The 1924 All Blacks: Some Comparisons

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30188, 20 July 1963, Page 9

The 1924 All Blacks: Some Comparisons

Specially written for “The Preee” by ERIC BATES

TN 1924 the AU Blacks x made a tour of the British Isles. France and Canada. The team played 32 matches and won them all, scoring 838 points with only 116 registered against it. Its great full-back, George Nepia, played in every game. It is the only team to emerge unbeaten from a full-scale tour of the British Isles and France, and has ever since been known as “the Invincibles.”

It inspired some noble verse from the pen of W. Pember Reeves, and its contemporaries have always regarded it as a yard-stick with which to measure the excellence of subsequent New Zealand teams.

Like most touring teams, the 1924 All Blacks tended to sort themselves out into a first fifteen and a second fifteen and this resulted substantially, as foUows: “first XV”: backs: G. Nepia (Hawkes Bay), J. Steel (West Coast), K. Svenson (Wellington), A. E. Cooke (Auckland). M. F. NichoUs (Wellington), N. P. McGregor? (Canterbury), J. Mill (Hawkes Bay), Forwards: J. H. Parker (Canterbury), Q. Donald (Wairarapa), W. Irvine (Hawkes Bay), C. and M. Brownlie (Hawkes Bay), R. R. Masters (Canterbury), J. Richardson (Southland), A. White (Southland), "second XV”: Backs: G. Nepia, A. H. Hart (Taranaki), A. C. C. Robilliard (Canterbury), F. Lucas (Auckland, C. Badeley Auckland), L. Paewai (Hawkes Bay), W. C. Dailey (Canterbury),

Forwards: C. G. Porter, captain, (Wellington), L. Cupples (Bay of Plenty), I. H. Harvey (Wairarapa), B. V. McCleary (Canterbury), H. G. Munro (Otago), R. T. Stewart (South Canterbury), A West (Taranaki). Many people will probably be surprised at the comparatively light weights of the forwards. Taking the

last team to visit England, the 1953 All Blacks, as a comparison, it is found that with G. Dalzell as heaviest at 16st 21b no fewer than six of Bob Stuart’s forwards weighed more than Cyril Brownlie, the “Invincible's” heaviest at 15 stone. Five 1924 forwards were 12 stone odd, and one a mere list 121 b, while no 1953 forward was less than 13st 71b. The earlier team’s first XV pack averaged 13st 61b against the 1953 first XV's 15st., a difference of no less than 22 pounds a man. It is

much the same with heights. Cyril Brownlie, tallest at 6ft 3in, was matched by O’Dea, Bagley and R. A. White, while at 6ft 2in were Oliver, Jones, W. H. Clark and Dalzell (1953) and Cupples and Harvey (1924). No fewer than seven of the 1924 forwards were under 6ft, but only three in the later team. How could Cliff Porter’s forwards have fared against a present day New Zealand scrum when anything less than about 14.7 is almost considered a lightweight? It has been said that a good big man is better than a good little man. Whatever the 1924 forwards lacked in weight they certainly made up in brains and determination.

No touring team can produce its best form match in match out, and against Devon, Gloucester, Newport and Llanelly the 1924 team was woefully below par while in nine games it had to struggle hard to win After a patchy opening display against Devon, Colonel Philip Traver. England's foremost Rugby critic wrote: “My opinion is that they are a very capable and dangerously attacking combination who at the outset of their tour have rather failed to live up to their reputation.” The fifth match (N.Z. 39, Swansea 3) saw the “South Wales News” go into rapsodies. "No one was prepared for the greatness of the All Blacks at Swansea” its critic prefaced his review. The team went on to beat Wales, 19-0, France, 30-6, and with only 14 men

after the first three minutes, to beat England. 17-11. Although “the Invincibles” piled on infinitely more points against the English County teams and won far more convincingly than the 1953 team, too much should not perhaps be read into this. Much amalgamation has occurred since 1924. and of the 15 counties encountered by Porter's men not one remained as a separate entity on the 1953 itinerary.

Which of “the Invincibles" merits the term "great"? Cooke? Without a doubt Nepia? Most assuredly. Although Mark Nicholls was dropped for three tests in South Africa in 1928 and on the other occasions he was the tactical pivot of the 1924 backs and on his day a superb tactician. J. H. Parker, the rocket-like High School Old Boys wing forward must come pretty close. He scored five tries against North Midlands and was good enough to get the nod for the big matches over the highly accomplished Porter.

The term '"great" has been applied to Maurico Brownlie and perhaps he was, although I have been told by those who should know that as a player he was inclined to be selffish. All the rest were good, several very good indeed. There were two first-ciass halves in Mill and Dailey, a battering ram of a wing with plenty of speed in Jack Steel, an iron man in the forwards in Irvine (he played in 27 matches) and the nippy and dependable Neil McGregor. I have vivid memories of little McGregor emerging from obscurity and playing himself in with a slashing display Ln the Lancaster Park trial nearly 40 years ago. With all the devices that are said to inhibit modern back play, would the 1984 back line function nowadays with its machine-like efficiency? Would A. E. Cooke twinkle with hs former comet-like brilliance? However, history may assess “The Tnvincibles,” from the initial welcome by the Mayor of Plymouth to the presentation of a loving cup by the Mayor of Vancouver, it was an epic tour and aptly summed up In Pember Reeves’s poem as “The journey without defeat.”