47: 'They develop and excel what we began' - English editor
As the All Blacks returned to Wellington on March 17 1925, the welcome awaiting them had only been bettered by those who met returning servicemen or royal visitors, and they were greeted with far more admiration than had been given to them when they departed.
While on the high seas, their praises were still being sung by opponents and observers.
Welsh captain Rowe Harding said of the tourists,
They had everything a side could wish for in physique, skill, and speed, and they used all of them.[1]
Another belated comment by the editor of the Observer, J.T. Garvin, said the New Zealanders won on their merits and nothing else.
We had rather that inter-Imperial sport were abolished for ever that the ill-feeling between Britain the the Dominions should remain. New Zealand is the very Benjamin of the Mother Country and the apple of her eye. We may be happily certain that the All Blacks' visit, like the Australian Test tour [cricket], will end without a cloud. How could it be in the blood of this country to be jealous of the Dominions? They are sprung from our best. They develop and excel what we began. Let England rejoice in the pace they set, and while determined to win back the laurels in the future, we can say with Simon de Montford: 'By the arm of St. James they come on in wise fashion, but 'twas I that taught them.'[2]
The players return was the occasion for unrelenting praise in newspapers up and down the country.
The Star (Christchurch)
Nowhere, when the glorious annals of sport are examined, can a record be found to equal that of the 1924-25 All Blacks. Māori teams, Springboks, Wallabies, and previous All Blacks have toured the United Kingdom [and Ireland] with hopes of coming through unbeaten, but sooner or later the enemy girded his loins and inflicted defeat. No British, South African, or Australian Rugby team visiting New Zealand has escaped the inevitable crash.
Never has an English, or Australian cricket side gone through a long tour without a setback of some kind. Warwick Armstrong's famous combination almost succeeded in avoiding defeat in 1921, but, after a wonderful series of triumphs, it lost two of the last games on the itinerary.
When the 1924-25 All Blacks sailed from Wellington on July 29, hardly a Rugby enthusiast in the Dominion dared to predict that Porter and his men would do what had never been done before...At last it came to that memorable game at Twickenham on January 3. Could the All Blacks take the last hurdle? How well they did it, and against what odds are matters of history. Today, New Zealand joins unanimously in a full-throated roar of welcome. The Rugby giants whose deeds stirred the world stand once more on their native soil.[3]
Wing forward Jim Parker had a celebrated return to Lyttelton the next day after all the fanfare concluded in the Capital. His father brought Jim Parker's dog 'Sport' down to greet the inter-island ferry, Wahine. Jim Parker gave his usual whistle as the ship got close to its mooring. 'Sport' stopped still, recognising the whistle but unable to determine where it came from. On board, Parker Jnr kept trying to have his dog see him. But it wasn't until Parker Snr could point out his owner on the boat that the dog realised who was whistling. 'Sport' then ran up and down the wharf in excitement, and when the gangway was lowered, he thrust his way through disembarking passengers until finding his master to the great delight of the watching crowd.
Invincibles back together again at a team reunion. In the foreground from left: George Nepia, Read Masters, Mark Nicholls, Lui Paewai.
Back in Invercargill, 'Son' White said the home reception was the best, but he wished to get through all the receptions and get on 'with the ordinary business of life'.
Those who have never played through a long tour cannot imagine the great mental strain imposed upon members of a team. As our unbeaten record grew it was our pride as well as our bugbear. Those selected to play would often be unable to sleep the night before a match, wondering how they were going to get on.
This was particularly noticeable in the final stages, and you cannot imagine the relief we all felt when we left the field after beating England. The tension was relaxed, and we were able to sit back and enjoy ourselves.[4]
White said the criticism the team suffered in their pre-tour of Australia was unfair because many players were not keen to exert themselves on the hard Sydney grounds ahead of their more extended tour. He was critical of English referees.
The English referees are much slower than those in New Zealand, and their rulings were often difficult for the team to follow. They would often pull the play where we could see no breach of the rules [sic]. Often [Bert] Cooke came through so fast that they were unable to understand how he got through, and they would penalise him for an infringement being satisfied in their own minds that he must have committed one somewhere in his lightning dash for the open. Of course, we met a few good referees, but the majority of them were too slow to keep up with our style of play.[5]
White inadvertently made reference to what would in future be called New Zealand's rugby DNA when noting,
The style of play adopted by the British teams tended to slow up the game, and we were all the time striving to get the ball into the open.[6]
At the same time, he warned that once a British side got into training and achieved some combination, it would be very hard to beat and would give New Zealand's best sides a thorough test.
