1985 England rugby union tour of New Zealand

The 1985 England rugby union tour of New Zealand was a series of seven matches played by the England national rugby union team in New Zealand in May and June 1985. England played seven games, including two test matches against the New Zealand national rugby union team. They won four of the seven matches but lost both of the test matches as well as the fixture against the Auckland provincial team.

The preliminaries to this tour were shrouded in uncertainty and selection announcements containing players whose availability had not been confirmed. Dick Greenwood, England's current coach, announced he was not available having just take a new job, and evenyually 2 coaches were appointed under Derek Morgan, Martin Green and Brian Ashton. The party as a whole was very short of experience, and only three players had previous experience of New Zealand rugby at test level; Jamie Salmon, who had won 3 caps for the All Blacks, and Paul Dodge and Steve Bainbridge who had played in the 1983 match between England and New Zealand at Twickenham.

Contents

Matches

Scores and results list England's points tally first.
Opposing Team For Against Date Venue Status
North Auckland 27 14 18/05/1985 Okara Park, Whangarei Tour Match
Poverty Bay 45 0 22/05/1985 Rugby Park, Gisborne Tour Match
Auckland 6 24 25/05/1985 Eden Park, Auckland Tour Match
Otago 25 16 28/05/1985 Carisbrook, Dunedin Tour Match
New Zealand 13 18 01/06/1985 Lancaster Park, Christchurch First Test
Southland 15 9 04/06/1985 Homestead Stadium, Invercargill Tour Match
New Zealand 15 42 08/06/1985 Athletic Park, Wellington Second Test

Touring party

Full Backs

Three-Quarters

Half-Backs

Forwards

England Rugby Tours
Australasia (1963) • Canada (1967) • Far East (1971) • South Africa (1972) • Fiji and New Zealand (1973) • Australia (1975) • Japan, Fiji and Tonga (1979) • Argentina (1981) • Canada and USA (1982) • South Africa (1984) • New Zealand (1985) • Australia and Fiji (1988) • Romania (1989) • Argentina (1990) • Australia and Fiji (1991) • Canada (1993) • South Africa (1994) • Argentina and Australia (1997) Australasia and South Africa (1998) • Australia (1999) • South Africa (2000) • North America (2001) • Argentina (2002) • Australasia (2003) • Australasia (2004) • Australia (2006) • South Africa (2007) • New Zealand (2008) • Australasia (2010)