June 2 down the years
The battle of Eden Park
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Didier Camberabero on his way to a record 30-point haul on this day in 1987 © Getty Images
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1971
The Lions beat a determined New Zealand Maoris side 23-12 at Eden Park in a match of 29 penalties which often resembled a battle. "The Maoris entered the contest more or less in the state of mind their ancestors of four generations ago developed at the sight of British redcoats on the battlefields of the Waikato … at times vigour turned into fury and all that was lacking was a bugler to sound the charge ," noted the Times. Lions prop Sean Lynch and Maori flanker Val Baker left the field bound for hospital in the same ambulance after Baker broke his wrist back-handing Lynch, who had to have 14 stitches inserted in a mouth wound.

1963
The untimely death of Richard Hamilton-Weekes who perished aged 61 in a fire at the nursing home he ran in Surrey. A member of the legendary 1924 England Grand Slam team, he was one of rugby's first glamour boys. Fair of hair and good-looking, the Times reported when he scored for Harlequins it would be greeted with "screams of delight seldom accorded to less attractive men"

1993
Rob Andrew collected a full house of scores - try, conversion, penalty and drop goal - to steer the Lions to a 28-10 victory over Canterbury in the fourth match of their tour.

1987
Didier Camberabero set an individual scoring record for a major Test collecting 30 points in France's 70-12 win against Zimbabwe in a Rugby World Cup pool match in Auckland. He beat a record set two hours earlier when Gavin Hastings notched 27 points in Scotland's 55-28 defeat of Romania. Scotland captain Colins Deans admitted they had overestimated the Romanians. "We would have won just as well with a second side and I suppose it would have been better to have rested some key players ."

2001
England, without those on Lions duty, recorded an unconvincing 22-10 victory over Canada in Toronto, largely thanks to Royal Artillery officer Josh Lewsey's two tries.

1959
For the first time a Lions side played under floodlights. The 8pm kick-off against Queensland in Brisbane was to the tourists liking as they won 39-11 in front of 6,000 spectators. Injuries meant that both sides finished with 14 men.

1984
England slumped to their third-biggest defeat as they went down 33-15 to South Africa in Port Elizabeth. Danie Gerber, the Springboks' 26-year-old centre who boated he did 300 sit-ups a day, was the star of the show, culminating in a 60-yard run for a try which killed any lingering England hopes. "I have banned any talk about the game until Monday morning," fumed England captain John Scott. "I want the players to think about it first, so that maybe we might find the answers to a lot of questions."

1928
In only their second match on South African soil the All Blacks lost 7-3 against a Western Province Town XV at Newlands.

1933
Australia began their first tour of South Africa with a 14-3 victory over Natal in Durban. They lost four of the nine tour matches before the start of the five-Test series which they in turn lost 3-2.

1963
Mont-de-Marsan, with the Boniface brothers and Christian Darrouy in their threequarter line, beat Dax 9-6 to lift the French Championship title for the first time.

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