Invincibles led the way for NZ rugby

Legacy is 100 years old

Some things always stay the same in New Zealand rugby. Fans have liked to believe their players are the best in the world since 1892, and probably earlier through the unofficial tours of 1884 and 1888-89. That was especially the case after the impact of the innovative 1905-06 'Originals' on Britain, Ireland, and France.

It’s 100 years this month since an All Blacks team sailed for England carrying the weights and expectations of a young nation (some things never change) to take on the best England, Wales, Ireland and France had to offer on the rugby field. Largely unproven, they would return unbeaten. They were the Invincibles, the greatest rugby team of their era, and many of their side ranked as the best in the game at that time. Sports historian and journalist Lynn McConnell has gone deep into the archives to assess what made this team so successful, what rugby it played and applies perspective to their deeds. In a series of articles across the next six months, he treads in the footsteps of the Invincibles in assessing their tour and looks into the characters who helped create the legacy of All Blacks rugby.

By 1924, New Zealand had come through the rigours of the First World War, with a reputation on the battlefields and rugby fields. One leading war historian, John Keegan, would later regard the New Zealand volunteer the best soldier of the 20th Century.^[1] However, time would show that a false dawn was created when the New Zealand Army team beat all and sundry to claim the King's Cup in post-war pre-repatriation contests in Britain.

The New Zealand Army team, minus its rejected players of colour, Arthur 'Ranji' Wilson and Parekura Tureia, even managed to put those pesky South Africans in their place when undertaking a tour of southern Africa while making their way home from the European conflagration.

Revealing a trait that would be unleashed time and again during the 20th Century, the canny South Africans absorbed the lessons of their 1919 games and prepared for their 1921 campaign, the first great tour of New Zealand, based on that exposure.

The view expressed by C.S. Tendall, a journalist at the New Zealand Herald who recently returned from Cambridge University, was typical of the attitude in New Zealand before the 1921 Springbok series.

When the small population of New Zealand is considered, and when it is realised that these contests comprised Test games against Britain, Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, it will, I think, be admitted even by our rivals that the Dominion has easily established her claim to have produced the finest footballers the world over.^[2]

With life settled back to something like normal after the First World War, New Zealanders had their beliefs of rugby dominance tested. That was thanks to a drawn series with the touring Springboks in 1921. One Test apiece and the last drawn without a score, New Zealand rugby found itself in an uncertain position when the Springboks sailed home.

Once the Springboks had departed, only contests with Australia, or correctly, New South Wales, were assured. Rugby league had surfaced and was a competitor, especially in Auckland. How best to prevent its spread became a preoccupation. An invitation was sent to Britain to host a representative team in New Zealand in 1924, but that was rejected when the British opted to tour South Africa.

New Zealand rugby needed different opposition to reinvigorate itself. Australia had been under league's assault since the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Rugby players across the Tasman had signed up for service, while professional players in league were less supportive, and their game continued throughout the conflict—at rugby's expense. Rugby died out in Queensland and came under a severe assault in New South Wales.

New Zealand was an ideal source to counter league's threat in Sydney, and tours became almost an annual event, both by the All Blacks and the Māori All Blacks, through the grim days of the 1920s. Tests against Australia were impossible, although Test status could have been claimed against New South Wales. New Zealand never gave the games that status despite the fact they were against the best Australia could muster.

The cover of the special 1924-25 pre-tour booklet prepared by Ron Barr, a New Zealand journalist who covered the tour for several New Zealand newspapers.

The All Blacks team that toured Australia in 1920 bridged the gap between pre and post-war by including six pre-war All Blacks, fullback Jack O'Brien, five-eighths Teddy Roberts and Jim Tilyard, halfback Charlie Brown, and forwards E.W. 'Nut' Hasell and Mick Cain. Cain was forced to withdraw before the tour. They played Auckland and Manawatu-Horowhenua before heading to Australia and were undefeated. The tour introduced some promising players to the international game – wing Jack Steel, five-eighths Ces Badeley, forwards 'Moke' Belliss, Quentin Donald, Alf West and Jim Donald.

They all featured against the Springboks and were joined by players like five-eighths Mark Nicholls and forwards Jock Richardson and Andrew 'Son' White. While the drawn series was bad enough for home fans, a loss to the touring New South Wales team by a second-string New Zealand side, of whom only White had played against the Springboks in the first Test, was catastrophic. White was dropped despite being regarded as the best New Zealand forward in that Test in Dunedin. Coach Billy Stead, who only coached the side and wasn't a selector, couldn't believe he had to prepare for the second Test without White.

The team sent to Australia in 1922 was the start of rebuilding the All Blacks. Yet, some players regarded as essential in the future made themselves unavailable, including the outstanding Otago first five-eighths Billy Fea, who was paired with Aucklander Karl Ifwersen in the five-eighths in the third Test against South Africa. Ifwersen also missed the tour due to injury. But making their first appearances for the All Blacks were Karl 'Snowy' Svenson, Maurice Brownlie, Len Cupples and Read Masters. The forwards were especially significant.

The cover of the special 1924-25 pre-tour booklet prepared by Ron Barr, a New Zealand journalist who covered the tour for several New Zealand newspapers.

Ron Barr, a New Zealand journalist from Dunedin at the time, followed the 1908 Anglo-Welsh team's tour of New Zealand. He cited 1922 as a crucial year for development, especially of modern forwards.

The modern forward is in a class apart [from earlier sides], a distinctive personality; who has a true realisation of the Rugby forward game as played today – fast, daring, as dogged, determined to a degree, and with that spirit of flair, dash 'devil' – call it what you will – which is so characteristic of the forward of 1924, and which has been so characteristic of the player since the memorable season of 1922, when a new forward was discovered who developed a high standard in modern Rugby.^[3]

Barr spoke with a former England international who was in New Zealand when the team to tour in 1924-25 was selected. The Englishman said he expected the All Blacks to win all their matches despite what doomsayers had been saying about them.

English Rugby had reached high standards, as was claimed by its media, and was considerably better than when the 1905-06 side toured. But, he said, New Zealand hadn't stood still in the meantime.

The New Zealand forward today has developed to a greater degree, attained a higher standard and is in a class by himself. He is faster, more resourceful, with rare initiative and with all the dash and 'devil' of an Irish international pack. The New Zealand forward has the pace of a New Zealand back; strong and virile with all his strength and weight, backed up by super-speed he follows up like a sprinter and tackles like a Trojan.

Yes, the modern New Zealand forward is a mighty force-brainy, and powerful as the most brawny Springbok; more dangerous than the dogged Scot, and with all the 'devil' of the Irish and Yorkshire forwards of a decade ago.^[4]

But all that was in the future when the 1922 tourists headed for Australia.

NEXT ISSUE: Rebuilding in Australia 1922

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^[1] Sir John Keegan, The First World War, Vintage Books Edition, New York, 2000. Keegan wrote, "Out of a male population of half a million, New Zealand could provide 50,000 trained soldiers aged under twenty-five. Australia furnished proportionate numbers. Fewer of the Australians were countrymen than the New Zealanders, whose settler independence and skills with the rifle and spade would win them a reputation as the best soldiers in the world during the twentieth century."

^[2] C.S. Tendall, New Zealand Herald, 26 April 1921

^[3] R.A. 'Ron' Barr, Special Souvenir, All Blacks for England,1924

^[4] ibid