University Rugby Club Has Had Mixed Success In 75 Years History M. P. DONNELLY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28890, 9 May 1959, Page 5

University Rugby Club Has Had Mixed Success In 75 Years History

M. P. DONNELLY

’J'hree-quarter play, accepted by all the Rugby nations of the world as providing some of the most delightful of fo jtball owes its existence to the University of Canterbury Rugby Club. This claim, made by the club, is substantiated by Mr W. G. Garrard, the noted Canterbury Rugby historian, who considered that Canterbury University was the first club anywhere in the world to field four three-quarters, thus making Rugby history. These facts have been disclosed in a perusal of the club’s 75 years’ history. Founded in 1883, the club will late in June celebrate its diamond jubilee.

Founders It was through the efforts of three former Christ’s College students that the university club was founded. The three men concerned were Messrs Hugh Mathias, Gilbert Hutton and Heinrich Von Haast, who started at the university in 1883. The club’s first match was a friendly

one against Christ’s College Second Fifteen. After that, matches were played against other senior dubs. For the next five years the club languished, the better Class players turned out for the stronger clubs and it seemed that Rugby at the University would die out. In 1889 however, the senior team began to make a name for itself by playing an entirely different .brand of Rugby from that previously played in Christchurch. From 1889 to 1891 the club enjoyed a period of near supremacy which was not to be their lot again until 1928. This was the time of the famous three-quarter line of T. R. Cresswell, J. Craddock, J. Marshall and W. F. Balch who swept all before them with their passing and running. Combined passing movements were riot a feature of Rugby then and the University backs of this time set a new standard.

No Teams

This high standard was not maintained and oyer the next four years the strength of the club dropped away until in 1897 no teams were fielded in the competitions. Then came a period unique in any club history. From 1897 to 1900 the club had no teams in any of the grades, but it still retained its affiliation with the Canterbury Rugby Union and provided delegates fbr the management committee. Mainly through the efforts of Messrs. A. E. Flower and A. G. Henderson interest in Rugby at the University was revived and in 1901 two junior teams were entered in the competitions. No great degree of success was achieved but steady progress was ■ maintained and in 1903 a Univer- ; sity senior team played for the , first time since 1896. There was to be no fairly tale of success how- , ever, over the next five years the I club experienced a dismal period. I Losses by more than 50 points , were common and a victory in any ■ grade was an occasion for great rejoicing. Few clubs would have suffered as many defeats as University in those years. The full

record for the 1905 season shows the same team lost all its games played, scored 12 points and had ’ 169 scored against it; the junior 1 team drew" one game and lost 1 eight of the nine played, scoring < 6 points and having 231 scored < against it and the presidents’ team j lost all four games, scored only ’ three points and had 104 scored 1 against it. < Comradeship Is This succession of defeats gave ’ something to club members which < victories do not always give, and < that was a great spirit of com- 1 radeship which enabled the club 1

to last out those depressing years. In the period just before World War I University began to take | a more prominent part in senior • Rugby but the hopes held for the , 1914 side where dashed when ; thirteen of the side enlisted in the Army. Few players were available i for the club during the war years and during most of that time only an under 20 team was fielded. Erratic The pattern that emerged after j the war was to become all too familiar to the University supporters. One week the team would put on a brilliant display against one of the leading teams, the next | week a pitiful effort against one of the bottom teams. One of the greatest games played was against , Marist in 1923 (then in the process of winning the .senior grade for the fifth successive year), when on a muddy ground a great forward struggle ended in a 6-all

draw. Defeat had so often been the measure of the University Club that it came as a great joy to the loyal supporters when in 1918 a championship side was finally produced and J. T. Burrows and G. T. Alley were chosen for the New Zealand team to tour South Africa. ’

The team which included C. H. Perkins, L. G. Loveridge, C. Chesley, J. Galbraith, A. T. Montgomery and D. Grant went through the senior championship unbeaten. As

it also beat Otago University and Victoria College, which had won their respective competitions, it could lay claim to being one of the premier club teams in New Zealand. The depression years saw the club occupy a minor role in Christchurch Rugby from a view of results, but it always endeavoured to play bright Rugby and this allied with its penchant for upsetting calculations by beating a leading team gave it

some stature in the eyes of the Rugby public. Each week the team regularly alternated defeat with victory. Indeed its only consistency was its inconsistency.

Anniversary In 1936 the 50th anniversary of the club was celebrated, True to type the myth that a club always wins the senior grade in its Jubilee year was exploded when the university senior team finished second to last with only 2J points. As if to prove that the performance of the 1936 side was one of mistake of date and not of intention the 1937 team recorded the club’s second senior championship by tieing with Old Boys. Reverting to normal the 1938 side finished second to last again. Heartened by the success of the 1937 team the committee had taken an unprecedented step in decreeing that the senior team should all wear jerseys of the same colour, stockings of the same pattern and be correctly numbered (there had been complaints that programme holders were often mystified to see three University players wearing the same number). The appearance on the oval in the correct attire produced loud applause from the spectators.

Fine Team

The next year saw University produce a club side which may have ranked as the finest attacking club side seen in Christchurch. Pre-war Rugby followers still talk of the brilliant three-quarters line of Cartwright, Hunter, Smith and Fountain. Inside them were McAuliffe, Kimberley, Donnelly and Ellis. Everyone of the back-line played for Canterbury and four players Williams, McAuliffe, Hunter and Cartwright appeared in the final trial to select the New Zealand team to tour South Africa. The forwards were ably led by the

1938 All Black C. W. Williams. Another powerful side won the competition in 1940 and it seemed that the University Club had finally come into its own. World War II stopped this, during the war years the club numbers were so depleted that it was forced to amalgamate with Athletic. All Blacks In the immediate post war period .University was always a force and had in J. W. Kelly, R. C. Stuart, A. D. McKenzie, J. D. Stewart and L. T. Savage players of the highest calibre. Further success eluded the club until 1956, notwithstanding the effort of the 1952 team which finished runners up to Marist, fielding one of the most powerful backlines in the club’s history. However, before winning the senior championship in 1956 there had been one bright event and that was the appointment of Stuart as captain of the 1953-54 All Blacks. The success of the 1956 senior side inaugurated the most successful period in the club’s history, For again in 1957 and in 1958 the senior grade was won as well as many of the lower grades. With the roll at University increasing every year, the playing strength of the club has doubled over the last four years and as the numbers show no sign bf diminishing the club should not experience the sudden downswing that is so often the lot of a club which has enjoyed a long run of successes.