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Australian Tour Games

By Neil Dowson

As the Australians celebrate a 100 years of rugby league Warrington can reflect on the best club record against touring Australians sides.  The first Australian tourists of 1908 visited Wilderspool twice.  Warrington won the first match with Jackie Fish the hero scoring one try and Ike Taylor the other.  The Australians came back for “revenge” later in the tour but tries from Fish and Jenkins earned the “Wirepullers” a draw.  The north of England was hit by strikes in the cotton mills, which badly affected attendances as fans could not afford to watch the pioneering Aussie. 

The second Kangaroo tourists gained ample revenge with a cruhing win over Warrington, however it was to be another 41 years before they defeated Warrington again.  Warrington won the next five matches.  In 1929 winger Tommy “Tubby” Thompson gave a remarkable performance scoring all 17 points with 3 tries and 4 goals. 

Brian Bevan failed to score on his first appearance against his fellow countrymen in 1948, but tries from Gerry Helme and Jim Featherstone and 5 goals from Harold Pain saw the “Wire” home before acrowd of almost 27,000.  Following a shock defeat to Blackpool Borough, Warrington bounced back to beat the 1956 Kangaroos with three interception tries, amazing non of which fell to Bevan.

Warrington’s last victory was the dramatic 15-12 victory in 1978.  A packed Wilderspool saw a patched up Warrington pack led by Mike Nicholas stand toe to toe with their Australian opponents and achieve a famous victory.  A controversial try from Alan Gwillima and 6 goals from Steve Hesford sealed the game.  This match proved to b the Kangaroos penultimate defeat to a club side.

Date		Result	Warrington	Australia	Attendance
14 November 1908		W	10	3	5,000
13 February 1909		D	8	8	7,000
30 December 1911		L	6	34	8,500
29 October 1921		W	8	5	16,000
21 December 1929		W	17	8	12,826
14 October 1933		W	15	12	16,431
27 November 1937		W	8	6	12,637
1 January 1948		W	16	7	26,879
11 October 1952		L	10	34	21,478
1 January 1956		W	21	17	15,613
1 January 1959		L	24	30	17,112
1 January 1963		L	20	28	20,090
1 January 1967		L	7	16	11,642
11 October 1978		W	15	12	10,143
31 October 1990		L	6	26	10,200
9 November 1994		L	0	24	11,244
Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
16	8	1	7	191	270

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