15: Scotland the waive
If one thing marred the achievements of the Invincibles, it was the attitude of the Scottish Rugby Union in refusing to have anything to do with the side.
Their stance denied Cliff Porter's men the chance of a Grand Slam, which wasn't achieved until 1978. Fittingly, Scotland was the final cog in Graham Mourie's side's Grand Slam achievement.
Not only did Scotland miss out on the chance to lower the All Blacks colours, something they still haven't managed in their 32 games across 120 years, but their officials denied the Scottish public a chance to see their well-regarded side attempt to stop the tourists.
Popular myth has it that it was because of the 1905-06 All Blacks being paid an allowance of three shillings a day while on tour. That was tantamount to professionalism to the Scots. Never mind that the British side that toured New Zealand a year earlier had been paid a similar fee. After the All Blacks and Springboks tour a year later, details were published in England, Scotland was aghast at the individual payments given to the sides' players. They believed they ran in the face of the principles of amateurism. It was enough for Scotland to deny players participation in what became the Anglo-Welsh side that toured New Zealand in 1908. For the record, those players also received a daily allowance.
There were also claims that in 1924, the Scots still harboured a grudge for their monumental cock-up in not wanting to share the gate of the 1905-06 game, the first Test of the Originals tour. The All Blacks asked for a 500-pound guarantee from that game. Scotland refused and offered a 200-pound payment. New Zealand declined, and the result was that New Zealand played without a guarantee but would get the gate money minus Scotland's expenses. Their profit was between 1500-2000 pounds. Scotland never forgave them for that, yet it was their fault.[1]
The Springboks of 1906-07 fared no better. Scotland failed to learn their lesson and similarly offered South Africa the gate, minus expenses, again. Australia were ignored by Scots, and Irish, authorities in 1908-09.
Scotland did have form in assuming a role as the guardian of 'austere amateurism'. Only one game was played in Scotland by the 1888 New Zealand Native team. In 1893, Scotland broke off relations with Wales after the famous Wales centre Arthur Gould was presented with a house upon his retirement. The Wales-Scotland game was not played for two years.
France was also given the cold shoulder. Scotland didn't play France for several years because some of the Frenchmen were 'too rough'.
Speaking of rough, in writing about the issue Australian journalist John Hughes asked if any readers of The Referee [Sydney], for whom he wrote, remembered the captain of the 1904 British team David 'Darkie' Bedell-Sivright and the way he played, and the less than gentle ways of the average Scottish forward? The humour, and the irony, was among the richest in Rugby history.[2]
Bedell-Sivright once described his approach.
When I go on to the field I only see the ball. Wherever it goes, I go too, and if someone gets in my way that is his look-out.[3]
Earlier in 1924, Scotland had an issue with one of its Test players, Neil McPherson, who played for Newport. The Welsh club was unbeaten in 1923-24. In recognition of the feat, McPherson and each player were gifted a gold watch worth 21 pounds. Scotland asked him to return it to the club.
A Welsh rugby authority said there was no weak spot in Newport's position.
Never was anything more free from the spirit of professionalism. No promise was held out to the players – they expected nothing, and really very few people thought they would 'go through.' But when the season was over and they were undefeated, there was a spontaneous desire on the part of the town to give to each player a gift which would be a souvenir of a very remarkable achievement. It was a town movement, and it was not undertaken till the club and the Welsh Union had been consulted. Everything was open, and I know that the whole thing was run squarely. Over 2600 people contributed to the fund – a wonderful tribute – and everything was done on strict amateur lines.[4]
The Athletic New' got into that debate.
Such gifts are quite legitimate provided they are sanctioned by the union, and in this case the Welsh Union had no hesitation in expressing their approval of a testimonial to make a highly meritorious achievement. To put a barrier against such a gift is to carry amateurism to ridiculous extremes. Are we to assume that the Scottish Union regard the secretary of the International Board and Cyril Rutherford, of the French Federation, as having transgressed the amateur rules because they accepted the touch-judge flags they used at the Centenary match? Was that the reason why Mr Rutherford presented his flag to the school? Then, what about the caps that are given for international matches? They are as much a mark of 'a special occasion' as the watches were, and as the flags were. In a word, the Scottish authorities would appear to have taken up an absolutely untenable position.[5]
Even while the All Blacks tour was underway in 1924, attempts were made to force late changes on the touring programme, but the Scottish Union would have nothing to do with those who tried to secure games.
What was more disappointing was that many sides, as continues in all All Blacks teams, had family connections north of Hadrian's Wall, not least captain Cliff Porter, who was born in Scotland. Eighteen of the 1924-25 All Blacks were of Scots descent.[6]
But the New Zealanders had a more extraordinary claim to a grudge, given the disdain with which Scotland treated the 1905-06 Originals. No one met them when they arrived in Edinburgh. No one helped them prepare. Knowing there was going to be a frost on the night before the game, the Scots ignored their usual policy of spreading hay on the ground to protect it, and they refused to award Test caps to their players. They did not allow the All Blacks to check the match ball before the game, as was required, and when they did see it, as it was about to be kicked off in the Test, it was misshapen and old. Scotland also denied their players the chance to swap jerseys afterwards. Then there was the discourtesy of not even staging a post-match dinner. Well, they did have a dinner, but only the Scots were invited. Presumably, the dinner cost was part of the expenses they asked out of New Zealand's share of the gate. It was disgraceful conduct.
