The 1982 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand was a series of fourteen matches played by the Australia national rugby union team (nicknamed the Wallabies) in New Zealand between July and September 1982 . The Wallabies won ten of the fourteen matches and lost the other four.Rothmans Yearbook, 1983, p63 The international match series against the New Zealand national rugby union team (the All Blacks) resulted in a 2–1 win for New Zealand, who won the first and third matches, with Australia winning the second match. New Zealand thereby regained the Bledisloe Cup, which had been held by Australia since 1979.Rothmans Yearbook, 1983, p62
The Australian touring party lacked international experience. Nine senior players were unavailable for the tour and seventeen of the thirty selected for the tour had not been capped by Australia previously. Only five of the sixteen forwards had played internationals.Rothmans Yearbook, 1983, p61 Despite losing the international series the tour proved good for the future of Australian rugby – in his assessment for Rothmans Rugby Yearbook New Zealand writer Don Cameron stated that "This represented the greatest triumph of all...Australia now has a deep fund of test-tried players". Amongst the new players selected by Australia was David Campese, who would go on to play for Australia 101 times and score 64 tries in international matches, which remains an Australia record as of 2023.
Matches Scores and results list Australia's points tally first. Opposing Team Result For Against Date VenueTaranaki Won 16 15 28 July New PlymouthManawatu Won 26 10 31 July Palmerston NorthHawke's Bay Won 13 12 4 August NapierSouthland Won 21 0 7 August InvercargillSouth Canterbury Won 29 21 10 August TimaruNEW ZEALAND Lost 16 23 14 August Lancaster Park, ChristchurchBuller Won 65 10 18 August WestportOtago Won 29 12 21 August DunedinWaikato Won 23 3 24 August HamiltonNEW ZEALAND Won 19 16 28 August Athletic Park, WellingtonBay of Plenty Lost 16 40 1 September RotoruaCounties Lost 9 15 4 September PukekoheNorth Auckland Won 16 12 7 September WhangāreiNEW ZEALAND Lost 18 33 11 September Eden Park, Auckland
Touring party Manager: Chilla Wilson Assistant manager (Coach): Bob Dwyer Captain: Mark Ella
Backs
Roger Gould Glen Ella David Campese Peter Grigg Michael Martin Andrew Slack Paul Southwell Gary Ella Ross Hanley Michael Hawker Tim Lane Mark Ella Phillip Cox Dominic Vaughan
Forwards
Duncan Hall Steve Tuynman Chris Roche Simon Poidevin Peter Lucas Ross Reynolds Shane Nightingale Steve Cutler Phil Clements Steve Williams John Coolican John Griffiths Andy McIntyre John Meadows Stan Pilecki Bruce Malouf Lance Walker
Notes
References Steve Jones (ed), Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1983–84,
it:Tour della Nazionale di rugby a 15 dell'Australia 1980