One day,two defeats for All Blacks
THAT New Zealand once lost six international matches in a row is a fact but there is more to this story than meets the eye. The All Blacks did lose four times to South Africa and twice to Australia in 1949. What the record doesn't show is that two of those defeats took place in different continents on the same day. On Sept 3, 1949 the touring New Zealanders lost 9-3 to the Springboks in Durban. Back in Wellington, another All Blacks' Test team lost 11-6 to the Wallabies.
Serve them right, some might say, for thinking they could play home-and-away at the same time and keep winning. The Australian fixtures came about after the SA government had declared Maori players persona non grata under their apartheid laws.
