1988 Rugby League World Cup Final

The 1988 Rugby League World Cup final was the conclusive game of the 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup tournament and was played between New Zealand and Australia on 9 October 1988 at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. Australia won the final by 25 points to 12 in front of a New Zealand rugby league record attendance of 47,363. Australia, the defending champions, won the Rugby League World Cup for the 6th time.

1988 (1988) Rugby League World Cup Final  ()
12 Total
NZL 012 12
AUS 214 25
Date9 October 1988
StadiumEden Park
LocationAuckland, New Zealand
Man of the MatchGavin Miller
RefereesGraham Ainui
Attendance47,363
Broadcast partners
Broadcasters
Commentators

Background

TeamPlayedWonDrewLostForAgainstDifferencePoints
 Australia860225291+161121
 New Zealand851215886+72111
 Great Britain842220390+11310
 Papua New Guinea820684325−24141
 France811635140−1053

1 France's 1987 away fixtures against Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea were scratched and each team awarded two points as the French were unable to tour Australasia that year due to financial difficulties.

New Zealand

The Tony Gordon coached New Zealand started their World Cup campaign on 7 July 1985 (under the coaching of Graham Lowe) when they defeated Australia 18–0 at Carlaw Park in Auckland. Until the Final, The Kiwis won another 3 games while losing 2 and drawing 1 for a 4-2-1 record.

Results

Opposing TeamForAgainstDateVenueAttendanceStage
 Australia1807 July 1985Carlaw Park, Auckland15,327Group Stage
 Great Britain669 November 1985Headingley, Leeds22,209Group Stage
 France2207 December 1985Stade Gilbert Brutus, Perpignan5,000Group Stage
 Australia123229 July 1986Lang Park, Brisbane22,811Group Stage
 Papua New Guinea222422 May 1988Lloyd Robson Oval, Port Moresby15,000Group Stage
 Papua New Guinea661410 July 1988Carlaw Park, Auckland8,392Group Stage
 Great Britain121017 July 1988Rugby League Park, Christchurch8,525Group Stage

Australia

Australia began their World Cup campaign with a shock 18-0 loss to New Zealand in the third test of the 1985 Trans-Tasman series in Auckland on 7 July 1985 (under the coaching of 1977 World Cup Final winning coach Terry Fearnley). The Don Furner coached Kangaroos would win another 5 games while losing 1 for a 5-2 record.

Results

Opposing TeamForAgainstDateVenueAttendanceStage
 New Zealand0187 July 1985Carlaw Park, Auckland15,327Group Stage
 New Zealand123229 July 1986Lang Park, Brisbane22,811Group Stage
 Papua New Guinea62124 October 1986Lloyd Robson Oval, Port Moresby17,000Group Stage
 Great Britain241522 November 1986Central Park, Wigan20,169Group Stage
 France52013 December 1986Stade d'Albert Domec, Carcassonne5,000Group Stage
 Great Britain12269 July 1988Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney15,944Group Stage
 Papua New Guinea70820 July 1988Eric Weissel Oval, Wagga Wagga11,685Group Stage

Head to Head

This would be the first time that New Zealand and Australia would meet in a World Cup Final.

Host venue

Australia won the right to host the World Cup Final. However, in the interests of rugby league, and with international attendances in Australia on the decline since the domination of the Kangaroos had begun a decade earlier, the Australian Rugby League (ARL) agreed to allow the New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) to host the Final. Additionally, the Australian venues that would have been used, the 40,000 capacity Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) and the 32,500 capacity Lang Park in Brisbane were both smaller than the ultimate choice of Eden Park, while the 50,000 capacity Sydney Cricket Ground which had hosted the 1968 and 1977 World Cup Finals was not considered as the ARL had moved its playing headquarters to the new Football Stadium in 1988.

At the time the largest rugby league venue in New Zealand was the 20,000 capacity Carlaw Park in Auckland. New Zealand's largest stadium, the 48,000 capacity Eden Park stadium in Auckland, the spiritual home of rugby union in New Zealand was chosen as the host venue. Eden Park had also hosted the 1987 Rugby World Cup Final (attracting 48,035) giving it the distinction of being the only venue to host both the Rugby League and Rugby Union World Cup Finals.