Fullback George Nepia received a rousing welcome at Nuhaka. After meeting friends and clubmates, his first job, sadly, was to attend his grandmother's tangi. At an evening function, he received a gold medal and a cheque from the town's residents.
In a welcome home for the Otago members of the team, hooker Abe Munro spoke of the impact Nepia made in Britain, Ireland and France. Munro said while Nepia was not noticed much in their first three games, it wasn't long before his marvellous fielding of the ball from all angles, his wonderful kicking and, particularly his 'brilliant daring', made him the idol of Home fans.[7]
Halfback Jimmy Mill told a welcome home function in Gisborne that Ireland and Ulster's Ernie Crawford was the best fullback the All Blacks met on tour. While one of the older players, having played against the 1912 Springboks, he was still a classy performer.
When Crawford faces a forward rush he does not go down, but speculates, and gets away with it every time, being a first-class soccer player, and therefore good with his feet.[8]
Mill said the sides played on some 'splendid' grounds, notably those at Twickenham, St Helens (Swansea) and Belfast.
Prime Minister William Massey, in one of his final public appearances before succumbing to cancer on May 10, said,
Sometimes we talk of advertisments, but I do not think New Zealand everyhad a better advertisement than it had had lately. We sometimes grumble and say that the people on the other side of the world do not know us well enough. I know there was no schoolboy on the other side of the water who did not know of the All Blacks.[9]
Not left out of the fray of wellwishers was the selection committee chairman of the side, Ted McKenzie.
I stand by what I told you on the night of the final selection of the All Blacks, on King's Birthday last year. I said then that I considered the team chosen compared favourably with the All Blacks of 1905. This referred more particularly to the forwards. I said, in regard to the backs, that I thought the inside backs we had chosen would dispel the idea that we have no inside backs.
I consider my prophesy has been amply fulfilled.[10]
And one of the heroes of the 1905-06 tour Billy Wallace related his part in passing on the news of the victory over Wales.
One ambition of the members of the 1905 team was that this side should give Wales a good whacking. On the morning that this news was received in Wellington, I had to leave town before the result came through, and it was while motoring through Porirua that I heard the good news. Proceeding further up the line, we found various gatherings waiting for the result, and it seemed a coincidence that I should be the one to hand out the news. At each place, we cheered heartily, and I can tell you that day was one of the most enjoyable I have ever spent.[11]
Wallace acknowledged the right of the 1924-25 side to be considered among New Zealand's finest although he said all New Zealand teams were hard to beat.
It seems to me that the average footballer here is more physically fitted for football. He is able to stand up to it more, and to take more knocking about than the Home players, who appear to be of softer build. When a player like Brownlie bumps into a Home player it takes a lot out of the latter...A fault with the English teams is that they don't get combination.
The players only see one another a few hours before the match, except, of course, in the case of international teams, who do organise.[12]
A final photo as the 1924-25 All Blacks disband and set out for their homes around the country. (Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19250402-41-01)
The final word on the tour was best put by Read Masters, who produced a book of the tour. He said,
The only sad day of the tour was March 18, the day the team disbanded.[13]
FINAL ISSUE: The Players Assessed
[1] Rowe Harding, quoted in The Dominion, 18 March 1925
[2] J.T. Garvin, Observer, quoted in The Dominion, 18 March 1925
[3] The Star (Christchurch), 17 March 1925
[4] A. 'Son' White, Southland Times, 21 March 1925
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] Abe Munro, Evening Star, 26 March 1925
[8] Jimmy Mill, Poverty Bay Herald, 24 March 1925
[9] Prime Minister, William Massey, The Dominion, 18 March 1925
[10] Ted McKenzie, The Dominion, 18 March 1925
[11] Billy Wallace, Evening Post, 17 March 1925
[12] ibid
[13] Read Masters, With the All Blacks in Great Britain, France, Canada and Australia 1924-25, Christchurch Press Coy Ltd, Christchurch, 1928