Charlie Oliver had a great fall

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 36

Charlie Oliver had a great fall

New Zealanders have long regarded the Deans incident as the most flagrant injustice suffered by the All Blacks on the field of play. Bob Deans, one of the greatest of Canterbury and New Zealand centres, is remembered more for the try he was denied at Cardiff Arms Park in 1905 than for his other notable deeds.

But even more diabolical was the fate suffered by another Canterbury centre playing on the same ground against Wales 30 years later. The little known incident involved the vicecaptain of the 1935 All Blacks. Charlie Oliver, who died last week at the age

iVith four minutes of

play remaining. New Zealand led, 12-10. Then Wales started a vigorous back attack. Havdn Tanner

passed to his Swansea partner, Cliff Jones, who made a gliding run before passing to the tall centre, Wilfrid Woolier, switched from the left wing shortly before half-time. Oliver had been moved in one place to second fiveeighths in this test because the regular man, Pat Caughey (now Sir Harcourt Caughey) was out with injury. The sturdy Merivale and Canterbury man fixed Woolier firmly in his sights as he moved forward to check the attack — but he did not reach his target.

Just before Oliver made the tackle which would have snuffed out Wales’s last chance, he himself was flattened by the Welsh captain and centre, Claude Davey, coming across on the angle. Woolier ran through the

gap so created and kicked the ball high in the air, toward. the right-hand comer. The bounce eluded both Woolier and the New Zealand full-back, Mike Gilbert, but Gareth ReesJones followed through to score the winning points for Wales.

Oliver protested to the referee, Mr Cyril Gadney, of England, but to no avail. Mr Gadney was sympathetic, but said flatly he had not seen the incident and therefore could not act upon it. The one-point loss was a bitter blow to the All Blacks, who had previously beaten Scotland, 18-8, and Ireland, 17-9. But worse was to come, in the final game of the tour, against England at Twickenham. George Hart, the outstanding wing, "Joey” Sadler, the brilliant

half-back, and the admirable first five-eighths, Jack Griffiths, were all dropped and Oliver was pressed into service in spite of a troublesome leg injury. He was given injections but the effects soon wore off, and he played on with only intense determination and team loyalty to sustain him.

But this was not enough. Prince Alex Obolensky, the Russian aristocrat who was reputed to eat oysters and drink champagne before a match, scored two great first half tries in a conclusive 13-0 win by England. Years later, Charlie Oliver recalled the agony of mind he had experienced when his injured leg prevented him from getting across on cover defence.

It was to be the last of the big centre’s 33 games

for New Zealand in a career which embraced three overseas tours by the All Blacks and Canterbury representation between 1924 and 1935. He was an

outstanding back in the 19305, and this was all the more noteworthy because of the problems New Zealand had with the 3-4-1 scrum formation