When All Blacks Went on a Picnic Tour

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 175, 9 July 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

When All Blacks Went on a Picnic Tour

Trip to Pacific Coast in 1913 Matches Against Californian Universities

(By '

“Magpie.”)

At the commencement of the present century there arose in America an outcry against the brutality of American football. Each winter had provided an increasingly lengthy list of players who had literally “died with their boots on” through play, ng the game, while the list of players injured ran into hundreds.

The Californian Universities, however, were very keen on their own brand of football, and the yearly list of killed and injured continued to grow as did the public outcry against the game. Eventually, a Rugby coach was imported by two of the Universities, and the Eugby Unions of New Zealand and New South Wales, recognising the possibilities of the Eugby game, as we know it, taking a hold in the land of Uncle Sam, did much to foster the eagerness of the University players. By 1910 it was considered that the game was sufficiently advanced over there to invite a representative team from the Combined Universities to tour New South Wales and New Zealand, and they duly arrived in Sydney in the winter of that year, just at the time when Ned Parata was there with his first Maori team.

The Americans were soon proved to be far from proficient in the finer points of the game, with the exception of tackling, and opposing players rarely allowed themselves more than one opportunity of sampling the American idea of collaring.

Eight games were played in New South Wales, and the Americans won one, drew one, and lost six. Ineluded in the six losses were two games with the Maoris. There were no heavy defeats, however, and, moreover, right from the first game the visitors showed continued improvement.

Coming across to New Zealand they met in turn Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Wanganui and Auckland. The game was strong in New Zealand at that period, and the University men were up against solid opposition. However, they continued to show improvement, and after losing the first four games they wound up by effecting a draw with Auekland—l3 points each.

I was present at the game against Wanganui, played in Cook’s Gardens, and the river city men at that period were rightly or wrongly credited with favouring a game of the “all in” type, and cc tainly it was popular with t .mericans that day. Any encoin ..gement they wanted was forthcoming, and for periods the ball was but a secondary consideration.

The American tackling was terrific, and a player caught in possession very often stayed “put.”

In 1913 New Zealand returned the visit, twenty-three players being sent to the Pacific Coast under the captaincy of Alex McDonald, present-day All Black selector. The players were: A. J. McGregor (Auckland), Geo. Loveridge, Dick Eoberts, Jack Stohr (Taranaki), Frank Mitchinson, Pete McKenzie, Teddy Eoberts (Wellington), “Doddy” Gray, H. M. Taylor (Canterbury), Tom Lynch (South Canterbury), Jock Cuthill (Otago); forwards, Alex Bruce, “Doolin” Downing, George Sellars, J. T. Wylie (Auckland), Mick Cain, “Norky” Dewar (Taranaki), H. V. Murray (Canterbury), J. Douglas, Jack Graham, Alex McDonald, P. Williams (Otago), and H. Atkinson (West Coast). Arriving in San Francisco the All Blacks lost no time in settling down to training in anticipation of some hard games. The Olympic Club were met in the first game, New Zealand winning by 19 to 0, and then California University was routed by 31 to 0.

By this time the team were aware that the opposition to be met was nothing great, and training of a serious nature was promptly discarded, and instead, every moment was devoted to sightseeing.

The team went from victory to

victory, the scores against Stanford University in successive games being 54 and 56 to 0, and All California Universities were defeated by 51 to 3. In every game played it was the custom of the Universities to have as many

reserves ready for action as there were players on the field, and the University coach, if he thought

one of the players was not shaping too well, would replace him with one from the reserve list. Sometimes as many as ten changes were made in a game.

Going on up to Vancouver the New Zealanders won the three games played and then returned to Auckland. The players got no allowance, as is usual with teams on tour, and at times many were hard put t' raise a jingle in their pockets. One of the team early solved the currency problem, however, by constituting himself valet to one of the players who was well provided with spending power, and although the amateur batman earned the enmity of every bell boy in each hotel at which the team stayed, the tips earned daily kept him in comparative affluence. Al igether sixteen games were played on the tour, every one being won, points scored for totalling 610, against 6. Every player in the team scored at least one try, while Tom Lynch bagged 16 and Dick Eoberts and “Doog” McGregor registered 15 apiece. J. T. Wylie, the Auckland forward, accepted a coaching appointment with Stanford University and stayed over there, but the game has not since flourished as it was expected to.

Possibly also, never will a New Zealand team again indulge in a tour de luxe, a tour without the attendant worries of daily training.