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New Zealand Rugby League History

HISTORY

Warriors NRL History

1978: A combined Auckland team was admitted into the popular Amco Cup competition. The Amco Cup was a mid-week knock-out competition showcasing first grade teams as well as interstate, country and international sides. It was essentially a side event to the powerful Sydney competition, controlled by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL). In their first year, the Auckland side made the semi-finals only to be defeated by eventual Cup winners Eastern Suburbs.

1987: An Auckland side toured Great Britain, defeating powerhouse clubs Leeds and Wigan.

1988: Encouraged mainly by the Mt Albert club, serious investigation into an Auckland team entering the Sydney competition commenced.

17 May 1992: Announcement released that an Auckland-based team will compete in the Sydney-based first grade in 1995. This followed big crowd turnouts to a number of NSWRL club games played in Auckland. The new team was to be called the Auckland Warriors and run by the Auckland Rugby League organisation. The original colours selected were blue, white, red and green. Blue and white are recognised as the colours of Auckland, while red and green were the colours of the Warriors' original sponsor, DB Bitter.

1995: The newly formed Auckland Warriors are admitted into the Australian Rugby League's Winfield Cup Competition.

The Warriors debut match was against the Brisbane Broncos on March 10, 1995 in front of 30,000 people at Mt Smart Stadium. The Warriors led 22-10 at one point in the second half, but the Broncos came back to defeat the new club by 25-22.

The Warriors came within one victory of making the finals in 1995, and the players actually did enough to secure that victory only to see the club penalised two competition point for an interchange breach. In round 3, the Warriors posted their first ever victory when they downed Western Sububs by 46-12 at Mt Smart Stadium. But the Warriors were found to have made an interchange error when they used five interchange players instead of the allowed four. The error was costly as the NRL deducted the points and the Warriors utimately missed the finals by just two competition points.

The Warriors had to wait until round 6 to collect their first competition points when they defeated the Illawarra Steelers by 38-12 at Mt Smart.

1995 also saw the debut of future star, Stacey Jones, who scored a try on debut when the Warriors thrashed Parramatta 40-4 in Sydney.

In their first season, the Warriors finished 10th out of 20 teams:

1995 Stats (10th out of 20)
Played
Won
Lost
Pts for
Pts against
+/-
Points
20
13
9
538
501
+37
26

1996: The Warriors joined the breakaway Super League competition. It was a tumultous period for rugby league with the Australian Rugby League and Super League fighting it out in the courts for control of the game. Following one such court ruling, Super League was put on hold. After being awarded two competition points in the first round (Broncos forfeited), the Warriors and other Super League clubs rejoined the Australian Rugby League for the remainder of the 1996 season, the Warriors finishing 11th and missing out on a finals berth.

1997: Super League gets the green light from the courts and the competition is split in two, the Warriors play one year with the rebel competition and the Warriors finished 7th out of 10 teams.

John Monie was replaced by Frank Endacott as coach midway through the season.

1998: The 'Super League War' is over and new national governing body is formed, the Warriors join the National Rugby League (NRL).

1999: Former Kiwi Mark Graham took over as coach from Frank Endacott.

2001: The Warriors qualify for their first ever NRL finals. Finishing 8th in the minor premiership (out of 14), the Warriors were comprehensively beaten 56-12 by competition front-runners the Parramatta Eels - the largest finals loss in the competition's history. Nevertheless, the season was viewed as a success following several years of turmoil which included financial difficulties and management difficulties, 2001 being a turnaround year for the Warriors.

2002: The best season yet for the Warriors. Finishing first as minor premiers comong into the finals, the Warrriors almsot went all the way in qualifying for the grand final.

2002 stats (Minor premiership, 1st out of 15)
Played
Won
Lost
Bye
Pts for
Pts against
+/-
Points
24
17
7
2
688
454
+234
34

On their road to the grand final, the Warriors defeated the Canberra Raiders 36-20 in the qualifying final before defeating the Sharks 16-10 in the preliminary final.

Played in front of 80,130 peeople, the grand final against the Sydney Roosters was a hard fought encounter for the first 60 minutes. The Roosters led 6-2 at half time, before the Warriors took the lead just after halftime when halfback Stacey Jones scored a memorable try on the back of senstational 40 metre run to the try line. The Roosters hwoever, ran away with the match in the final 20 minutes. The final score: 30-8.