This would be the first rugby league match to be played at Eden Park since 1919. As of 201 the attendance of 47,363 remains the record crowd for a rugby league match at the venue and the record attendance for a rugby league match in New Zealand, easily beating the recorded 28,000 attendance from 4 August 1928 when New Zealand had defeated England at Carlaw Park.[1]

Match details

9 October 1988
14:30
New Zealand  12 – 25  Australia
Tries:
Kevin Iro
Tony Iro

Goals:
Peter Brown (2/5)
Tries:
Allan Langer (2)
Gavin Miller
Dale Shearer
Goals:
Michael O'Connor (4/7)
Field Goal:
Benny Elias
Eden Park, Auckland
Attendance: 47,363 [2]
Referee: Graham Ainui
Man of the Match: Gavin Miller
New Zealand
Australia
FB1 Gary Mercer
RW2 Tony Iro
RC3 Kevin Iro
LC4 Dean Bell (c)
LW5 Mark Elia
FE6 Gary Freeman
HB7 Clayton Friend
PR8 Peter Brown
HK9 Wayne Wallace
PR10 Adrian Shelford
SR11 Mark Graham
SR12 Kurt Sorensen
LF13 Mark Horo
Substitutions:
IC14 Shane Cooper
IC15 Sam Stewart
Coach:
Tony Gordon
FB1 Garry Jack
RW2 Dale Shearer
RC3 Andrew Farrar
LC4 Mark McGaw
LW5 Michael O'Connor
FE6 Wally Lewis (c)
HB7 Allan Langer
PR8 Paul Dunn
HK9 Benny Elias
PR10 Steve Roach
SR11 Paul Sironen
SR12 Gavin Miller
LF13 Wayne Pearce
Substitutions:
IC14 David Gillespie
IC15 Terry Lamb
Coach:
Don Furner

Despite Australia's successful Ashes defence against Great Britain earlier in the year, the inexperience of the Australian World Cup Final team (and because NZ had defeated Australia in their previous encounter in a one-off test in Brisbane in 1987), saw the hosts actually go into the match as favourites in the eyes of many critics. However, the Wally Lewis led Kangaroos, boasting veteran test players Garry Jack, Dale Shearer, Michael O'Connor (a dual rugby international and the only member of the team to have previously played at Eden Park), Steve Roach, Paul Dunn, Wayne Pearce, and Terry Lamb, along with 1986 Kangaroos Benny Elias and Paul Sironen, mixed with newer international players Mark McGaw, Allan Langer, Gavin Miller, Andrew Farrar and David Gillespie, triumphed over the ill-disciplined Kiwis, who at least made sure the victorious Australians were bloodied and bruised for their victory lap. For the Kiwis, the Iro brothers Tony and Kevin, Gary Freeman, Clayton Friend, Mark Graham, Adrian Shelford, Kurt Sorensen and captain Dean Bell dished out the punishment.

Other than the ill-discipline, some of the Kiwis had a game to forget. Gary Mercer at fullback missed first half tackles on Langer and Man of the Match Gavin Miller that led directly to each crossing for a try, while Langer simply stood him up and left him grasping at air to score his second of the first half, while Dean Bell dropped two balls in the first 20 minutes of the game (the second after a good break down the left flank by Freeman) that each time led to Australia scoring soon after.

Despite the pre-game predictions, the Aussie's led 21–0 at half time and scored soon after the resumption of play as Dale Shearer stood up Wayne Wallace and strode over in the corner. O'Connor missed the conversion, and a further two penalty kicks and Australia's score remained at 25. From there the Kiwis mounted a mini comeback with the Iro brothers crossing for tries, but the Australian's had the game well in hand to claim their 6th World Cup crown and 3rd in succession after also winning the 1975 and 1977 tournaments.

Despite Queensland having won the 1988 State of Origin series 3–0 over New South Wales earlier in the year and supplying the bulk of the players in The Ashes win over Great Britain, the Maroons only supplied three of Australia's 15 players for the World Cup Final - captain Wally Lewis, Dale Shearer and Allan Langer. Lewis broke his right forearm in the 15th minute of the game while tackling Tony Iro, the Kiwi winger had tried to duck under Lewis' tackle and Wally's right forearm came into contact with Iro's head. With his arm hanging limp affecting his passing (including a pass from dummy half that literally just fell to the ground), Lewis bravely played on for another 25 minutes with the Kiwis targeting him in defence before Terry Lamb came on to replace him. Queenslander's missing from Australia's record 70–8 win over Papua New Guinea just over 2 months earlier were Mal Meninga (broken arm), Peter Jackson, Tony Currie, Greg Conescu, Wally Fullerton Smith and reserve forward Paul Vautin. Lewis later publicly claimed that it was the same as had been the case since State of Origin had started in 1980, Qld wins the series but it was mainly NSW players picked for Australia. The Australian team included nine players who had played in the 1988 NSWRL Grand Final a month earlier (4 from premiers Canterbury-Bankstown and 5 from runners up Balmain), plus a further four players who had played in the Finals series. Only Wally Lewis and Allan Langer had not played during the NSWRL Finals.

After taking over the Kangaroos coaching role in 1986 and compiling a 13–2 win/loss record, this would be Don Furner's last game as coach of the Australian team. From 1989 the Australian coach would be former test captain and Manly-Warringah's 1987 premiership winning coach Bob Fulton.

Broadcast

The match was broadcast into Australia by the Nine Network with commentary from Darrell Eastlake, Ray Warren and special comments from five time Sydney premiership winning "Supercoach" Jack Gibson with Michael Cronin, Australia's record test point scorer and a World Cup winner in 1975 and 1977, the sideline reporter.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.