1989 Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand

The 1989 Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand was a mid-season tour of New Zealand by the Australia national rugby league team. The Australians played six matches on tour, including a three test series against the New Zealand national rugby league team. The tour began on 4 July and finished on 23 July.

Australia, the reigning Rugby League World Cup champions after having defeated New Zealand 25-15 in the 1988 World Cup Final at Auckland's Eden Park ground, defeated the home side 3-0 in the series. The third test of the series also doubled as the first match of the 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup tournament.

The series was broadcast to Australia by the Nine Network with commentary provided by Ray Warren and Darryl Eastlake.

As of 2017, this remains the last full mid-season Kangaroo tour of New Zealand in which the Australians played against club and regional teams.

Don Furner had stepped down after three successful years as coach and was replaced by 1978 Kangaroo tour captain and Manly-Warringah's 1987 premiership winning coach Bob Fulton. Wally Lewis was the captain of the side as he had been since 1984 while Manly-Warringah's Paul Vautin was the team vice-captain. Vautin captained the team in the three non-test games of the tour.

Queensland had won the 1989 State of Origin series with a 3-0 clean sweep of New South Wales prior to the tour. Of the 20 man touring team, 12 were from Qld with 8 from NSW. Balmain Tigers front rower Steve Roach was the only tourist who had not played in the Origin series.

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