2006: Salary cap worries for the Warriors and the club is docked four competition points. Prior to the 2006 season kicking off, NRL officials announce that the Warriors were found to have committed breaches of the salary cap in 2005 following the signings of Steve Price and Ruben Wiki. In addition to being deducted four competition points, the club would fined $430,000 AUD. Despite the off-field dramas, the Warriors performed well in 2006, winning eight of theor last 12 games to narrowly miss out on a finals berth.

In June 2006, the Warriors recorded their largest ever win, defeating South Sydney 66-0 at Telstra Stadium. The Warriors also caused a major season upset in defeating the Minor Premiers Melbourne Storm by 24-20 at Olympic Park.

2007: Auckland's participation in the Australian rugby league increased when Bartercard Cup club Auckland Lions joined the NSWRL Premier League (second grade) competition. The Warriors finished the regular season in fourth place, going down narrowly to the Parramatta Eels 12-10 at Mount Smart Stadium in week one of the finals. Their season ended with a 49-12 loss to the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.

2008: In week two of the NRL finals, the Warriors came from behind to defeat the Sydney Roosters 30-13 at Mt. Smart Stadium, the home side piling on 24 unanswered points. The Warriors, however, were defeated the following week by 32-6 to eventual premiers the Manly Sea Eagles.


Warriors Fact File
• The New Zealand Warriors were formerly known as the Auckland Warriors.
• The Warriors home ground is Mt Smart Stadium (formerly Ericsson Stadium) in Auckland.
• Dean Bell was the first club captain 1995.
• John Monie was the club's first coach in 1995.
• Phil Blake scored the club's first premiership try in 1995 (round 1 v Broncos)
• Half back Stacey Jones has played the most games for the Warriors with 238 games.
• Stacey Jones holds the most career points scored for the Warriors with 654 points.
• Francis Meli has scored the most club tries in one season with 23 tries in 2003.
• Ivan Cleary holds the club record for most points in a season with 242 points in 2002.
• Ivan Cleary and Gene Ngamu jointly holds the club record for most points (28) in a match.
Ivan Cleary: 28 points. 1 try, 12 goals vs Northern Eagles, 2002 (Won 68-10)
—Gene Ngamu: 28 points. 3 tries, 8 goals vs North Queensland, 1996 (Won 52-6)

Coaches
• John Monie 1995-1997
• Frank Endacott 1997-1998
• Mark Graham 1999-2000
• Daniel Anderson 2001-2004
• Tony Kemp 2004-2005
• Ivan Cleary 2006-

Footnote:
In 1995, the Australian Rugby League took over control of the newly expanded national competition called the 'Winfield Cup', effectively replacing the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) Sydney competition (instigated in 1908) as Australia's richest first grade competition. The Winfield Cup was played for by the 16 NSWRL teams that played in 1994 plus four new clubs: the Auckland Warriors, the North Queensland Cowboys, the South Queensland Crushers and the Western Reds.
In 1998, the National Rugby League (NRL) was formed following the 'Super League War', the NRL being a combination of the News Limited backed Super League and the Australian Rugby League.


International Rugby League - NZRL Summary


New Zealand rugby league predates the Australian NSWRL.

Formed in mid-1907 by Albert Baskerville, the 'All Golds' (as they were disparagingly dubbed by rugby union) toured England via Sydney. Playing 'professional rugby' (rugby league) against teams of the Northern Football Union, Baskerville's Kiwis paved the way for international rugby league.

In 1908, Wales and New Zealand played the first ever rugby league international tour match on January 1st at Aberdare. Wales won the game 9-8 before a crowd of 17,000.

Also in 1908, the first ever Test match took place between Great Britain and New Zealand on the 18th January at Headingley. Referred to as the 'Northern Union', Great Britain won the match 14-6. The second Test went to New Zealand by 18-6 in London. The third Test at Cheltenham was won 8-5 by the visiting New Zealand side.

The New Zealand Kiwis and the Great Britain Lions continue to compete for the Baskerville Shield.

The Kiwis have featured in three World Cup Finals in 1988, 2000 and 2008 as well as playing in the 1999, 2005 and 2006 Tri-Nations Finals.

In 2005, underdogs New Zealand stunned the rugby league community by comprehensively defeating Australia 24-0 in the Tri-Nations final.

In 2008, rugby league's centenary year, New Zealand became world champions for the first time when they defeated Australia 34-20 in the World Cup Final. [match report]



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