The 1962 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand was a series of thirteen matches played by the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

in August and September 1962. This tour was made two months after the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

had toured Australia. The result of the first test was a draw but the Wallabies were defeated in the other two tests. So the

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

, contested for the first time since 1962 remained with New Zealand. The tour marked the commencement of the successful " Thornett Era" of Australian Rugby, buoyed by the leadership skills of skipper

John Thornett John Edward Thornett, MBE (30 March 1935 – 4 January 2019) was an Australian rugby union player, who played 37 Tests for Australia between 1955 and 1967 and made an additional 77 representative match appearances. He captained Australia in 16 T ...

and the outstanding skills of greats of the game like

Ken Catchpole Kenneth William Catchpole (21 June 1939 – 21 December 2017) was an Australian rugby union footballer. A New South Wales Waratahs, state and Australia national rugby union team, national representative half-back, he played twenty-seven matche ...

, Peter Johnson and

Rob Heming Robin John Heming (11 December 1932 – 7 January 2023) was an Australian Lock/ No.8 rugby union player who played 21 tests for Australia between 1961 and 1967. Born in Namatanai in New Ireland off the then Australian Territory of New Guinea ...

. It was the debut tour of

Dick Marks Richard James Pickett Marks, (born 6 September 1942) is an Australian former rugby union footballer and noted administrator.Jack Pollard; ''Australian Rugby: The Game and the Players''; Ironbark; 1994 He played 17 Tests for Australia between 196 ...

and

Peter Crittle Charles Peter Crittle AO (born 21 July 1939) is an Australian former barrister, rugby union player and official. The majority of his secondary education was at Sydney Boys High School where he played in the First XV. Before then he was briefly at ...

who would later serve as influential administrators of Australian rugby.Meares and Howell; Wallaby Legends; Lothian Books, 2005

The Matches

''Scores and results list Australia's points tally first.''

Notes

{{Rugby union tours of New Zealand Australia national rugby union team tours of New Zealand Tour tour