29: 'An extraordinary transformation'
The All Blacks conquer London
If it was the 18th game of the tour before the All Blacks played in London, they treated the occasion as significant and turned on their best for any doubting Thomases, and there were plenty.
'Originals' fullback E.E. Booth used the theatre as an analogy for the game against London Counties at Twickenham. The All Blacks showed that rugby was little different to the theatre, where the cast must rehearse and rehearse again to succeed.
To Booth's mind, the failure of the London side to play a mid-week match as practice ahead of meeting the All Blacks was costly. It appeared the players' inability to take time from work was the reason. But Booth said, it was seen in Sydney when the home team beat the All Blacks, the New South Wales side had made preparations, and on the tour, Newport was one side that spent time together with good results.
But the London side, all excellent players individually and well-built physically, showed no cohesion born of familiarity with the play of each other. It was 'a rabble against a well-trained army' and an example of why sporting achieving in England had declined. It was frowned upon to specialise in Britain, and the results showed it.
The much smaller populated dominions come along in all branches of sport almost, and wallop their old Daddy, John Bull.[1]
That British attitude was evident in the media before the game.
Col. Trevor Philip told his Daily Telegraph readers that the All Blacks would be opposed by 'more football brains' than they had faced on tour. But he admitted the tourists were not without their brains, and they would need them. Physical excellence would not decide the game; ingenuity of attack would suffice.
Jack Steel makes a tackle against London Counties at Twickenham. (NZ Rugby Museum)
By halftime, when the All Blacks led 10-6, Philp said there was a feeling among spectators that the All Blacks were not all they were cracked up to be.
But the All Blacks had prepared. As Mark Nicholls noted,
When the English captain W.W. Wakefield, now a promising member of the House of Commons, saw us play at Devonport [in the opening tour game against Devon] he did not consider us very formidable, and really thought the London Counties would be equal to defeating us. Although we had played seventeen sides (Ireland being one) and had beaten them all, and though we had registered 404 points with only 42 against us, our opponents were the favourites. Tommy Lawton, the Australian, who was then considered to be the best stand-off half in the United Kingdom, was playing, and with him in the backs was Hamilton Wicks, also a 'star'. W.W. Wakefield had charge of the team and Cove-Smith, another international, was in the pack.
Wakefield had a last-minute change of mind about his side. Having seen the surface was slightly damp. he opted to play Scottish international R.K. Millar instead of J.C. Gibbs, a player Nicholls rated as the fastest man he had ever seen on a rugby field. He wondered how many captains in New Zealand might ever have that option. However, by the end of the game, Wakefield could claim some justification for his choice.
The All Blacks went into the game with a change in tactics. No longer would they attempt to attack from anywhere. The backs would kick over their opponents' heads to prevent them from standing to the All Blacks' passing rushes while also studying the London Counties' strengths and weaknesses.
The plan was a great success. We did not think we were taking any risks, for by this time the team had developed a great combination. At half-time, we were leading by ten points to six, and although our forwards had been kept well up to the mark by Wakefield and his merry men, the backs had not been in any way extended.[2]
It was an up and under that resulted in the first try of the game. London Counties failed to cover the ball and Morrie Brownlie took it to score.
Soon afterwards Wakefield led a great dribbling rush into our territory and I was fortunate enough to stop it, but as soon as I had done so Wakefield, putting his hand on my shoulder as I was lying on the ground, instructed his packmen: 'Get it back.' And out it went to Guthrie to Lawton, to Richardson, to Aslett, to Millar, who had a clear run in. Richardson failed to convert. This was a perfect try, for with one of the defending backs in the ruck, it was a matter of quick and accurate passing to outwit the fullback, and should be a try every time.[3]
Millar was in for another try within 10 minutes, but the All Blacks' confidence was unbowed.
Working down to their twenty-five by line-kicking and fine foot rushes by the forwards, we at last got a lineout about ten yards from their line. Brownlie got possession and, brushing off a couple of opponents, ran across to score behind the posts, which made the conversion simple.[4]
The All Blacks led 10-6 at halftime, the agreed time they had planned to change their tactics to attack more. What happened almost defied belief in British eyes. The Sporting Life said the second half was a period most would hope to forget quickly. An 'extraordinary transformation' came over the game. From a team that, in the first half, competed effectively against the tourists, the locals were suddenly demoralised and incompetent.
The whole thing was incomprehensible, even mysterious. The London team for forty minutes was a representative side that in every way justified the confidence of its selectors. For the remaining similar period of time one wondered what could have possessed those self-same selectors to base their hopes on so feeble an instrument Within two minutes from the commencement of the second half, Cooke gained the most glorious try imaginable, and then in regular and monotonous succession other scoring efforts came from Parker, Richardson, Cooke and Parker, in the order named, and the rout of London was complete and overwhelming.[5]
At the break, Nicholls asked skipper Jock Richardson for Parker to be played on the wing and that they play two centres with Snowy Svenson moving infield.
