RELIVING THE NEW ZEALAND NIGHTMARE
SO it began this morning, off-the-beatentrack in Whangarei with the hope this Lions tour can be remembered for all the right reasons and not mirror in any way the misfortunes of the last international rugby side that started a New Zealand tour in the Northland provincial city.
Practically 20 years ago to this very weekend an Ireland Development squad, led by coach Brian Ashton and manager Pa Whelan, arrived in the Far North believing the first Irish rugby tour of the professional era would be full of riches. Instead the unmerciful 16-69 shellacking served up by North Auckland set the tone for an infamous tour that went down in flames.
Niall Woods can laugh now, joking how he isn’t waiting with baited breath for Ashton to organise the 20th anniversary reunion, but the experience of getting thrashed from pillar to post was no laughing matter when it unfolded in 1997.
Six games were played in New Zealand, five lost, some by humiliating margins, and even when they escaped the cold and the wet for the tour-ending fixture in Samoa, the inhospitable heat and humidity did for any tourists still standing following a trip that ended some pro rugby careers before they effectively even got started.
‘We were paid to go on tour — and I was being paid as a pro (at London Irish) at that stage for about a year and a half — but when you look back, even to about 10 years ago, there would be no comparison in professionalism levels.
‘Compared to now, basically it was an amateur tour only that we were being paid. We just weren’t ready, didn’t have enough good players, there was a poor atmosphere, management hated each other, and that just fed into the zero confidence we had.
‘There is a story by Marcus Dillon, we were doing two-hour training sessions and no one really knew why you were kept on the field. You were cold and wet but after we had eventually stopped for 20 minutes, Marcus said: “I’m going back out kicking”.
‘I said: “It’s freezing cold”. He said: “Exactly! I’m hoping I’ll pull the hamstring so I can get sent home”.
‘People are thinking it’s great going down to New Zealand for the Lions tour, but I couldn’t think of anything worse. It’s winter, it’s cold and wet. It isn’t appealing.’
Not that there weren’t fond memories. For instance, Woods met Kevin Maggs for the first time and they have remained good friends. Everything else, though, was a nightmare. ‘It was five weeks of hell. We did have a bit of craic, but it was masked by the fact we were getting hammered in games. ‘The locals didn’t really have any respect for an Irish team at that stage. We were in very small towns, but when you’d play a game there would be a lot of people out and when you’re losing every game it’s not great because all they want to talk about is them winning.
‘We stuck to ourselves and thankfully there wouldn’t have been a huge amount of publicity. It was probably a good thing.’
Whangarei hadn’t much changed in 20 years, the heavy rain a constant companion on the Friday morning spin up from Auckland shortly after it emerged that Jared Payne had cried off the Lions bench. Woods and co would have jumped at the chance 20 years ago of also giving Whangarei a miss.
‘The Northland game, oh my god. There had been a lot of cryoffs from the tour, a lot of clever, more experienced players missing the first tour of professionalism where no one really knew what the hell it was going to be like. They flogged us trainingwise because they thought that was what we needed. We had two sessions a day in cold and damp conditions generally. We were probably a little bit physically tired and then Northland were a good team and they had Norm Berryman on the wing.
‘Ashton told me that first game, “You better play well today because I’m the only reason you are here”. But Berryman ran over me about three or four times. I did kick him the ball at one stage, sliced a kick, realised I’d mucked up, tried to atone for my error, sprinted up as hard as I could to tackle him and he just absolutely smashed me.’
After Whangarei, it was all downhill, the third game against an NZ Academy XV that featured the long-established Jeff Wilson a brutal nadir. ‘He scored four tries. Gabriel Fulcher was behind the posts saying, “Let’s keep them under 50”. A couple of minutes later we were back again, “Just keep it under 60” and I think there was a “Let’s keep it under 70” as well. It finished 74-15.
‘You sort of laugh about it now but it wasn’t funny. There was another game in Rotorua, it was 28-0 after 20 minutes and Ashton took off four players and absolutely shattered whatever confidence was left.’