2018 New Zealand rugby league tour of England

The 2018 New Zealand rugby league tour of England was a tour by the New Zealand national rugby league team.^[1][2] The New Zealand national rugby league team played a three match test series against England for the Baskerville Shield, losing 2-1.

2018 Kiwi tour
Date	27 October 2018 – 11 November 2018
Summary	P W D L
Total	03 01 00 02
Test match	03 01 00 02
Opponent	P W D L
England	3 1 0 2
Tour chronology
Previous tour	2015

Background

RLIF World Rankings v t e
Official Rankings as of July 2018[3]
Rank	Change*	Team	Pts%
2		New Zealand	72.7
3		England	70.4

New Zealand and England previously played against each other in a mid-season international on 23 June 2018 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado. England won 36-18.

New Zealand was last in England for the 2016 Rugby League Four Nations. During that tournament New Zealand defeated England 17-16 in Huddersfield.^[4] They last played a three match test series against England during the 2015 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain, losing the series 2-1.^[5] With the completion of these three tests, New Zealand and England played each other four times in 2018.

Squads

New Zealand

A wider squad was named on 3 September 2018 consisting of the best New Zealand eligible players in the running to play in the upcoming tour.^[6] The final touring squad of 23 players was named on 1 October.^[7]

On 4 October, Corey Harawira-Naera withdrew from the touring 23-man squad due to a groin injury. Agnatius Paasi and Peta Hiku were subsequently added to the squad.^[8]

Ages are as of 27 October 2018, the day of the first test.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Games	Points	Club
Prop	Leeson Ah Mau	(1989-12-20)20 December 1989 (aged 28)	3	0	St. George Illawarra Dragons
Centre	Gerard Beale	(1990-07-18)18 July 1990 (aged 28)	0	0	New Zealand Warriors
Prop, Lock	Adam Blair	(1986-03-20)20 March 1986 (aged 32)	2	0	New Zealand Warriors
Prop	Jesse Bromwich	(1989-05-03)3 May 1989 (aged 29)	3	4	Melbourne Storm
Second-row, Lock	Kenny Bromwich	(1991-09-22)22 September 1991 (aged 27)	3	0	Melbourne Storm
Lock, Second-row	James Fisher-Harris	(1996-01-05)5 January 1996 (aged 22)	2	0	Penrith Panthers
Centre	Peta Hiku	(1992-12-04)4 December 1992 (aged 25)	0	0	New Zealand Warriors
Fullback, Five-eighth	Jahrome Hughes	(1994-10-08)8 October 1994 (aged 24)	0	0	Melbourne Storm
Wing	Jamayne Isaako	(1996-06-05)5 June 1996 (aged 22)	1	0	Brisbane Broncos
Halfback, Five-eighth	Shaun Johnson	(1990-09-09)9 September 1990 (aged 28)	3	22	New Zealand Warriors
Lock, Second-row	Isaac Liu	(1991-04-26)26 April 1991 (aged 27)	3	4	Sydney Roosters
Centre	Joseph Manu	(1996-06-29)29 June 1996 (aged 22)	3	0	Sydney Roosters
Centre	Esan Marsters	(1996-08-17)17 August 1996 (aged 22)	3	4	Wests Tigers
Wing	Ken Maumalo	(1994-07-16)16 July 1994 (aged 24)	3	12	New Zealand Warriors
Halfback	Kodi Nikorima	(1994-04-03)3 April 1994 (aged 24)	3	4	Brisbane Broncos
Prop	Agnatius Paasi	(1991-11-30)30 November 1991 (aged 26)	0	0	New Zealand Warriors
Second-row	Isaiah Papali'i	(1998-09-20)20 September 1998 (aged 20)	1	2	New Zealand Warriors
Second-row	Kevin Proctor	(1989-02-28)28 February 1989 (aged 29)	3	0	Gold Coast Titans
Wing	Jordan Rapana	(1989-08-15)15 August 1989 (aged 29)	2	0	Canberra Raiders
Hooker, Lock	Brandon Smith	(1996-05-31)31 May 1996 (aged 22)	3	0	Melbourne Storm
Second-row	Joseph Tapine	(1994-05-04)4 May 1994 (aged 24)	2	4	Canberra Raiders
Prop, Lock	Martin Taupau	(1990-02-03)3 February 1990 (aged 28)	2	0	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
Prop	Jared Waerea-Hargreaves	(1989-01-20)20 January 1989 (aged 29)	3	0	Sydney Roosters
Fullback, Wing	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (captain)	(1995-08-17)17 August 1995 (aged 23)	3	8	Penrith Panthers

Pre-tour matches

13 October 2018	New Zealand	26 – 24	Australia	Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

17 October 2018	England	44 – 6	France	Leigh Sports Village, Leigh

Baskerville Shield

Venues

Hull	Liverpool	Leeds
KCOM Stadium	Anfield	Elland Road
Capacity: 25,400	Capacity: 54,074	Capacity: 37,792

First test

England	18 – 16	New Zealand
Tries: Connor, Gildart, Tomkins Goals: Connor (3/4)	Report	Tries: Marsters, Watene-Zelezniak Goals: Johnson (4/4)

