The Super League Tri-series was an international rugby league football tournament contested in 1997 between

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

representative rugby league teams. It was run by the breakaway

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

organisation as an alternative to the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

's traditional

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two States and territories of Australia, Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales rugby league team, New South Wales Blues and the Queensland ru ...

, with each of the two series involving exclusively players contracted to clubs of their respective League. New South Wales were overall winners of the Tri-series, defeating Queensland in the final. New Zealand restricted their selections to players based in Australia and New Zealand and did not recognize the matches as international games.

Results

Game 1

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Game 2

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Game 3

---- After New South Wales defeated Queensland on 11 April 1997 it was possible for New Zealand to make the final if they defeated New South Wales. This commercially disastrous final looked like becoming a reality when New Zealand winger

Sean Hoppe Sean "Shoppe" Edward Hoppe (born 19 January 1971) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand. Early years As a junior, he played for the Glen Innes Falcons, a feeder club to Ellerslie during the 1 ...

scored a try in the dying minutes of the 14 May match against New South Wales, but the try was controversially disallowed.

Table

Final

The Tri-series final was held on 19 May 1997, and won by New South Wales, who defeated Queensland 23–22 at

ANZ Stadium Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

in the longest-ever game of first class rugby league. After 80 minutes, the scores were locked at 18–18, and a further 20 minutes were played. At the end of this time, the scores were 22–22, and Queensland captain

Allan Langer Allan Jeffrey "Alfie" Langer AM (born 30 July 1966) is an Australian former multi-award-winning rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and worked as an assistant coach for the Australian national team, the Queenslan ...

is said to have asked the referee, "Should we toss a coin to see who wins?" The game then moved into

golden point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn matches in a number of sports. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where a ...

extra time, and after 104 minutes,

Noel Goldthorpe Noel Goldthorpe (born 25 December 1969) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in Rugby league positions#Stand-off, the halves in the 1990s. He played most of his career for the St George Dragons. Goldthorpe als ...

kicked a field goal for New South Wales, and won the match. Despite the game being played in Brisbane, NSW were the home team as it was the Final of the series. ----

Squads

New South Wales

Coach:Tim Sheens Assistant Coach: Craig Bellamy

New Zealand

The side was coached by

Graeme Norton Graeme Norton is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He became coach of the New Zealand national rugby league team in 1997. Initial career After a playing career with the Northcote Tigers, Norton became the Ti ...

and he served as a selector alongside

Frank Endacott Frank Morris Endacott , also known by the nickname of "Happy Frank", is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer, and Coach (sport), coach. Background His son, Shane Endacott, Shane, also played rugby league. Playing career En ...

and

Gary Kemble Gary Edward Kemble (born 23 August 1956), also known by the nickname "Crayfish", is a New Zealand rugby league coach and former player. He has both played and coached the New Zealand national rugby league team. He is the current head coach of t ...

Queensland

Queensland were coached by Wayne Bennett.

Statistics

Try scorers

References

External links

Complete Statistics and Players of the Super League Tri-Series
at rugbyleagueproject.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Super League Tri-Series Super League 1997 in Australian rugby league 1997 in New Zealand rugby league