As the NZ All Blacks
and Australian Wallabies depart our shores, readers may be amused by letters
unearthed during research into the ‘Rugby Remembers’ project to create a
memorial to the WW1 fallen of Rosslyn Park.
Before the Great War,
Park’s reputation and location, then in Old Deer Park,
Richmond
made it a magnet for sporting talent from what was still referred to as the
Empire or Dominion, before Commonwealth became more acceptable. On our Roll of
Honour are two prominent Aussies: ‘Syd’ Burdekin came from a noted
political dynasty in Sydney, after which hotels, rivers and even battleships
are named; George Eric Fairbairn won a silver rowing medal for Great Britain
at the 1908 Olympics; Before the 1947 Nationality Act, Australians were still
considered British citizens, which is why this Cambridge Blue rowed for us.
(Matt Giteau, you were born too late, mate).
Then as now, these
itinerant Antipodeans were completing their educations or professional
training at Universities or hospitals in England, there presumably being
little access to higher education in their native lands (arguably no longer
the case, although London still seems a big draw for those on walkabout…).
As ever the directness of their views on
England
is refreshing. The ‘Full Back’ column of the esteemed ‘Otago Witness’ of December 1908 carried this letter from Kiwi Alan
A Adams, a London Hospital doctor, who also played for Park (back right in the
1912-13 team photo):
“I have been here (
London
Hospital
) for a few months now and have seen a fair amount of English (rugby)
football, but have not been greatly impressed. Things are very slack in the
Rugby
world, and the best matches get very few spectators. Matches are generally
fixed to start at 3pm, but the majority of players turn up late, with the
result that you very seldom get a start before 3.30 and then play spells of
about 30 minutes each. Very little practice is indulged in and a scrum is
never formed from one week’s end to another, so that a player unaccustomed
to the formation here has to spend weeks trying to find a place to pack into.
The club football is
very poor, and I have not seen a team here yet, county or club, which the
Otago and
Sydney
Universities
of 1906 or 1907 would not have beat quite easily.
London
Hospital
have won all their matches to date and easily defeated
Cambridge
University
by 29 points to 5. Neither team was at full strength, McLeod the University
crack, being absent, as was MacPherson (late of
Dunedin
) from the Hospital side.
Cambridge
are very weak. Chapman, the old
Otago
University
forward is about their best, and although they seem to think a lot of him
here, he is not up to interprovincial form by a long way. Mehaffey, another
Otago man, is one of the best forwards here, and should get his English cap…
The Hospital team
includes eight ex-Otago ‘Varsity players….Heale at outside half probably
the best in London in the position…Palmer, the best back for London vs
Australians.…amongst other New Zealanders here (at Guy’s) O’Kane played
one match for
Rosslyn
Park
, but has been laid up since.”
Their rugby talent
cannot be denied: against Blackheath in 1909, five London Hospital Kiwis –
Adams, Mehaffey, Macpherson, Macfarlane and Moore – all turned out for
Rosslyn
Park
. Thankfully, they came to study and play, not to die, and none of their names
appear on our Roll of Honour. (One RH O’Kane does appear in the War Graves
list, although curiously he fought under the alias of Sloan – why, you ask,
would a Kiwi need an alibi?)
The
Rugby History Society