Oh, the days of the dirt-trackers. The midweek All Blacks, lost to rugby, only to be dusted off 29 years later. On Saturday, the All Blacks will play their first game (a non-test) since 2017, when they faced the France XV and the Barbarians in the

In the opening test of the year, Tana Umaga, Taine Randell, Ofisa Tonu’u, Charles Riechelmann and Anton Oliver made their test debuts (three of whom were future captains) but no other players debuted throughout the season, until coach John Hart named his 36-man tour squad, which included newcomers Jeremy Stanley, Todd Miller, Mark Robinson, Steve Surridge, Aaron Hopa, Gordon Slater, Mark Mayerhofler, Caleb Ralph and Carl Hoeft.

The tour would be a farewell for All Blacks greats and 1987 World Cup winners Sean Fitzpatrick, who was struggling with a chronic knee injury, and Zinzan Brooke, who had signed a deal with English club Harlequins. It also marked the return of Jonah Lomu, who missed the entire Super 12 season after being diagnosed with a kidney disease which would plague the rest of his career. Lomu played three full matches for Counties-Manukau and returned against Wales A in the second match of the tour.

The tour opened at Stradey Park, the venue of one of the most famous wins over the All Blacks – Llanelli’s 9-3 triumph in 1972. The All Blacks marked the 25-year anniversary by bettering their score that day by 79 points as they thrashed the Welsh club 81-3. Justin Marshall was captain for the day as the All Blacks ran in 13 tries, with Christian Cullen running in four times, including a chip-and-chase from his own 10m line to bring up a hat-trick.

Three days later in the second game of the tour, Lomu marked his return in the black jersey against Wales A in Pontypridd. The All Blacks were only up 18-8 midway through the second half before running away 51-8, including Lomu scoring in the 66th minute.

With Fitzpatrick out of the first test against Ireland, Marshall became the 54th All Blacks test captain, but the two main talking points were Andrew Mehrtens winning the battle for the No 10 jersey over Carlos Spencer and Josh Kronfeld being dropped for Andrew Blowers. Mehrtens finished with 33 points as the All Blacks completed a record rout over Keith Wood’s side 63-15. (Note for Millennials and Gen Zers: Ireland weren’t very good pre-2011.)

Before the next test against England, the All Blacks faced an Emerging England side who featured the likes of Neil Back, Austin Healey and Danny Grewcock, among 13 capped internationals who had already emerged for England. In the end it was a fourth straight convincing result. “All Blacks humiliate Emerging England”, the BBC headline said as they made it 35 tries in four matches, with Lomu scoring a double and Miller going across for a hat-trick.

Manchester United’s Old Trafford played host for the first of two tests against England, with Lomu making his test return and Kronfeld returning in the No 7 jersey. Things almost kicked off before kickoff with England hooker Richard Cockerill coming face-to-face with Norm Hewitt during the haka.

Early in the match, Mike Catt, who Lomu trod all over in the World Cup semi-final in 1995, decided to test the big winger early on by attempting to kick the ball over him. Instead, Lomu caught it and turned into open space, brushing off two defenders before Catt himself eventually slowed his run. One phase later, after some successful rucking, the All Blacks were in when Jeff Wilson passed to a supporting Ian Jones in the corner. Wilson himself scored the All Blacks’ second try minutes later and they were off on their way to a 25-8 victory. The score makes it sound like a one-sided clash but England kept the pressure on throughout and rued three fairly simple penalty attempts by Catt.

“England produced an heroic performance to stop the predicted All Blacks’ points landslide in the first test match at Old Trafford for more than 100 years,” a match report in the BBC stated.

After the defeat, England players went around the ground applauding the Manchester crowd, which was panned by New Zealand critics.

The victory was overshadowed somewhat by Martin Johnson striking Marshall early in the game.

“I’m incensed,” Hart said at the time. “It was an act of thuggery and the person who did it should have known better. At first, we thought Marshall had a broken jaw. It affected his hearing. There is no place in the professional game for this.”

In the end, England stood Johnson down themselves for a week in an act of self-regulation before the days of World Rugby disciplinary committees.

Midweek mauls

The All Blacks midweek team, captained by Todd Blackadder, were tested by an English Rugby Partnership XV in Bristol, trailing 11-10 in the second half before Fitzpatrick made his first appearance of the tour and ensured they didn’t suffer an embarrassing defeat. Spencer kicked a late penalty before Hopa scored from a pushover scrum.

With Cardiff Arms Park torn down for the Millennium Stadium build, the All Blacks faced Wales at London’s Wembley Stadium and jumped out to a 25-0 lead at halftime. Fitzpatrick came on as a second-half replacement, Cullen scored another test hat-trick and Zinzan Brooke couldn’t but help himself to slot the third dropped goal of his career, from 30m out, in the final scoring play of a 42-7 win.

In the final midweek game of the tour against England A, the All Blacks made it eight from eight with a 30-19 victory.

After a season which began at the end of February, and for some players included multiple trips to South Africa and Australia, the final game of 1997 saw the rugby season stretch into an 11th month.

The tour ended with a second test against England at Twickenham over a potential Grand Slam clash with Scotland. Fitzpatrick wasn’t named in the match-day squad, meaning his All Blacks career ended at 128 matches, a then record 92 of which were tests.

England started the test superbly, scoring three tries to take a 20-3 lead after 19 minutes. A repeat of the Twickenham win four years earlier, and revenge for the semi-final defeat at Newlands, was on. But the All Blacks slowly got back into the match, as Lomu started to leave his mark with powerful runs and through second-half tries to Mehrtens and Walter Little, they hit the lead at 26-23 with 18 minutes to play. Paul Grayson levelled the scores at 26-26 and Mehrtens missed a late dropped goal which would have capped off the tour.

Instead, the All Blacks were left with a draw. Unbeaten at least, but a bitter taste to end the season.

All Blacks tour of Britain and Ireland 1997

Beat Llanelli 81-3

Beat Wales A 51-8

Beat Ireland 63-15

Beat Emerging England 59-22

Beat England 25-8

Beat English Rugby Partnership XV 18-11

Beat Wales 42-7

Beat England A 30-19

Drew with England 26-26

Cameron McMillan** has been a sports journalist since 2003 and is NZME’s Deputy Head of Sport. **