The best Test in my lifetime: Australia vs Great Britain, Melbourne 1992

I’ve recently started to read an excellent rugby league book by Richard De La Riviere called Rugby League – A Critical History 1980-2013.

The first couple of chapters are about international rugby league in that period.

It got me thinking about my all time favourite international rugby league match, and I thought I would share this with you.

On the morning of Friday 26th June 1992, I sat down in the living room in my parent’s house, having taken half a day off work to watch the second Test match of the Ashes series live on Sky Sports.

It was the first time an Ashes Test had been taken to the Victorian capital of Melbourne – a state renowned for it’s love of Australian rules football above all other sports.

1992 was the last of the great Lions tours and took in club games and Test Matches in Papua New Guinea (two club games and one Test Match) before hitting Australian shores (seven club games and three Test Matches) and carrying on into New Zealand (two club matches and two Test Matches).

It was the shortest ever itinerary, with 17 fixtures, but included a record five matches against Australian Winfield Cup club sides – Canberra Raiders, Illawarra Steelers, Parramatta Eels, Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Seagulls.

Great Britain had gone into this series on the back of much better performances in the 1988 and 1990 Ashes Series and had improved greatly since former Castleford coach Malcolm Reilly took charge in 1987.

The Lions selected a strong 32-man squad which included a record contingent of 13 players from the powerful Wigan club and, despite the late withdrawals of Bobbie Goulding through suspension and Jonathan Davies through injury, there was a real sense that Britain had a chance of regaining the Ashes, especially after going so close in the 1990 home series.

Britain went into the first Test Match in Sydney two weeks earlier on the back of six consecutive victories on Tour. They recorded three in Papua New Guinea, including a tight 20-14 Test win in Port Moresby thanks to two late Martin Offiah tries, and three in warm up games in Australia against Queensland Residents, Canberra Raiders and Illawarra Steelers.

The results bred confidence going into the first Test, but the Australians came out on top 22-6 thanks to two tries from Mal Meninga and efforts from Michael Hancock and Paul Sironen. Only Joe Lydon got across the line for the Brits.

The Lions started well in the first quarter but the size of the Australian pack eventually took its toll.

This result meant that Great Britain needed to win the second Test to keep the Ashes series alive.

In the two weeks since the first Test the Lions had had three tough fixtures – beating NSW Country 24-6, losing to the Parramatta Eels 22-16 before ramping things up with a 22-0 defeat of the Newcastle Knights.

Injuries were becoming a problem though. Captain Ellery Hanley only played nine minutes of the match against the Knights, his first match of any kind since tearing his hamstring playing for Leeds on April 26th. He had also been suffering from a fractured foot and his tour was declared officially over after the Newcastle game.

Garry Schofield took over the captaincy and the stand off position and was an inspirational and engaging leader.

Andy Gregory, Neil Cowie, Ian Lucas, Paul Loughlin and Les Holliday all suffered tour ending injuries before the start of the second Test and had to return home.

For the second Test, Hull’s goalkicking winger Paul Eastwood came onto the right wing with Paul Newlove moving into the centre for the injured Loughlin.

Scrum half Gregory was replaced by fellow Wigan halfback Shaun Edwards, who would make his first start in a Test Match against Australia in his 24th Test Match

Castleford prop forward Lee Crooks lost his place with Andy Platt moving up from second row – his position was taken, surprisingly, by Wigan back rower Billy McGinty – meaning that the Wigan club provided the complete starting pack – the first time ever one club had supplied all six forwards.

The Australian team was full of great players. Some of them, became legends of the game.

Ettingshausen, Daley, Meninga, Langer, Sironen, Lindner, Clyde and Lazarus are players that are still revered to this day.

The Australian captain Meninga was making his 36th Test appearance, equalling the legendary Reg Gasnier’s record number of Test appearances for Australia and no doubt he would have been expecting to celebrate his sixth consecutive Ashes series victory.

