The 1968 New Zealand tour rugby to Australia and Fiji was the 21st tour by the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

national

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

team to Australia and it ended with a match at Fiji. The previous tour by 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, ...

to Australia was the 1962 tour. 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 som ...

had visited New Zealand in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

. The All Backs won all both Test matches and 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 ...

. Before the first Test Australian coach (and former

Wallaby 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 som ...

and

All Black 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, ...

)

Des Connor Desmond Michael Connor (born 9 August 1935 in Ashgrove, QLD) is an Australian former rugby union halfback who represented internationally both the Australian and New Zealand national rugby union teams. He is an inductee in the Australian Rugby ...

had studied the rulebook and after consulting with referees, he introduced tactically the first short lineout ever used in a match in the southern hemisphere.Howell p161 This tactic is now a common part of rugby at all levels.

Schedule

''Scores and results list All Blacks's points tally first.''

References

External links

New Zealand in Australia and Fiji 1968
from ''rugbymuseum.co.nz''

Published sources

* Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ {{DEFAULTSORT:1968 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia and Fiji

New Zealand tour

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

New Zealand tour New Zealand national rugby union team tours of Australia New Zealand national rugby union team tours of Fiji New Zealand national rugby union team tours