EXCLUSIVE RUGBY CLUB

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27917, 14 March 1956, Page 6

EXCLUSIVE RUGBY CLUB

Barbarians World Famous MEMBERSHIP A RARE PRIVILEGE (From a Reuter Correspondent) LONDON. February 29. Of all the world’s great Rugby clubs, none is perhaps so honoured or famous as the Barbarians. Indeed, as H. B. Toft, (Waterloo, Lancashire and England) says, the Barbarians have so long occupied a unique position in Rugby football, and rendered services so outstandingly universal and creative, that no player, however talented, however famous, would regard membership as less than a rare privilege. The Barbarians is the most exclusive Rugby club in the world. Formed after an oyster supper in Bradford in 1890 with the idea of playing Rugby any where in the British Isles “as the game ought to be played.” the Barbarian have no annual subscription or entr; fee and they do all their business by post. They have their office-bearers but so far as can be ascertained, the only annual meeting ever held was in 1891. The story of the club has been brought up to date in “The Barbarians” edited by Andrew Wemyss, a Scottish international. To read this book is to understand why this club is so famous, why the idea has gone out into the far corners of the Rugby world, and why the word Barbarian has come to stand for all that is most attractive in Rugby. In the list of illustrious names elected to the club, New Zealanders are necessarily few and far between. But there are enough of them to justify the happily-chosen heraldic’ device on the attractive book cover: the badges of the various unions, including the silver fern, with a pair of gambolling lambs above them complete with Rugby ball. Jack Manchester and Bob Stuart, captains of the Third and Fourth All Blacks (as they are known), were ejected honorary members. Other New Zealanders who played for the club included Martin Donnelly (1946-47), E. Grant (1941-42). D. G. Cobden (193839) and the Kiwis, Fred Allen, Eric Eoggs. Bill Meates, Johnny Smith, and Bob Johnstone (all 1945-46). Cobden gets a page to himself in the personal recollections of the editor. “Why anyone should want to see ‘Naples and Die’ is something I know nothing about,” he says, “but I remember when we were on the Easter tour of 1939, D. G. Cobden, an All Black wing threequarter, telling us it was the supreme wish of every New Zealander to play on the world famous Cardiff Arms Park and score a try, if possible on that very spot where R. G. Deans did not . . . if records are right. “The reason why is obvious, I suppose to all who know that chapter in the annals of the game which concerns the titanic tussles at Cardiff between Wales and New Zealand. "Anyway, Cobden achieved his wish in pretty full measure as a Barbarian, for he scored a really spectacular try which meant a lot in a first win over Cardiff since 1935. As an international player, Cobden was unlucky. In his first and only international against the touring Springboks in 1937, he went off early in- the game through injury. Eut one look at him on the field as he moved around with his confident raking stride showed that he was a class player. “Cobden certainly thrilled everyone in the big crowd when he scored From some loose plav well inside the Barbarian half, Wally Hammond threw out a long pass to the All Black and away he went down the left wing. Brushing past two challengers, he was really going when Les Spence cut across and made a determined attempt to tackle. But Cobden shot out his right arm like a piston and fended off Spence’s dive, beat the fullback with an outside swerve and got there. It was a glorious run and the spectators generously acknowledged it as he strode back.”