Leeds Rhinos will resurrect an historic fixture during the build-up to this year’s World Cup.
The Yorkshire side, who had Rohan Smith in charge for the first time when they lost 23-8 at Salford on Sunday, will host New Zealand on Saturday, October 8 as they prepare to compete with Lebanon, Jamaica and Ireland for one of the two available spots in the quarter-finals.
There are some who suggest matches against club sides undermine the international game.
But this column welcomes such contests, which for a long time were an integral part of tours of Great Britain by the Kiwis and Australia, and some of which have become legend for followers of the clubs concerned.
Leeds hosted New Zealand when the ‘professional All Blacks’ (differentiating them from the famous rugby union team) or ‘All Golds’ as they were also known, became the first international Rugby League side to visit these shores in 1907/08.
They arrived after playing matches in Australia and, during a break in the long sea voyage, a game in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and acclimatised with a stay in Leeds, where an enthusiastic 6,000 crowd assembled to see the train carrying the squad, which included Lance Todd, pull in at the city’s station.
Having beaten Leeds 8-2, the first of a three-Test series took place at Headingley, with the Northern Union winning 14-6 before New Zealand claimed the other two, at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and Cheltenham (who said expansion was a modern idea?).
The tour, which included 35 matches in England and Wales before a return to Australia for further fixtures, not only played a key role in establishing Rugby League in both New Zealand and Australia but gave birth to an international game which has waxed and waned and, given the pandemic, could really do with the boost of a successful World Cup.
It also set a precedent of club versus country fixtures, many of them crowd-pulling, which continued up until 1994, when Australia’s tour record included a 48-6 win at Leeds.
The Rhinos did take on New Zealand in 2015, when the visitors were 34-16 winners in a special match to mark Headingley’s 125th anniversary.
It’s easy to see why the current Kiwis, under the control of ex-Wigan coach Michael Maguire, want the Leeds fixture.
It gives them the chance to shake off the rust after their journey over at a location which is convenient for their York base and also to have a run-out at the ground which will stage their third group game against Ireland on Friday, October 28.
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