Rugby in the New Zealand Life

Cue (NZERS), Issue 19, 15 March 1945, Page 29

Rugby in the New Zealand Life

TWENTY years ago a party of New 1•• Zealanders returned to their homeland as conquering heroes. For six months their exploits had thrilled their countrymen. In nearly every home their photographs were pinned. Almost every small boy could recite their names and deeds. They had achieved fame, not just for the moment, but for decades to- come. They were the 1924-25 All Blacks, and they had improved upon the record of their famous predecessors— 1905 team. They had won every match on their tour of Britain —28 games in which.they had scored 654 points with only 89 recorded against them. In just over 50 years of Rugby, New Zealand had learned enough to defeat the best teams the originators of the game could produce. For a country of only a million and a-half people, it was a remarkable achievement. A football first made its appearance in New Zealand in 1868, and about that year the first games took place. It could not be called Rugby football, because it was really a combination of wo codes, Soccer and Rugby, and with special miles drawn up to suit each Particular match. The late ’W. L. ' ees » a prominent Wellington solicitor, was responsible for the game being n? the ca P ital - In 1868, he in ua « v captained an Auckland team 77 a ß’ a inst a sailor fifteen from 11171 HarbX” 0 ’ then lying in Auckland Harbour.

° ar^v ’seventies the game beton C ' g i l unto its stride. In Wcllingh ’J 11 I? 71, a team from the WclMth v A? otball club played a draw stahnin' 1 ' Gen from the Armed Con- ‘ D. in 1872, an Auckland team

played a side from the Thames Goldfields, the result also being a draw. The game began to spread rapidly, being received with great enthusiasm in Taranaki and Otago. Old boys of English public schools in Canterbury offered their services as coaches, and Rugby became firmly established there. Schoolboys adopted the game and •Maoris played it enthusiastically. By 1875, provincial teams were going on tour, and Rugby had been adopted as the national sport.

But the game of those days was vastly different from Rugby football as New Zealanders know it today. Improvements, however, were gradually introduced which opened up and brightened the game considerably. For instance, Canterbury brought in the short, well-judged kick to touch, Otago and Auckland 1 produced speedy backs and passing tactics, and Wellington gave the game a big lift by introducing fast, open forward play. Rugby Unions came into being all over the country, and the game became highly organised.

In 1882, the first overseas team to tour New Zealand arrived to put the New Zealanders to the test. They were the New South Wales representatives led by E. Roper and although they were a good side they lost more games than they won. New Zealanders began to feel that they had reached a high standard of play when, in 1884, they toured New (South Wales and won all ten matches, scoring 167 points compared with 17 scored by their opponents. New Zealand learnt a great deal about the game when an English side toured the Dominion in 1888. The tourists won thirteen of the nineteen

games played, lost two, and four were drawn. The scores were usually fairly close, and at no time were the New Zealanders sadly outclassed. This was gratifying in itself, but what pleased the Rugby enthusiasts most was that the tourists were able to teach them many new points which greatly improved the game.

Prior to this tour it was believed in New Zealand to* be illegal to heel the ball out of a scrummage. The Englishmen convinced them that it was legitimate, and before the tour was very old, New Zealand forwards were quite expert at heeling. The tourists also taught New Zealanders the value of combined passing rushes which had a definite purpose and also the value of the cross-kick. . These and other fine points learned from the Englishmen improved the game considerably both from the players’ and spectators’ point of view.

It was this tour, too, which started the visits of New Zealand teams to Britain.

A proposal to send a Maori team to England in time for the 1889 season was enthusiastically adopted, and twenty-six players were chosen for the tour. The original idea of sending away a Maori team was amended to allow of the selection of players who had. been born in New Zealand. The tourists did not constitute anything like a New Zealand representative side, but they had a fairly satisfactory record in England. They played 74 matches, won 49, lost 20, and drew five.

Matches between New Zealand and New South Wales took place in 1893, 1894, 1897, 1901, and 1903, and in these the New Zealanders were definitely superior. The 1903 New Zealand side

was an outstanding one, and was regarded by critics of the. day as superior to that which toured Britain in 1905. It consisted of R. McGregor, A. Asher, H. Kiernan, D. Gallaher, G> Tyler, G. W. Nicholson, P. Long (Auckland), W. J. Wallace, J. Spencer (Wellington) /L. Armstrong, D. Udy, A. McMinn (Wairarapa), A. Humphries (Taranaki), D. McGregor, M. E. Wood, R. J. Cooke, B. Fanning (Canterbury)-, .1. Duncan (Captain), J. <S talker, H. G. Porteous, F. Given (Otago), and J. W. Stead ((Southland).

In 1904, a strong British side toured New Zealand after having won all the games it played in Australia. Britain opened the tour in the 'South Island where it defeated a combined Canter-bury-South Canterbury-West Coast team by five points to three, andOtagoSouthland by fourteen points to eight. The whole country was following the progress of the visitors with keen attention for it was felt that if New Zealand could defeat the British side it would be firmly established in the Rugby world. The test match took place at Athletic Park, Wellington, and New Zealand won by nine points to three. The British side played a draw against Taranaki-Manawatu, and then was soundly beaten by Auckland by thirteen points to nil. The • whole country seethed with excitement and satisfaction, and steps were immediately taken to send a strong team to Britain.

On July 30, 1905, the Rlmutaßa left Wellington with the original * Blacks, a side that was to cause « sensation in the British sporting ' and to be remembered for years come as an outstanding combination. The New Zealanders won eveij *

cent one—the historic test match against Wales—and scored 868 points, Th only 44 points recorded against them The most prolific scorers on the tnnr were W. J. Wallace (227 points), j Hunter (123), G. W. .Smith (57), R. G Deans (51), D. McGregor (48), H. Abbott (44), F. Roberts (36), H. J.

Mynott (33), and F. T. Glasgow (32). The 1905 All Blacks established a remarkable reputation as a team and at the same time did much to advertise New Zealand in Britain. Not until 1924 was their record threatened with eclipse—but the story of that tour will be told in the next issue of CUE.