Rugby League: Given a taste of Kiwi

Kevin Tamati led a haka, backed by Joe Ropati, Hugh McGahan and Olsen Filipaina, after the Kiwis hammered Australia 18-0 in the last test of 1985 at Carlaw Park. Photo / NZ Herald.

In many ways, it was the week that put league on the map in this country. A special Kiwis team full of names that have endured across decades captured the imagination of the sporting public. Michael Burgess reports.

It seems unthinkable now. On the eve of the third rugby league test between Australia and New Zealand at Carlaw Park in 1985, Kiwis coach Graham Lowe dropped off his side at the bottom of Queen St in Auckland and told them they were "going for a walk".

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It was a walk, though, with a difference. Lowe, who became famous for his motivational tactics as a coach, had called Radio I and several other stations to let the public know what was happening. Office workers came streaming out of their workplaces, while onlookers shook hands, cheered and clapped the team.

"We started walking as a team and soon it felt like the whole city came out to see us," says Kurt Sorensen. "People wanted to slap us on the back, shake our hands, went out of their way to talk to us. You can't describe that feeling unless you were there."

"By the time we reached the Civic Theatre, I knew we would crush them, no matter who we were playing," says Lowe.

They were playing the mighty Kangaroos, a team stacked with stars.

The Kiwis came close to beating Australia in 1982 and the following season broke a 12-year drought with a famous 19-12 victory at Lang Park. In 1984, they whitewashed the touring Great Britain side 3-0 and the Kiwis were becoming known outside the confines of their sport.

These were very different times. With no television coverage of the Winfield Cup, local league fans hired weekly highlights tapes from video stores.

The grand final was broadcast almost a week later on Sport on One or Sunday Grandstand, as were State of Origin highlights. But there was a growing audience - and interest - that culminated in the 1985 transtasman series.

The first test at Lang Park was a thriller. Both sides scored some wonderful tries but focus fell on two ugly incidents.

Mark Graham skippered the Kiwis during the 1985 series. Photo / NZ Herald

Firstly, Kiwis captain Mark Graham was taken out of the game, blindsided by a swinging arm from debutant (and current Bulldogs scout) Noel Cleal, which went unpunished.

The second was the infamous sideline stoush between Kevin Tamati and Greg Dowling, after both had been sinbinned late in the match.

It added spice to the rest of the series, played at Carlaw Park. Before that, the Kangaroos beat the South Island 56-0 in Christchurch and Central Districts 24-4 in Wellington - not that they needed any tuning up given they were coming off Origin and featured the likes of Wally Lewis, Mal Meninga, Wayne Pearce, Paul Vautin and Des Hasler.

"We knew we could match them," says Graham. "They didn't have that unbeatable aura of the past."

The Kiwis conducted training runs on Takapuna beach close to their hotel and at Fowlds Park in Mt Albert, from where the players would race each other back across the bridge, with Kevin Tamati, driving the forwards' van, rarely beaten.

In the hotel, hooker Howie Tamati and halfback Clayton Friend practiced scrum feeds ("It was contested scrums in those days," explains Tamati) while Graham hosted cards
sessions in his room.

The team had a core of English- based professionals, including the Hull trio of Gary Kemble, James

Leuluai and Dane O'Hara and a quintet based in Sydney. But, improbably as it sounds, more than one-third were from the domestic scene; freezing workers, a storeman and a forklift driver, mostly drawn from Auckland's Fox Memorial competition.

"We were getting about $100 a week in camp plus a win bonus," says Hugh McGahan. "Some guys had to take time off work but it was the pride, the honour of representing your country."

That pride soared when the team were told they would be getting together with the All Blacks, who were building up for a Bledisloe Cup game in Auckland the same weekend.

Coach Brian Lochore had invited counterpart Graham Lowe for a casual drink and had no problem when Lowe suggested he would bring his team as well.

However, just after Lowe had instructed his players to get their "No 1 tracksuits on" he received a call from the All Blacks manager, who sternly suggested the invitation was for Lowe alone.

Auckland was buzzing with test-match fever, with Carlaw Park sold out days ahead of the Sunday, 2.30pm kickoff.

"It was a special occasion," remembers Allen McLaughlin, who assisted Des White in commentary for 1ZB. "The concrete terraces were packed, as was the wooden Railway Stand, while people stood six and seven deep on the No 2 ground."

After the traditional softening up period, the Kiwis completely dominated. Leuluai finished off a 60m move, with the ball passing through nine sets of hands, to give the Kiwis a 6-4 lead after 20 minutes.

Olsen Filipaina starred for the Kiwis. Photo / NZ Herald

Olsen Filipaina, picked from reserve grade at the Roosters, was having the game of his life, creating havoc with his trademark bumping runs, sidesteps and delicate chip kicks.

"No one else had ever outplayed [Wally Lewis] . . . until I came along," says Filipaina.
"When I got back to Sydney after the series, people were saying, 'good on you, Olly'."

