All Black Colin Meads snaffles a Lion with his brother Stan Meads in support during the last rugby test of the 1966 tour. Picture/NZME
All Black Colin Meads snaffles a Lion with his brother Stan Meads in support during the last rugby test of the 1966 tour. Picture/NZME
The British & Irish Lions are seeking just their second series win on New Zealand soil in the 129-year history of clashes between touring sides and New Zealand rugby finest.
As excitement grows for the three-test series - the country's most anticipated sporting event since the 2011 Rugby World Cup- the New Zealand Herald looks back at the Lions' rich history of touring New Zealand.
Today: 1966
Rugby historian Clive Akers doesn't mince his words when it comes to rating the 1966 Lions who toured New Zealand.
The side played eight matches in Australia on the way here, winning seven matches (including two tests against the Wallabies) and drawing with New South Wales.
But pain awaited them when they arrived in New Zealand, losing the test series 4-0, as well as tasting defeat to Otago, Wellington and Wanganui-King Country, and drawing against both Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay.
"The 1966 Lions are probably regarded as about the worst touring team to ever come to New Zealand," Akers said.
"They were very poorly lead, their choice of captain wasn't good."
Aker's less than flattering view of the touring party is shared by New Zealand Rugby Museum director Stephen Berg.
He refutes any claims the Lions struggled because of a lack of cohesion between the four nations which makes up the selection.
Instead, he said they simply "couldn't cut the mustard".
"It was a little bit embarrassing in 1966," Berg said.
"They didn't fire too many shots. Maybe history judges them a bit harshly, but when you come over here you have to be really committed, have to really want to win and have to really guts it out.
In the first test All Black fullback Mick Williment dives over the line for his try as C.M.H. (Mike) Gibson makes his tackle too late.
"1966 was a really tough, tough tour for the Lions."
Berg said the Lions came up against an impressive All Black forward pack which was "well-drilled".
"We had a good forward pack, we were well-drilled, we had some legends in there."
The All Black packed included the likes of Sir Brian Lochore, Sir Colin Meads, Stan Meads, Ken Gray and Kel Tremain.
Some Lions tours - including the Sir Graham Henry-coached 2001 team which lost its series in Australia to the Wallabies - have been stymied by the potential problems of merging the best of Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish talent into one cohesive unit.
But Berg said that wasn't the case in 1996. They simply didn't have the firepower to combat what the All Blacks threw at them.
Fullback B.J. Cullen scores for Southland to the elation of the five-eighths R.D. Thompson.
"I don't think they can give excuses of bringing four countries into one team, because they did it [very well] in 1959 and they did it in 1971," he said.
"Perhaps there might have been some young guys in there that learnt some lessons from '66 and were embarrassed and came back in '71 [and did so well]."
As well as going down to three provinces, and drawing with another two, the Lions also struggled to beat Southland, Taranaki, North Auckland, Canterbury, Auckland, Wairarapa Bush, New Zealand Maori, East Coast-Poverty Bay and Thames Valley-Counties.
The provinces who managed to topple the tourists "scored highly" the fact they had beaten the side.
"In New Zealand at the time we didn't have a national provincial competition," Berg said.
"To be able to tick off an international scalp, to have that under your belt, was a huge thing."
The All Blacks won the tests 20-3, 16-12, 19-6 and 24-11.
Below, fists fly in a game against Canterbury that the Lions won 8-6. From the left: Gareth Prothero (Lions), Alister Hopkinson (Canterbury), Howard Norris, Ronnie Lamont and Jim Telfer (Lions).
The Lions' poor playing record isn't the only painful memory for veterans of the touring party of their time in New Zealand.
The tour is also remembered for some of the on-field brutality dished out, predominantly during the provincial matches.
"Some of the provincial games were pretty terrible," Akers said.
"Deliberate kicking of players on the ground, punching ... you could go on and on. The linesmen in those days had no authority to intervene. The referee was the sole judge [of the laws].
"It was a shame and it was putting rugby in a pretty bad light. Thank goodness we are past those times now."
The brutality paved the way for worse which was to come during the Lions' return to New Zealand five years later.
And if their poor form on the New Zealand leg of the tour wasn't bad enough, the Lions suffered more misery on a two-match stopover in Canada on the way home.
The side went down 8-3 to British Columbia, before bouncing back with a less than impressive 19-8 win over minnows Canada.
