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"Ridge to rescue as chaotic kicking costs Kiwis game"

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Description: This image was taken by Maurice Costello for the Evening Standard on 23rd June 1990 and was published on the 25th with the caption: “NEW Zealand forward Brent Todd observes the passing style of Great Britain hooker."

“INCOMPETENT goalkicking in yesterday's first rugby league test resulted in the New Zealand selectors bringing former All Black Matthew Ridge into the side for the second test in Auckland in a fortnight.

New Zealand coach Bob Bailey said his team would have won yesterday if it had had a competent kicker in yesterday's test.

"In hindsight we should have selected Matthew Ridge for the first test. Instead we had an incompetent kicker an incompetent kicker and we lost," Bailey said. Prop Peter Brown was the kicker in yesterday’s win by Great Britain. He missed four of his five attempts, failing with both conversions and two penalties. Great Britain beat New Zealand 11-10 on the Oval with a field goal by England play Garry Schofield being the only second-half points.

New Zealand Rugby League president George Rainey said he wasn't surprised by Ridge's selection.

"When the selectors were deciding on the first test they were concerned about Matthew's lack of experience. They have now had two more weeks since the selection of the first test team on Jun 11 to see how good he is." Rainey said.

"He is very talented and has an excellent temperament.

Ridge, 21. played only his fourth game of rugby league for Manly against South Sydney yesterday, kicking five goals and scoring a try. Though he has a slight physique at 1.81m and 79kg Ridge has more than coped with league's intense rough and tumble since his announcement to switch codes on May 10, proving an instant success.

His speedy climb to test level may be a world record. The only other player with a similar record is Welshman Billy Boston. Boston signed for Wigan in 1953 and toured with the Great Britain team in the summer of 1954 after playing handful of games for Wigan.

Ridge replaces Manly teammate Darrell Williams at fullback with Williams moving into the centres and pushing Tony Kemp into the reserves. Reserve Mark Nixon has been dropped from the squad.

Bailey said he wasn't tempted to make further changes.

“The team knows where it went wrong. It was especially hard for the forwards coming from six clubs," Bailey said.

The forwards didn't play up to expectation, especially the second half when their match fitness came into question. New Zealand started at a cracking pace, dominating and cashing in on an early mistake with a Sam Panapa try in the second minute.

Initially New Zealand looked the superior team, its forwards taking yardage with each tackle and crash-tackling Great Britain ball-carriers while the backs regularly penetrated.

Kevin and Tony Iro and Panapa looked especially dangerous despite muffing a couple of chances with handling errors. They were given a continuous [sic] supply of ball from halfback Gary Freeman and standoff Dean Clark.

New Zealand failed to deliver on the promise of the first half being nailed defensively in the second by Great Britain.

Great Britain closed ranks and New Zealand couldn't respond. It seemed the Kiwis ran out of gas.

Hugh McGahan couldn't maintain his first-half workload but kept a high profile. Mark Horo and new caр Tawera Nikau tackled hard and had good games.

The usually elusive Freeman was kept under control by an effective umbrella defence pattern consisting of Lions' captain, Mike Gregory, Bobby Goulding and Schofield.

Great Britain's clear intention was to snuff out Freeman with a three-pronged defence. To a certain extent it succeeded.

Clark was also nailed in the second half, his game going steadily downhill.

When one of the Kiwis did make a break they were often left on their own without support.

Great Britain's tackling was physically telling on the New Zealand attack. The Kiwis looked weary in the last 20 minutes.

New Zealand however, was unlucky not to have mounted a halftime lead.

Great Britain made two half-breaks in the first half and capitalised on both with tries.

Standoff Schofield was instrumental in both Great British tries breaking a weak tackle from Clark and making the final pass to an unmarked Johnathan Davies for the first and then setting up Paul Dixon who passed to Carl Gibson for the second.

Schofield also kicked the crucial field goal from a handy position 17 minutes into the second half. His only mistake was a missed tackle on Clark who made the break for New Zealand's first try.

Davies has an unbeaten record on the Oval also being on the winning side when Wales beat Tonga in the rugby World Cup in 1987. Prop Keith England worked industriously close to the set play and was well supported by Roy Powell who replaced Kelvin Skerrett in the second half.

Scorers:
Great Britain 11 (Jonathan Davles, Carl Gibson tries; Davies con, Garry Scholfield field goal).
New Zealand 10 (Sam Panapa, Kevin Iro tries; Peter Brown pen) HT 10-all.”