New coach Danny Hay took the boys on a two-game mini European tour towards the end of 2019 in what was the only international football action of the year. Little did we know these would be the last two games for nearly two-years as Hay suffered defeats to both Republic Ireland and Lithuania.
Seven players made their international debuts across these two fixtures, including Callum McCowatt who found the back of the net to open the scoring in the 3-1 defeat to a very experimental Ireland side who replied through Williams, Maguire and Robinson. The other debutantes were Bell, Just, Pijnaker, Collier, McGarry and Mata (the later three haven't appeared in an All Whites shirt again since).
Highlights:
- Marinovic, Tuiloma and Reid all played for the 25th time for their country in the defeat to Ireland.
- Payne made his 20th All White appearance in the game in Ireland.
- Storm Roux made his 10th NZ appearance- He hasn't played again since!
Fun Fact:
- Hay made 11 changes to the team for the second fixture against Lithuania!
- NZ have now lost 8 successive fixtures played in Europe, their last success coming in 2010 against Serbia.