From the very first scrum I presented Richardson [London] with the first 'dummy' of the game, and ran through to the fullback, where 'Cookie' arrived to score close to the posts. A couple of minutes later we scored again. The ball came off the end of a lineout to me and, running forward in the direction from which the ball came, I got through but was held by one leg. Cooke came through and running to the fullback, passed to Parker, who having shown fine anticipation, scored close to the posts. Then Richardson, White and McGregor figured in a fine dash down the touchline, Richardson scoring.
By this time, the defence was completely bewildered and didn't know what was going to happen next. After a delightful piece of play Cookie ran over for his second try.[6]
After a lull in scoring, London's first five-eighths A.T. Lawton kicked towards Parker on the left wing. Parker ran up and took the ball, then raced between the centre and wing and looked to carry play to the distant goal line. Fullback H.W.F. Franklin came across in defence. Parker moved toward him, but then, as Franklin set for the tackle, Parker swerved out from him and scored.
The crowd were spellbound at Parker's pace. Here was a forward clearing out from the whole field and running rings round their classy fullback. It was a fitting climax to the second spell of the game.[7]
Cooke was regarded as the outstanding back, although chased close by Parker and first five-eighths Neil McGregor. The strategic selection die was cast for the remainder of the tour with McGregor, Nicholls and Cooke the preferred midfield selection. But among the forwards, Maurice Brownlie, Read Masters and Richardson highlighted the All Blacks' dominance. Sporting Life said they were brilliant and their speed, for their size, was amazing.
Brownlie, in fact, gave a display such as one would expect from a Charles Seeling or a Wakefield, when the English leader is his own brilliant self.[8]
Booth said the quality of play was 'as nearly perfect as it is humanly possible to play Rugby against good opposition…it was the greatest display they had given in the tour, and was fully equal to the best play of their predecessors of 1905.'
The Times observed the transition associated with the rearranged backline and how much that transformed Cooke and Nicholls, resulting from McGregor's set-ups inside.
Cooke made the writer realise, as he had never quite realised before, what a vast difference there is between the born five-eighth and the born centre. The difference is as great as that between the stand-off player and a centre. Cooke's wonderful turn of speed is almost wasted in the post of a sound man, but up alongside a man like Nicholls he is a constant menace in attack, and his speed still is of great value in defence. Those few yards make all the difference to Cooke's game and add appreciably to Nicholls' own value as a five-eighth. Up to this point Nicholls had been almost a lost soul; he now began to play a really important running part – as opposed to a kicking part – in the match, just as Cooke's own play began to eclipse everything else.[9]
For all the compliments of their play, the critics claimed the All Blacks had made obstruction a fine art, and they had a propensity for offside play. F.J. Sellicks claimed seldom had a win in a big match been received with less enthusiasm. Another publication claimed five All Blacks could have been sent off had a stronger referee been involved. One English observer of long experience wrote to the New Zealand Times in the All Blacks defence.
Now, the New Zealanders are not plaster saints, by any means, and one or two of them certainly might be – ahem! – suspected of having awkward temps, but, with an experience of Rugby teams extending back to days somewhat before Joe Warbrick brought his Māoris to England, I must confess that I entirely failed to see that [referee] Dick Lloyd failed in his duties. There were certainly decisions with which one did not agree, and there were one or two incidents in the course of play which seemed to call for 'a word in season' to certain players of both sides, but certainly nothing to justify a referee ordering anybody off the field. Tackling the man without the ball was quite a frequent diversion on both sides, but that it was intentional I do not believe. In any case, in my opinion, the All Blacks played the game just as much as their opponents, and if it comes to strenuous play – well, there were quite a number of men in the London team – not excluding their captain – who do not put on their halos when they are playing Rugger. They certainly were not wearing them on Saturday.[10]
The Sunday Express went all artistic while searching for effect to describe the win. One writer referred to Thomas Babington Macaulay's New Zealander standing on a broken arch of London Bridge sketching the ruins of St Paul's. He said, 'The New Zealanders, who appeared at Twickenham yesterday, may not have been of the breed imagined in Macaulay's prophecy, but they stood on the ruins of London all right.'[11]And a stablemate said that the Battle of Waterloo may have been won on the playing fields of Eton, but the New Zealanders' triumphs were born on the recreation plots of State and private schools and between improvised goals on country paddocks and open spaces of the cities.[12]
Scorers: London Counties 6 (R.K. Millar 2 tries) New Zealand 31 (Maurice Brownlie 2, Jim Parker 2, Bert Cooke 2, Jock Richardson tries; Mark Nicholls 5 con). HT: 6-10. Referee R.A. Lloyd, NZ touch judge, L. Simpson.
NEXT ISSUE: Warming up for Wales
[1] E.E. Booth, New Zealand Times, 22 January 1925
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
[5] The Sporting Life, 17 November 1924
[6] Nicholls ibid
[7] ibid
[8] Sporting Life, ibid
[9] The Times, 17 November 1924
[10] Special correspondent, NZ Times, 24 December 1924
[11] Scrum Half, Sunday Express, 16 November 1924
[12] Special Correspondent, Sunday Express, 16 November 1924
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