at Halifax to take the helm at Newcastle Knights.
It was suggested he could still be in charge for the Ashes series before starting his new role at Newcastle, but Reilly quit.
His Great Britain assistant Phil Larder then ruled himself out of taking the top job, so Hanley, who was combining playing and assistant coaching duties at Leeds, got the nod, with Sheffield chairman and team chief Gary Hetherington appointed as his assistant.
The Kangaroos had set the tone for the tour by running in 52 points in beating Cumbria in driving rain, but in their sixth outing, came unstuck in front of 57,034 fans at Wembley, where the hosts overcame the first-half dismissal of skipper and Wigan halfback Shaun Edwards for a high tackle.
Man of the match Jonathan Davies, the Warrington back, contributed a try and a goal to the stirring victory.
There was a further jolt for the visitors when a routine test on Canterbury Bulldogs pack man Pay showed up the banned substance pseudoephedrine.
The player said he had suffered cold symptoms pre-match and had been given a chemist-bought remedy containing pseudoephedrine, with the Australian Rugby League taking no action and the player appearing in the next two Tests.
Australia were soon back in business, posting 80 points at Sheffield then 46 against Wales, and in the second Test in front of 43,930 at a noisy Old Trafford, won 38-8, with captain and centre Meninga, and his Canberra Raiders teammate, scrum-half Ricky Stuart, in outstanding form.
So the Ashes hung in the balance going into the decider at Elland Road, where 39,468 showed up hoping to see the Lions roar.
Hanley reshuffled by switching Wigan’s Phil Clarke from loose-forward to stand-off, but the vice-captain was forced off early by an ankle injury, with former Great Britain skipper Schofield, then with Leeds, coming off the bench to equal Mick Sullivan’s record of 46 Lions caps.
The home side gave it a go, but the green and golds were simply too strong, their 23-4 victory meaning Meninga was able to round off his farewell season and fourth tour by lifting the John Smith’s Trophy two months after receiving the Winfield Cup following Canberra’s 36-12 win over Canterbury in the Australian title decider.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 503 (December 2024)
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