Battling the Lions: The battle of Lancaster Park

It must surely rank among the most extraordinary and potentially inflammatory statements made by a national rugby coach.  

After the ill-tempered game between the 1971 Lions and Canterbury at Lancaster Park, Ivan Vodanovich, chairman of selectors and coach of the All Blacks that year, warned the first test could develop into "another Passchendaele" for the tourists if they persisted in killing the ball in rucks and obstructing in the line-out.  

His comments came after the Lions had beaten Canterbury 14-3 but had lost their two best props, Ray McLoughlin and Sandy Carmichael, through injury.  

Carmichael sustained a multiple fracture of his left cheekbone and McLoughlin a chipped bone at the base of his left thumb. Both returned to Britain for treatment and recuperation.  

McLoughlin's loss was a serious blow to the Lions. He was not only powerfully built and vastly experienced but also a renowned tactician as befitting a man with the IQ of a genius.  

It was a tribute to the tourists that they were able to win the series despite his loss. 

In the 1966 game between Canterbury and the Lions, violence erupted in the first scrum. It had been rumoured that Howard Norris, a Welsh prop, had backed himself to knock an opposing forward off the pitch. In the event, it was fortunate that it was not he who was carted off. 

Fast forward to 1971, and we have Carmichael persistently boring in on Tane Norton, the Canterbury hooker, blocking his view of the ball entering the tunnel and, therefore, his heel.  

Carmichael was warned twice by Alister Hopkinson, the opposing prop, but continued to infringe. He was punched more than once for his trouble.  

Although the pudgy prop was in pain from his injuries, sources close to the Lions claimed that he was even more aggrieved to be called "a whinging Pom" by some louts on the embankment. He was proud of being Scottish. 

McLoughlin was injured when players from both sides were flailing at each other near the embankment touchline.  

The Irishman suffered a rush of blood to the head and punched non-combatant Wyllie in the head, breaking his left thumb. He merely proved what was widely known in Canterbury: that Grizz had a hard cranium.  

Another Irishman, Fergus Slattery, was punched in the face after unwisely hanging on to Wyllie's jersey in a line-out. There were several other sporadic outbursts of fighting in what developed to be a disappointing game. 

Although the Canterbury forwards had proved a point, their backs offered little of value, and defeat became inevitable as the second half wore on. 


Some observers reckoned Canterbury's efforts up front had merely stiffened the Lions' resolve to succeed in the test series. 

Lions manager Dr Doug Smith was astonished and dismayed that Vodanovich had used such a word as Passchendaele, but pledged the Lions would win the first test at Carisbrook by continuing to play the same type of rugby they had been producing on tour.  

Vodanovich subsequently toned down his original wintry blast by promising that the All Blacks would not be fighting, kicking or punching in the test, but would play 15-man, clean rugby.  

But although the All Black forwards were all over their rivals in the first half of the first test, the backs, as in Canterbury, never got into overdrive, and Barry John kept them continually back-pedalling.  

The Canterbury game was not the only occasion on which the touring side encountered an antagonistic approach from the opposition.  

The New Zealand Maori game was punctuated by some nasty flare-ups, one of which left Irish prop Sean Lynch with an injury to his mouth. It did nothing to improve his temper as the tour wound on.  

And so up to "Hawkeye Country", where the Magpies had assembled a front row of former All Blacks Neil Thimbleby and Bruce McLeod, plus the hulking Hilton Meech.  

A Hawkes Bay supporter entertained some members of the touring media with his special brew "Thimblemeech Cocktail," which, he assured the scribes, packed a real punch. 

So did the front row. One of the merry trio whacked John Pullin, the Lions hooker, in the head, ending his football for the afternoon. The others enjoyed themselves by taunting Ian McLauchlan, the Scottish prop known as "Mighty Mouse," with cries of "how do you like that, Mickey Mouse?"  

So who was to blame? Colin Meads, captain of New Zealand in his last year at international level, reckoned the Lions got away with "bloody murder".  

He identified instances of Lions obstructing opposing jumpers in the line-out, also barging and blocking, and killing the loose ball.  

Reduced well below his best level by bruised ribs in the Wanganui-King Country game, he lamented that his fellow forwards had let the Lions proceed unhindered. So did some referees. But he was sure that the Canterbury pack would not be so intimidated.  

On the other hand, coach Carwyn James had insisted that the Lions forwards stay on their feet in rucks to facilitate a clean feed. Aware of the British habit of lying on the ball, he said he set out to insist on creative rucking, so that his talented backs could display their wares.