Trans-Tasman rugby lesson of 100 years ago
Why it matters
Given the often contentious rugby relationship between New Zealand and Australian administrators during the controversial reign of Hamish McLennan and Co. at Rugby Australia, it is worth reflecting on New Zealand's contribution to rugby revival across the Tasman 100 years ago.
Time has made the comments of former England Test player and Sydney University representative G.V. Portus, a Rhodes Scholar and historian, in the Sydney Mail on the occasion of the 50th Jubilee of the game in New South Wales even more significant.
After the tour by the 1924 All Blacks, which was the preliminary event to the tour of Britain, Ireland and France, they embarked on a week or two later Australia had extra cause for satisfaction. Portus summed up the worth of the tour, which resulted in a 2-1 series win for the All Blacks.
They lost the first Test 16-20. It was played only days after the side arrived from a rough sea crossing to Sydney.
Portus wrote, "One of the most gratifying recollections of this New Zealand team will be that it finally put Rugby Union in New South Wales into a state of solvency.
"Only those who have been behind the scenes know the hard struggle it has been to bring the Union game back again in this country.
"During the war, the Rugby Union code went into abeyance. And in the beginning of 1919, those who believed in amateur Rugby had a herculean task before them. A big financial deficit had to be faced, and there was at that time little prospect of public support, a lack of grounds, and a very scanty reservoir of trained players of the first class.
"In short, the whole business of re-educating the community in the Union game had to be undertaken. The Union's stock-in-trade to meet this situation consisted of debts, memories, and one other asset – an unconquerable faith in the appeal of the amateur Rugby code.
"This faith was, fortunately for us, reflected on the other side of the Tasman, where the Union game had not suffered eclipse by the League to anything like the extent it had done in N.S.W.
"The Dominion stalwarts were not, averse to a missionary effort in this country. Freely they gave us their support in this attempted revival. All the N.S.W. Union could do in 1919 was to recommence the grade competition, lay some careful foundations in junior football, and arrange for some representative games against the A.I.F. XV."
Here's a timeline of New Zealand's contribution:
+ In 1920, the All Blacks toured Australia with the NZRU paying all the tour costs.
+ In 1921, despite the fact they were funding the Springboks on their first visit to New Zealand, the NZRU allowed the South Africans to play four games in Sydney.
+ The NZRU also invited N.S.W. to send a team to New Zealand that year, knowing it might attract little attention due to the Springboks tour being on simultaneously. But the N.S.W. visit proved a big success.
+ In 1922, the All Blacks returned to Australia and lost their first Test series. The tour was a financial success for the hosts.
+ Inter-university matches between the countries returned.
+ In 1923, N.S.W. made another tour to New Zealand, again financed by the NZRU.
+ Before their 1924-25 tour, the All Blacks made their three-Test preparatory tour despite the NZRU having had extra costs associated with trial games to select the touring side, and requiring extra leave to be taken by players who could also miss the more extended tour due to injuries sustained in Australia.
+ The first Test drew a crowd of more than 25,000 to watch Australia win.
+ A few days later, the second game, against a Sydney Metropolitan side, attracted a big enough crowd for the tour expenses to be in the black.
+ The crowd for the second Test, played a week after the first, cleared Rugby Australia of all its long-term debuts, including an earlier loan it had received from the NZRU.
+ The receipts from the third Test created a profit large enough to create a base from which Rugby Australia could develop a plan for its future.
Portus said: "I have written this in order that supporters of the game may realise how much we owe to New Zealand for the Union revival in N.S.W."
It wasn't the first, and it certainly wasn't the last time, New Zealand aided Australia in getting its game in financial order, as those with shorter memories in the 1970s will recall. It will also be remembered how much benefit for Australia derived from the pre-professional trans-Tasman competition with New Zealand's top sides.
The unfortunate demands made of New Zealand by the preceding Australian administration were a blip on the radar screen of time, and it is to be hoped that as relations normalise, both countries can benefit as they have in the past.
That lesson of 100 years ago is a powerful message of the benefits of working together.