BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Thirty-five years ago a tub of vaseline almost helped Great Britain to a landmark Ashes series win on home soil.
The year was 1990, and the Lions headed into the Ashes two years after they had famously knocked off the Kangaroos in the third Test at the SFS. Great Britain had not won a series since 1970, but Mal Reilly’s men came into this series with a talented squad and quiet confidence. Australia warmed up for the first Test at Wembley with tour wins over St Helens, Wakefield, Wigan, Cumbria and Leeds.
The opening Test was played at the old Wembley on October 27, 1990, in front of 54,569 baying fans (the largest ever Test attendance in England at that time). The result was a stirring 19-12 victory for Great Britain, and led by Ellery Hanley and Garry Schofield.
It was also the first time the Lions had beaten Australia on British soil for over a decade. You can watch the highlights here.
The attacking brilliance of the lock and five-eighth, allied with strong defence and a brace of tries for Paul Eastwood, got GB the vital, inspiring win.
At full-time the Australian television commentator Graeme Hughes beamed: “They have really thrown down the gauntlet to who are the world champions. Listen to this crowd and these players… They said they couldn’t do it.
“I tell you what, they played the better football this afternoon and they deserved it.”
The victory set up a huge encounter at Old Trafford the following weekend. But what is often forgotten in that first match was the controversial use of vaseline by the hosts.
Schofield remembers the encounter well.
“It was when we did the toss, which we did on the pitch,” he tells rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“I think they won the toss and we kicked off [Schofield taking the kick]. And Ellery he just coated the ball with vaseline. Then Marty Bella dropped the ball, in the first set of six.
“The Aussies realised they had vaseline all over their shirts and they were like ‘f%&cking hell, the cheating bastards’.
“It was Ellery’s idea, just Ellery being nice and smart. In the first Test the Aussies didn’t know what had happened and then obviously we won the toss, back in the day you could pick to kick off or whichever way you wanted to go.”
The tactic worked with Bella knocking the ball on early. Hanley and Schofield had also coated their legs in vaseline, making them harder to tackle. According to Wikipedia, after Bella dropped the ball the British trainer came onto the field with a towel for Andy Gregory to wipe the jelly from the ball before he fed the scrum, with the referee unaware.
The tactic was tried again by Great Britain, in the second Test in Manchester, but this time with no success.
“In the second Test we were due to kick off again, at Old Trafford, and Benny Elias and Mal Meninga saw mine and Ellery’s legs, we’d already coated the ball with vaseline and the referee noticed and threw that ball off,” Schofield jokes.
“And he brought another ball on. So we tried to get the little moments, the little extras, and the Aussies spoiled it.”
The second Test in 1990 is one of the most famous Ashes Tests in history. It was in this game where Great Britain seemed set to reclaim the Ashes after a 20-year drought when substitute Paul Loughlin intercepted a Ricky Stuart pass late and raced away 50 metres to score, making it 10-10.
With less than a minute left the Kangaroos were pinned down close to their try-line. Tension was building. Glory to the Lions was almost in their grasp.
Cue the heartbreak.
Stuart dummied past Lee Jackson, going on a mazy run downfield before finding Mal Meninga on the inside for the match-winning try, one of the greatest in the sport’s history.
14-10 to Australia, the hearts of Britain broken and Old Trafford fell silent.
The Lions were shattered and the third Test, played at Elland Road, ended in a comfortable, almost routine 14-0 win for the Kangaroos. Australia retained the Ashes once more, and the Lions’ long wait to hold the trophy continued, and still continues to this day. Great Britain has arguably never been as close to an Ashes series win.
Some 35 years later we return to Wembley, with England trying to spring another upset over their Antipodean rivals.