Claiming the scalps of the tourists

Beating other provinces is all very well, but there's something special about tipping over a major international touring team.

Having that Springbok head or Lion mascot in the provincial union cabinet is something else.

The seven provincial teams who will tackle the Lions this year can look back on 11 wins and one draw.

Otago have the proudest record of four victories. Auckland have beaten the Lions three times, Southland and Wellington twice, while Bay of Plenty bagged a 6-6 draw in 1966.

Tim Burcher was Auckland's halfback in their nailbiting 13-12 win at Eden Park in 1983. He'd come close six years earlier playing for Otago, who, despite a legendary performance by lightweight openside flanker Rex Smith, went down 12-7. He remembers Otago should have won it, but four Phil Bennett penalties did the trick for the tourists.

"I was a young whippersnapper at the time, and we were always going to give it our best shot," Burcher recalled. Six years on, however . . .

"We were expecting to win. You've got to remember we had the two All Black locks [Andy Haden and Gary Whetton] a semi-All Black front row [John Drake, Kevin Boyle and Greg Burgess] and Auckland were beginning to fizz in 1983 with John Hart.

"We were incredibly intense about it. We didn't think 'this would be great if we win'. We backed ourselves. That was important."

There was a night in a hotel before the game and plenty of planning from Hart, then in the early stages of his remarkable coaching career.

"He was a master at handling his players individually, and there would be no better example than John Kirwan, whom he managed superbly. Because of his background in personnel relations, Harty was very good at treating everybody to their individual needs."

As for the game, Burcher can picture vividly second five-eighths Mike Mills' 50m run to set up Auckland's only try by wing Gary Cunningham.

His other "crystal clear" recollection is helping set up Grant Fox for the match-winning drop goal minutes from the end.

"Because we played together [for University as well as Auckland] we didn't talk, we just knew what he was going to do. There was no question the ball was going to be spun, it was just a nod.

"What mattered was I had to put the ball exactly where Foxy needed it to give him time to put the ball over.

"It was not a hugely difficult kick but given that there was a wet ground and the situation [12-10 down in the dying minutes] that was the measure of Foxy. You never thought he'd miss."

Burcher, now a partner at an Auckland law firm, remembers the immense satisfaction of the win.

"We were a very close team and there was huge harmony. Harty had created a very professional environment."

And there was the icing of a trip to Fiji for a game and to help out a hurricane relief programme shortly after.

"We were euphoric. We'd beaten the Lions, then we were off to the tropics for a couple of days."

There were eight current or future All Blacks in that Auckland team, captained by Alwyn Harvey, and it was the start of one of the great provincial eras in New Zealand history.

Different again, but just as rewarding is when a composite team comes together and does a trick on the tourists. It's rare, then again the 1977 New Zealand Universities team were a rare collection of rugby talent.

With the first test looming four days away in 1977, the Lions were taken by surprise at Lancaster Park by a high-quality Universities team 21-9.

Although Doug Rollerson and Wayne Graham were the only future All Blacks, there was a seam of experienced representative players throughout the side.

"This wasn't just a bunch of 19-year-old uni students coming out in their shorts to play the Lions," Graham, now Otago's NPC coach, remembered. "A lot of them had played a certain amount of rep football, and guys like Dougie Rollerson had been around a while.

"Some of the others had had a game or two against them by the time we played them, so we put a bit of a game plan together about how to beat them.

"We rated ourselves, we knew we had a pretty good team and it would have been the equal of any provincial team by the time you put all those players together."

Critical to the victory was the work of the pack, anchored by powerful Auckland prop Greg Denholm.

"The Lions were smashing most teams with their physical presence up front," Graham said. "We had a team we believed was capable of at least matching them up front.

"Denholm marked Fran Cotton. Cotton used to walk over the top of people, but Greg climbed into him.

"Dave Syms and Paul Oliver were in the front row too and we gave them a real hammering at the start.

"That gave us the confidence to think 'we can take these guys' and it flowed on from there."

The Universities' only try came from first five-eighths Paul Macfie, in recent seasons a first-class referee. There were three penalties and a conversion from captain Rollerson and two penalties from fullback Doug Heffernan, now chief executive of state-owned power company Mighty River Power.

Of the others, halfback Mark Romans played for Otago, as did prop Oliver, centre Dan Fouhy for Wellington, wing Randall Scott for Canterbury, No 8 Graeme Elvin for Otago and Bay of Plenty, and flanker Dennis Thorn and hooker Syms for Auckland.

These were not wet-behind-the-ears scarfies.

"The Lions probably thought they were going out to play a bunch of schoolboys. They may not have done their homework and got a bit of a wake-up call.

"That day they hit something they knew they couldn't compete with."

Auckland 1983: David Halligan, John Kirwan, Joe Stanley, Mike Mills, Gary Cunningham, Grant Fox, Tim Burcher, Glenn Rich, Alwyn Harvey (capt), Gary Whetton, Andy Haden, Alan Whetton, Greg Burgess, Kevin Boyle, John Drake.

NZ Universities 1977: Doug Heffernan, Russell Hawkins, Dan Fouhy, Doug Rollerson (capt), Randall Scott, Paul Macfie, Mark Romans, Graeme Elvin, Ray Scott, Gary Brown, Wayne Graham, Dennis Thorn, Greg Denholm, Dave Syms, Paul Oliver.