The attitude towards amateurism continued when New Zealand and Australia combined their administrative talents to create a Rugby World Cup in 1987. Scotland was one of the last hold-out countries. One administrator said a World Cup would happen 'over his dead body'. When the great Australian player and administrator Nick Shehadie, who along with New Zealand's Dick Littlejohn led the World Cup charge, happened to be sitting behind the said Scottish administrator at a World Cup game in Scotland in 1991, he reached over and grabbed the Scotsman by the arm. When the said administrator asked Shehadie why he had one that, the Australian said he was checking if he was 'alive'.
However, the real issue in 1924 was that the All Blacks had not been invited to tour by the International Board, as had been earlier agreed by the Home Nations, at Scotland's request. England, The Rugby Union, issued the invitation without consulting Scotland.
Australian John Hughes said that New Zealand's representative to the International Board, C.W. Wray, told him the matter had been put to the International Board and was hardly even considered.
It wasn't thought sufficiently important to warrant being entered by the secretary of the International Board in his minutes![7]
Scotland then got its way, passing a resolution that 'it is advisable, in all future proposals for visits of Colonial teams, the invitation should come from the International Board.'
Hughes was livid that such language was used.
You will doubtless notice the pathetic adherences of these Rugby 'Diehards' to the good old word 'Colonial'. It's use, after all that has happened since 1914, is typical of the mentality of these people who still regard Australia and New Zealand as Crown Colonies, and who deal with them on that basis. This, in a nutshell, is the inner history of the latest Scottish boycott. It has greatly incensed all Rugby followers here, especially the English Rugby Union [sic].[8]
Critics rounded on the Scottish Rugby Union:
Touch Judge, in Sporting Life said:
One rather grieves for the mentality of a governing authority that has such little inspiration, that is apparently unconcerned with the development of the game in these isles as well as Overseas, and that will go, so far as to offer a studied insult-for, after all, it amounts to this-to a band of sportsmen who, at a critical period in the history of the world, fought gallantly shoulder to shoulder not only with their English, Irish, and Welsh comrades, but with that heroic band of Scottish Rugby players, so many of whom 'passed beyond.'[9]
Yet, he pointed out, their attitude towards international qualification was so loose that they played men in their Test side who had never been associated with Scottish rugby. One of them was New Zealand Rhodes Scholar George Aitken, the centre who captained the All Blacks in the first two Tests of the 1921 series against South Africa. However, they put him through the hoops in clearing him of any hint of professionalism before he was chosen.
In a letter to the editor of the Glasgow Herald, one reader commented:
As one who had the good fortune to witness the New Zealand v Ulster match last Wednesday, I can assure my countrymen that they are being forced by the super self-righteousness of our Rugby Union officials to miss seeing a really great combination. Our haughty Union will not take the public into their confidence, forgetting that the Rugby public is largely composed of ex-players...Incidentally many members of the Scottish Union will view the greatest match of the year at Twickenham [England vs the All Blacks] – ostensibly to see the English team – travelling there at the expense of the gate-paying public, whose opinion and comfort they reck so little of.[10]
NZRU management committee member T.A. Fletcher wrote to the editor of an English paper and said if it was professionalism of the All Blacks that was on SRU minds, that was a direct insult to New Zealand rugby.
Since the visit of the All Blacks [1905-06] the Great War has happened. New Zealand gave of her best, and thousands of the very best of her manhood went across the seas. In their holiday leave, they penetrated north, south, east, and west. The people at Home treated them right royally and welcomed them everywhere. And yet, if the average New Zealand 'digger' were asked what part of Great Britain he enjoyed best, three out of every four would give the verdict to Scotland. The hospitality of the Scottish people during the war was overwhelming. Can we believe that in the short space of five years such a radical change has taken place that the Scottish people do not want to see the New Zealanders again when they come as footballers?[11]
Scotland's attitude reached the point where the Scottish Cricket Union asked to arrange matches in Scotland for the All Blacks to be hosted by the Carlton Cricket Club in Edinburgh. Carlton representatives had been in touch with the All Blacks, who were keen to play in Scotland, either against a Scottish side or even an English team. It was intended that two games would be played, one in Edinburgh for the Carlton Club and the other in Glasgow to boost the funds of the Scottish Cricket Union.
To a letter seeking the approval of the SRU, its secretary a Mr Cairns, replied,
My committee cannot agree to the proposal.[12]
[1] John Hughes, Australian journalist, The Referee, date unknown.
[2] John Hughes, The Referee, undated. John Hughes was a Sydney and New South Wales representative who was later based in England.
[3] David 'Darkie' Bedell-Sivright, quoted in Behind the Thistle: Playing for Scotland, David Barnes, Peter Burns, Polaris, Edinburgh, 2010
[4] Evening Post, 5 January 1924
[5] ibid
[6] Stan Dean, speech to the Swansea Caledonian Banquet, Cambria Daily Leader
[7] Hughes ibid
[8] Ibid
[9] Touch Judge, Sporting Life, 11 November 1924
[10] Letter to Glasgow Herald, 11 November 1924
[11] T.A. Fletcher, letter published in The Evening Post, 7 June 1924
[12] Correspondent, Manchester Guardian, 6 November 1924