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There's still a way the All Blacks can play England in 2017
By Jamie Wall
England and the All Blacks could still play each other in 2017 – albeit unofficially. Sounds far-fetched? It’s happened before, writes Jamie Wall.
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It’s official: the All Blacks will not play England on their end of year tour. But the chance still exists to see the best take on the best… sort of.
One of the main reasons why the proposed All Blacks vs England showdown would have been a particularly dastardly move by the RFU is that it would have taken the place of the Barbarians’ 125th anniversary game against the All Blacks.
That’s right, the invite-only, practice-avoiding, social media champion all-star team that’s responsible for some of the greatest moments in rugby history.
The key part of that description is ‘invite-only’. As in, there’s nothing stopping them from inviting the entire England team to play in Barbarian colours on Twickenham for that fixture to make it an unofficial test match between the game’s superpowers.
Far-fetched? Not as much as you might think. In fact, it’s happened before – just over 20 years ago to be exact, on the very same ground, with the teams reversed.
Wearing bright red jerseys with a cute little lamb on the breast, a team that was essentially the All Blacks strode out onto Twickenham in November 1996 to play a hastily-arranged match with England as the NZ Barbarians. It came about during the heady early days of professional rugby, when just about any fixture seemed to be able to happen if there was money to be made.
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That year the All Blacks had won nine tests and suffered one loss, however that blemish was in the dead rubber match after a historic series victory in South Africa. They had won the inaugural Tri-Nations series and were full of the players the rugby world wanted to see. The most notable of those was Jonah Lomu, who was getting another chance to heap some misery on Mike Catt.
The ‘96 England team, on the other hand, weren’t exactly the forerunners to the dominant side whose 18-test win streak just came to an end over the weekend. Captained by the less-than-legendary Phil de Glanville, they did at least have a pretty strong pack.
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The hosts, to their credit, did play their part in what was a very entertaining game. The NZ Baabaas’ first try is a reminder of what life was like before the TMO when Joeli Vidiri took a quick throw in despite being a good metre inside the field of play. Andrew Mehrtens cuts the English defence to shreds, despite having a physique which probably wouldn’t get him a trial as a ball-boy these days. Carlos Spencer chucks on a sidestep so filthy it sends the referee flying.
Since this November’s fixture falls outside World Rugby’s test window, it might be a little difficult to arrange a full team of English players to don the black and white hoops of the Baabaas. But given Barbarian F.C.’s win percentage against the All Blacks is exactly the same as England’s, they might not need them anyway.
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