1986 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia and Papua New Guinea
International rugby league tour
The 1986 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia and Papua New Guinea was a tour by the New Zealand nationalrugby league team. Test matches were played in New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea. The tour began on 6 July in Auckland and finished on 17 August in Port Moresby, consisted of five test matches, with two of them counting towards the 1985-88 World Cup.
After having lost 18–0 to the Kiwis at Carlaw Park in the 3rd test of the 1985 series, Australia won the 1986 series 3–0. New Zealand then continued their tour to Papua New Guinea. In Papua New Guinea they won the first test against Papua New Guinea 36–26. They then lost the second test match 22–24, a match which counted towards the 1988 World Cup.
Squads
Australia
Australia was coached for the first time by 1956–57 Kangaroo Tourist Don Furner. Wally Lewis was the captain of the team with Wayne Pearce the team vice captain.
The tour began with Australia coming to Auckland to play the first of three test matches between the trans-Tasman rivals.
This would be the 18th and final test played between New Zealand and Australia at the Carlaw Park ground in Auckland. Due to sponsorship, the test series was known as the "Winfield Test Series".
After having been Sydney's main test match venue since 1914, this would be the 69th and final test played at the Sydney Cricket Ground until 2008. Gary Freeman, who would go on to play a total of 46 tests for New Zealand until 1995, made his test debut in this game while for Australia, North Sydney and Queensland winger Les Kiss made his test debut replacing an injured Dale Shearer.
Australian vice-captain Wayne Pearce tore the Anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first half. Despite surgery and an intense rehabilitation, he was eventually ruled out of the 1986 Kangaroo Tour after failing a team medical.
Australia continued its international dominance and scored a clean sweep against the Kiwis with a 32–12, 6 tries to 2 win in front of almost 23,000 at Lang Park. The match was broadcast into NSW and Qld by the Nine Network and via relay into New Zealand. This game also counted towards the 1985-1988 Rugby League World Cup.[3]
Papua New Guinea scored their first ever test match victory against New Zealand and their first test win since defeating France 37–6 in 1977. The Kumuls would not win another test until 1990.[7]
