2002 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France

The 2002 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France was a tour by the New Zealand national rugby league team. The New Zealand Kiwis drew the series 1-all against Great Britain and also defeated Wales and France.

Background

This was the Kiwis first tour of Great Britain since the 2000 World Cup, the Kangaroos having toured Great Britain the previous year.

The original squad named in September included Nathan Cayless, Craig Smith and Tevita Vaikona who all later had to withdraw from the final squad.^[1][2]

Before the tour started the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, held an official reception for the team at the Beehive. It was the first New Zealand rugby league tour to receive an official farewell from a Prime Minister in Parliament.^[3]

The tour was opened against Hull FC at The Boulevard, the same ground had hosted the first Test matched played by the 1907 New Zealand team. This match was the last international played at the ground, while the 1907 team had played in the first.^[4]

Motu Tony broke his hand in the match against England A and was ruled out of the rest of the tour. Steve Clark refereed all three Test matches against Great Britain.

Former Kiwis player Sean Hoppe, who had not represented his country since 1999, was given the honour of captaining St Helens RLFC in a tour match against the Kiwis.^[5][6] The match was meant to be his last before retirement however he was later called into the touring squad due to injuries and his final two matches were test matches against Great Britain and France. Hoppe was called up over Lesley Vainikolo who was also considered as a replacement after injuries to several backs including Motu Tony and Clinton Toopi.^[7]

In the end Great Britain tied the series, taking the inaugural Baskerville Shield as hosts.^[8] The third test match was Great Britain's first win over New Zealand since 1993.

Squad

Kiwis captain Nathan Cayless withdrew due to suspension and was replaced by Andrew Lomu while Willie Talau required surgery and was unavailable. After the Australia Test both Lomu and Matt Utai were withdrawn by their clubs for off-season surgery. On arriving in England, English based players Craig Smith and Tevita Vaikona were ruled out due to injury.^[9] Later Motu Tony and Robbie Paul were sidelined with injuries and in France Richard Swain left to sign a deal with the Broncos and Stephen Kearney flew home due to a family illness.^[10]

Clinton Toopi broke his hand in a scuffle with Nigel Vagana during a team drinking session after the second test. Freeman and team management initially tried to cover up the incident, claiming the injury occurred during the match, before media found out and had a field day.^[10]

• Coach: Gary Freeman

Fixtures

The New Zealand side played a total of five test matches while on their European tour and one test in New Zealand before leaving.

Henry Fa'afili scored three tries in the 30-16 first test win over Great Britain at Ewood Park, the first Kiwis hat-trick against the Lions in 97 matches dating back to 1908. His tries all came in the second spell as the Kiwis rallied from a 10-6 halftime deficit to win comfortably.^[10]

Aftermath

New Zealand halfback Stacey Jones won the George Smith Medal as player of the series against Great Britain.^[12] The tour was Freeman's last as head coach. In 2003 Daniel Anderson was named as the new Kiwis coach.

References