Phil Wilkins has been asked to rank his top five Australia v New Zealand matches in the countdown to the first 2008 Bledisloe Cup game, on July 26. His fifth-best clash will feature next Saturday. Today he discusses the history of the rivalry.
There has always been something wonderfully sinister about New Zealand's rugby uniform, something grim, something to gnaw at the innards of sporting nations around the world.
It is an ensemble to appeal to an organisation such as the International Grave Diggers Corporation, sheer black with an arching silver fern woven over the heart, white collar, ringed socks. Two years after Federation, Australia played New Zealand in the trans-Tasman nations' first rugby Test, Australia having become the sixth international rugby-playing nation in 1899. The game took place at the Sydney Cricket Ground on August 15, 1903.
England and Scotland waged the game's first international in 1871, and Australia joined the international fray against Britain in 1899. In 1903, Australia went down to New Zealand, three tries to nil and 22-3, but inevitably, given the witches' brew concocted in more than a century of rugby between wartime allies and peacetime sporting foes, the Australians took a knife thrust to the ribs when New Zealand's centre, Dick McGregor, seized a loose ball and, despite appearing to step into touch, had his try awarded with the touch judge ruling in McGregor's favour and the Australians holding back from tackling him.
It was a genuinely representative Australian team, four players coming from Queensland, despite the sky blue uniform of New South Wales rather than the national gold and green of modern rugby.
Research for this project focused on books and newspaper files, but, above all, it centred on material from Men in Black, the greatest treasure trove of rugby Test history, a Moa Publication by Rod H. Chester and Neville A.C. McMillan, a rugby man's bible ever since its first publication in 1978. Former New Zealand captain and tower of international rugby society, Sir Wilson Whineray, recalled the origins of the game in his foreword to the book, recounting how the Roman invaders brought it to England in far different form to today's game.
As early as 1175, the History of London records, a game called Foot-balle, an all-in wrestling game between young men and old was played in England, a sport that became known as the Town Game, with up to 200 townsmen engaging in duels of local honour against a neighbouring village. The game went on for hours and days, many casualties occurring. Research failed to reveal the fatality count, the Times of London being blase enough to neglect the issue.
Carrying the ball and scrumming were integral parts of the Roman game, but it was not until the early years of the 19th century that the game entered public schools. From Rugby School, William Webb Ellis was decreed the first player brave enough to carry the ball beneath his arm and charge forward into a frothing mass of students.
Previously, the practice was to kick the ball upon confrontation by a wall of men for a rival to catch it, claim a mark and return it into the midst of the opposition. This procedure carried on until one side propelled the ball sufficiently near the goal line where the biggest and brawniest ball-carrier was driven in a massive scrum over the line for a try - a forerunner to Lars Hedberg and NSW Country's "flying wedge" tactic.
Having done all the hard work, the try scorer was rewarded with nothing but the right to "try for a goal", i.e. the privilege to kick between the posts.
One member of that first New Zealand team against Australia was the winger, Duncan McGregor, a replacement two years later for the Test against England at Crystal Palace in London. McGregor won immortality by scoring four of New Zealand's five tries in the 15-0 win.
Australia's second Test against New Zealand was played in wind and pouring rain in 1905 at Tahuna Park, Dunedin, in effect a Second XV game as New Zealand's finest were in Great Britain. Again, there was no joy for the Australians. Their weakened opposition won 14-3. On the wing in Australia's back line in 1907 was the Immortal H.H. "Dally" Messenger in the last of his two years of first-class rugby before switching to rugby league. In this Test, Messenger displayed his tremendous pace by scoring Australia's only try as well as converting it.
Australia's first win over New Zealand came on June 27, 1910, at the SCG, the home forwards dominating the scrum and lineout, and winger Bert Gilbert showing the All Blacks a clean pair of heels for two tries in the 11-0 success. Almost two decades passed, with World War I carving its swath of horror across Europe, before Australia enjoyed a significant golden era, starting in 1929 - the first of the five greatest Tests.
