Just the second time
This is the 9th - or 10th if you include the Anglo-Welsh - time the Lions have been to New Zealand but only the second time they will playa against Manawatu.
Manawatu? In Maori legend Hau was chasing after his wife Wairaka who had run off with her lover. He crossed many rivers but baulked at crossing one which he named the Manawatu which meant "heart standing still". So the region came to be called Manawatu.
Early settlers from the UK bought land and established a settlement on "a good site for a township" near mountains and river in the south-east of New Zealand. They named it after John Henry Temple, Viscount Palmerston, the recently (in 1865) deceased prime minister of Britain, a remarkable man who was once sued by a cuckolded husband as the correspondent in a divorce proceeding. This actually increased his popularity as he was 78 at the time. His last words where to his doctor when he was dying at the age of 81: "Die, my dear doctor? That is the last thing I shall do!" It was the last thing he did!
The first people from Europe to settle in the area were Scandinavians in 1871.
Palmerston South: There was a town called Palmerston in Otago on South Island.
Palmerston North houses a famous Rugby Museum.
The union there was founded in 1886 and is one of the original members of the New Zealand RFU. From 1925 to 1932 it combined with Horowhenua and called Manawhenua. The combination won the Ranfurly Shield in 1976. But the greatness of Manawatu rugby was in the Seventies and early Eighties when it one the Ranfurly Shield all on its own. In 1980 it won Division 1 of the NPC.
Glory gone, Manawatu was relegated to Division 2 in 1988 and ended 6th out of nine teams in Division 2 of the NPC last season.
The ground has been the multipurpose Showground Oval whose stand burnt down in 1983, causing a race against time to have the new stand completed for the 1983 Lions. It then housed about 16 000 spectators. Later called Arena Manawatu and now the FMG Stadium it will house 18 318 for the Lions match.
FMG? Farmers’ Mutual Group, a company started in 1903, to help farmers financially.
The Lions first came to Palmerston North in 1930 and beat
Manawhenua 34-8. They then beat Manawatu Horowhenua 13-8 in 1950, 26-6 in 1959, 17-8 in 1966, 39-6 in 1971 and 18-12 in 1977. In 1993 they did not come at all to Palmerston North.
For the only time, the Lions played Manawatu in 1983, at the time when it was in its glory. The Lions won 25-18 but it was an acrimonious battle as the Lions complained of being kicked, trampled and hit. Ciaran Fitzgerald and Iain Paxton had scalp wounds, and Graham Price sprig marks on his back.
Manawatu had great forwards who included Gary Knight, Mark Shaw, Frank Oliver and Geoff Old.
The match was played in a strong Southwester. Manawatu scored first when Matene Love kicked a dropped goal, as Finlay also did later in the half, as Olly Campbell also did for the Lions. At half-time Manawatu led 9-3.
In winning the Lions scored three tries to one. Trevor Ringland got two and Iain Paxton one. Manawatu fullback, Mark Finlay, performed the rare feat of scoring in all four ways - try, conversion, penalty and drop. He scored 15 of Manawatu's 18 points.