Australia made minor changes to the first Test team, with props Glen Lazarus and David Gillespie swapping from the starting side to the bench and vice versa with Chris Johns coming onto the bench for the unavailable Brad Fittler.

What happened over the next 90 minutes as I sat in my living room in Hull was unexpected, sensational, exciting, riveting and beautiful to watch. I had never seen a Lions rugby league team roar so loud and rip the guts out of their foe as they did on that night in Melbourne, particularly in a barnstorming opening half that saw Great Britain lead 22-0 at half time.

Yes, you read that right: Australia 0–22 Great Britain.

I remember calling a fellow Hull KR fan and friend at work and telling him the score and there were a few choice words from him before he believed me.

It was a cool and wet night in Melbourne. The conditions were more like a winters night in Oldham than a summers evening in Melbourne. It suited the Britain team down to a tee.

The first half was all one-way traffic – the Australians did not get a look in.

A couple of converted penalty goals from Eastwood inside the first 10 minutes settled any nerves – although it was difficult to see any such was the confidence the team played with – before loose forward Phil Clarke powered his way through Paul Harragan and Paul Sironen from 20 yards to score the first try

On the half-hour mark Edwards made a break and kicked over Australian fullback Ettingshausen’s head. Offiah used all his pace to out strip the Aussie defence but he over-ran the ball.

Fortunately Paul Newlove was hot on his heels and he touched down.

Five minutes later it was fellow halfback Schofield who kicked beyond a despondent Ettingshausen. The fullback turned and desperately chased the ball but it spun away from him on the wet surface and Schofield followed up his kick to score yet another try.

Eastwood was successful with both conversions and the Lions had a wonderful 22-0 lead at half time. This was game over, wasn’t it?

You certainly thought so when Schofield kicked a drop goal on 49 minutes to extend the lead but the Australians stormed back in the next 10 minutes.

Second row Bob Lindner used brute force and strength to force his way over before substitute Chris Johns, on for the injured winger Rod Wishart, burst onto a beautiful pass from fellow substitute Kevin Walters 20 yards out to score the second Aussie try.

Meninga could only convert Lindner’s try and with 20 minutes left it was 23-10. The Australians were now exerting considerable pressure and Britain started making errors.

It was squeaky bum time back on my seat in Hull.

Fortunately the British defence held firm with Andy Platt, Martin Dermott, Billy McGinty and Clarke tireless in defence. They started to force errors from the ever desperate Australians.

In the end it was British flair that won the day and the game was put to bed by a Graham Steadman try. Steadman showed Ettingshausen a clean pair of heels down the left hand touchline. The try was brilliantly converted from the touchline by Eastwood, before the pace of Martin Offiah finished the job completely.

Skipper Schofield chipped over the defence in the middle of the field, collected the kick and headed left knowing Offiah would be hunting with him. A suspiciously forward looking pass found the flying winger and he heaped further embarrassment on Ettingshausen by outpacing him and diving in at the same left hand corner as Steadman had a few minutes earlier.

It really was a torrid night for Ettingshausen.

In a crowd of over 30,000, of which at least half were British fans, made it sound like a home Test. It certainly sounded like a Test Match at somewhere like a full Elland Road with the amount of noise the British fans made.

I was one happy fan who was jumping up and down on his settee in Hull before setting off for an afternoon’s work and a few beers later that night.

The mauling of the Australians was the Lions’ best victory against their arch rivals since the Third Test of the 1958 Ashes series when they won 40-17 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of nearly 70,000 fans. That win completed a 3-0 series win for the Lions and there was real excitement that the Class of ’92 could follow up this extraordinary win in Melbourne to clinch the Ashes for the first time since 1970.

I was back on my settee seven days later with massive amounts of expectation but it was not to be.

The Australians controlled the game far better in the final Test at Lang Park in Brisbane. Even though they won the match 16-10 and it sounds fairly close, Britain did not cross the line until the final few minutes and the final score flattered Great Britain.

The Melbourne victory cannot be taken away from us and, over 22 years later, it still sticks in my mind as the greatest Great Britain performance of my lifetime.