27 October 2018 14:30 BST (UTC+01)

KCOM Stadium, Kingston-upon-Hull[9] Attendance: 17,649[10] Referee: Robert Hicks (England)[11]

Team details

FB 1 Jonny Lomax WG 2 Tommy Makinson CE 3 Jake Connor CE 4 Oliver Gildart WG 5 Jermaine McGillvary FE 6 George Williams HB 7 Sam Tomkins PR 15 Tom Burgess HK 9 Josh Hodgson PR 10 James Graham SR 11 John Bateman SR 12 Elliott Whitehead LK 13 Sean O'Loughlin (c) Interchange: BE 8 Chris Hill BE 14 Luke Thompson BE 16 George Burgess BE 17 Daryl Clark Coach: Wayne Bennett FB 1 Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (c) WG 2 Ken Maumalo CE 3 Esan Marsters CE 4 Joseph Manu WG 5 Jordan Rapana FE 6 Shaun Johnson HB 7 Kodi Nikorima PR 8 Jesse Bromwich HK 9 Brandon Smith PR 10 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves SR 11 Kevin Proctor SR 12 Isaac Liu LK 13 James Fisher-Harris Interchange: BE 14 Kenny Bromwich BE 15 Leeson Ah Mau BE 16 Martin Taupau BE 19 Joseph Tapine Coach: Michael Maguire Man of the Match: Elliott Whitehead (England)[12] Touch judges: Chris Kendall (England) Richard Thompson (England) Video referee: Ben Thaler (England)

Notes:

• Oliver Gildart (England) made his Test debut.

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Second test

England	20 – 14	New Zealand
Tries: Makinson (3), Connor Goals: Tomkins (1/1), Connor (1/4)	Report	Tries: Maumalo, Watene-Zelezniak Goals: Johnson (3/3)

4 November 2018 14:30 GMT (UTC+00)

Anfield, Liverpool[9][13][14] Attendance: 26,234[15] Referee: Gerard Sutton (Australia)[16]

Team details

FB 1 Jonny Lomax WG 2 Tommy Makinson CE 3 Jake Connor CE 4 Oliver Gildart WG 5 Jermaine McGillvary FE 6 George Williams HB 7 Sam Tomkins PR 15 Tom Burgess HK 9 Josh Hodgson PR 10 James Graham (c) SR 11 John Bateman SR 12 Elliott Whitehead LK 13 Luke Thompson Interchange: BE 8 Chris Hill BE 14 Adam Milner BE 16 George Burgess BE 17 Daryl Clark Coach: Wayne Bennett FB 1 Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (c) WG 2 Ken Maumalo CE 3 Esan Marsters CE 4 Joseph Manu WG 5 Jordan Rapana FE 6 Shaun Johnson HB 7 Kodi Nikorima PR 8 Jesse Bromwich HK 9 Brandon Smith PR 10 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves SR 11 Kevin Proctor SR 12 Isaac Liu LK 13 Adam Blair Interchange: BE 14 Kenny Bromwich BE 15 Leeson Ah Mau BE 16 Martin Taupau BE 17 James Fisher-Harris Coach: Michael Maguire Man of the Match: Tommy Makinson (England)[17] Touch judges: James Child (England) Liam Moore (England) Video referee: Ben Thaler (England)

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Third test

England	0 – 34	New Zealand
	Report	Tries: Maumalo (2), J. Bromwich, Liu, Nikorima, Tapine Goals: Johnson (4/5), Papali'i (1/1)

11 November 2018 15:15 GMT (UTC+00)

Elland Road, Leeds[9][13] Attendance: 32,186 Referee: Gerard Sutton (Australia)[18]

Team details

FB 1 Jonny Lomax WG 2 Tommy Makinson CE 3 Jake Connor CE 4 Oliver Gildart WG 5 Jermaine McGillvary FE 6 George Williams HB 7 Richie Myler PR 15 Tom Burgess HK 9 Josh Hodgson PR 10 James Graham (c) SR 11 John Bateman SR 12 Elliott Whitehead LK 13 Luke Thompson Interchange: BE 8 Chris Hill BE 14 Adam Milner BE 16 Joe Greenwood BE 17 Stefan Ratchford Coach: Wayne Bennett FB 1 Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (c) WG 2 Ken Maumalo CE 3 Esan Marsters CE 4 Joseph Manu WG 5 Jamayne Isaako FE 6 Shaun Johnson HB 7 Kodi Nikorima PR 8 Jesse Bromwich HK 9 Brandon Smith PR 10 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves SR 11 Kevin Proctor SR 12 Isaac Liu LK 13 Adam Blair Interchange: BE 14 Kenny Bromwich BE 15 Leeson Ah Mau BE 16 Isaiah Papali'i BE 17 Joseph Tapine Coach: Michael Maguire Man of the Match: Kodi Nikorima (New Zealand) Touch judges: James Child (England) Liam Moore (England) Video referee: Phil Bentham (England)

Notes:

• Joe Greenwood (England) made his Test debut, while Isaiah Papali'i made his debut for New Zealand having previously represented Samoa.