The Kiwis created numerous chances but while the clock ticked on, the scoreboard didn't.

They had tries disallowed (one by an overly-impartial local touch judge) and bombed several other opportunities. But it didn't seem to matter, as Australia could barely get a foothold in the game.

Then, barely 90 seconds from time, came the pivotal moment.

"We didn't get to our kick and turned the ball over just over halfway," says Graham. "What happened next was a nightmare..."

Australia took advantage of the momentary confusion and the ball was fed to Lewis.
"I knew he was going to try a long pass - I could see it," says McGahan. "I went for the intercept but the speed of the ball was tremendous. It flew beyond me."

Lewis sent Garry Jack away. There was cover, but it all descended on Jack, leaving winger John Ribot free to dive across in the corner.

The hush around the ground was deafening. No one could believe what they had seen and men were in tears. Meanwhile, across town, a 9-year-old Stacey Jones had been
listening to the live radio broadcast in his Point Chevalier bedroom.

"It was on television delayed but I was gutted before watching it," says Jones. "I didn't say anything to my parents but I was devastated."

The Kiwis dressing room was like a morgue. Kevin Tamati, one of the hardest men to play for his country, put a towel over his head to hide the tears. "It absolutely tore me apart," says Tamati.

"It was one of those sporting moments but, at the time, you were thinking, 'what the f**k happened there?'"

Cousin Howie Tamati was physically sick. "I had nothing more to give," he says. "I'd lost close games to Australia before but not to the same emotional level."

Coach Graham Lowe was devastated after the second test defeat. Photo / NZ Herald

In the corridor, Lewis embraced Lowe, as the Kiwis coach was trying to talk to media.

"I'm sorry, mate, that it had to happen to you," said Lewis. "I could think of a lot of other blokes I'd far rather this had happened to."

According to the 1985 Autex Rugby League Annual, even the Australian media were sympathetic, with 'The Best Side Lost' and 'Home on a Wing and a Fullback' among headlines the next day. But that was scant consolation for the Kiwis team, with Lowe one of the most disconsolate.

Mark Graham took some of the training sessions early the next week before Lowe, in an emotional team meeting, apologised for his distance.

The Kiwis set their mind to restoring pride. They tried to physically exorcise the demons - in one training session, Graham led them through "100 shuttle runs" - but Lowe sensed the team were flat.

"They felt like they had let the country down and I knew that wasn't the case," he says.
Then came Lowe's masterstroke and the walk along Queen St.

A pre-match haka was discussed before the third test but then discounted ("We only did the haka on tour," explains Graham). But the team decided to take the unprecedented step of applauding the crowd before kickoff.

It turned Carlaw Park into a cauldron.

"They all rose as one," remembers Graham. "For a moment, it felt like they were all going to come on to the field."

"There was a wave of emotion that came over the ground - you could feel it," says Howie Tamati. "At that point, we felt we could beat anybody."

The match was nirvana for league fans. The Kiwis were almost impeccable, with rock-solid defence and eager attack.

They led 8-0 at the break, during which scores of fans gathered behind the Railway Stand. From there, they could smell the liniment and hear the team talks delivered by Lowe and Australian coach Terry Fearnley.

The remarkable 1.68m Friend was the man of the hour, scoring two tries and at one stage burrowing into a scrum to retrieve the ball, before emerging out the other side and sprinting away from the shocked Australians.

The Kiwis led 14-0 soon after halftime and extended it to 18-0 before the end.

"Mark [Graham] and Hugh [McGahan] kept yelling 'no points, no points'," says Howie Tamati. "We were determined not to let them cross our line."

The Kangaroos were held scoreless for the first time in 67 years.

Asked how it felt, after the despair seven days earlier, Kevin Tamati simply said: "How does it feel to walk on water?"

Earlier, most of the team had completed an impromptu haka in front of, and with, their fans.

"I remember someone saying in the dressing room - it might have been Mark - 'we will always remember this moment. It will go down in history'," recalls Sorensen. "He was right."

"It was one of the best weeks of my life," says Lowe, "just watching them grow as men. And I will never repay them for what they did for me."

League in this country would never be the same again. In 1987, Darrell Williams became the first Kiwi to win an Australian grand final and Gary Freeman (Tigers) and Brett Todd (Raiders) also featured on Australian league's biggest day in the late 1980s.

By 1989, State of Origin was broadcast live in New Zealand and the prime-time grand final that year captivated a huge audience.

"Graham Lowe and his team generated interest in the Kiwis like never before," says McLaughlin.

"I think it was a series that turned the game, turned New Zealand league back then," says Filipaina. "We had been down the bottom of the ladder and that series brought us up to the top, close to Australia. It has gone on from there."

"The camaraderie stands out for me," says Friend. "We didn't have the big bucks and played at muddy Carlaw Park but that series was the whole package.

The close game in the first, the loss in the second but then to dig deep and not spit the dummy and give them a hiding in the third . . . that was special."