70 years ago this afternoon the combined sides of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe) playing in their joint-side green and white hooped jerseys beat the New Zealand All Blacks in Bulawayo 10-8.
They are the only non-test country to have achieved this. 13 of the All Blacks in this game were capped in their careers. The following day members of the All Blacks squad played an unofficial game in Livingstone.
They then travelled to Salisbury (now Harare) and with 8 changes, meaning that 14 players were capped that tour of South Africa, they played and drew 3-3 against the joint Rhodesian side thereby losing the series.
The Rhodesias are the only side in the world to have a 100% winning record against the All Blacks in series rugby since this was the only series they ever played against them.
---
A far cry from the current Zimbabwe rugby team who could not pay the travel customs at the airport to travel and represent their country in the Africa Nations Cup, and then also failed to qualify..... Pdivvy was the coach and he was buying players sandwiches from his own pocket, as they were starving. They were also sleeping in the streets because the accommodation was not paid for, and was so terrible anyway according to their published reports .
