RL1908.com - ARL Australian Kangaroos Rugby League

Touring With The 1908 Pioneers

Compiled by Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

"We had started the tour hoping to make about 200 pounds each as the All Blacks (All Golds) had done the previous year.

We got nothing and were lucky to get home!

The last New Zealand Test and the first Maori match followed within two days of each other - June 6 and June 8, 1908, so you can understand we were kept hopping. There was a reason - the League had decided to send the first Kangaroos to England. As we were to sail in August we were now turning almost round in circles. So was the (Rugby) Union.

It was rather funny - as soon as the 1907 breakaway loomed the Union sought "in the interest of the game" an invitation from England to visit there on a tour in 1908. England said "come", so there we were, a Kangaroos League team and a Wallabies Union team rivalling one another in the race to get there first. The amazing thing was that two such outstanding teams could be chosen from Sydney and Brisbane.

The 1908 Wallabies were triumphant from first to last. They were feted wherever they went. The 1908 Kangaroos, in contrast kicked off woefully. We fared worse and worse. Thanks to the cotton workers' strike, we plumbed the depths of financial despondency.

It took me some to wake to what was happening. Manager J.J. Giltinan was doing all kinds of Houdini tricks to save finance and was making a great fist of it. We started off playing to poor crowds, which rapidly got worse. We won three easy games, then drew with York and Salford and lost to Leigh and Dewsbury.

I found it necessary to call two or three of the backs aside and read the riot act to them as they were avoiding serving me with the ball. Pointing out the rotten publicity and gates we were getting, I asked them what was behind it. You could have floored me. I was the big noise of the All Blacks (All Golds) tour. They had their names to make, they were going to look after themselves. I very soon proved to them that, for all to pull together for the team's good, was the best way to do these things.

While snow is falling it is not very cold, but when the thaw starts, it is the depths of misery. The ground gets muddy and frozen. Then you can't feel your hands. At Oldham, where we lost 11-5, we kicked off all right. Then it started to snow. We couldn't feel any of our extremities. When we tried to pass the ball it was just like chucking a block of wood. To hit the ground sometimes was like landing on spiked granite.

That's the famous day I played with 13 boils on my knee - I had to as we were starving to death as far as gates were concerned. Placards everywhere announced "Messenger will be playing". So it was up to Dally, with 13 boils on his knee, to do the martyr act. The public was a little disappointed with my game. But none of us had much of a chance after the snow came on.

St Helens made a great fuss over us. All was going well and it seemed we could coast on for a win. But the barrackers had only been playing with us. They started to chivy the ref and we soon learnt that they had made up their minds that, Kangaroos or no Kangaroos, St Helens were going to win. They did.

Even at its best it was a calamitous tour. We played 45 games, won 18, lost 21, and drew 6. With one of the best attacking sides we could get, we scored only 561 points against 467. As I said, early on we were just a team to start off with.

There was no combination at all to speak of. And here's a tip for team builders of the future. There were too many men from the stronger clubs. There were too many men from Easts, Souths and Norths. They all clung together. We didn't get to know each other, we didn't even break down the cliques until the tour was half over. One clique wouldn't do anything very energetic to help the other.

Despite our bad start, we deserved a better result than was realised. The team got together magnificently eventually, and I have never seen a better game than we put up in the First Test at Queen's Park, London. We played in beautiful weather. We had a glorious ground and both England and Australia threw obstruction of every kind to the four winds and got down to football as it should be played.

Perhaps it was the appalling gate. The players on both sides forgot all about spotting, spoiling and hacking, and threw themselves into an unequalled display of handling, speed and thrills. That ball went up and down the field from end to end, and back again, at a dazzling rate.

In this match I staged a last minute interception in our own 25, made a strong run and sent a hard pass to Jim Devereaux, who scored a great try. The match must have looked like an exhibition. It finished up a 22 points all draw and our share of the receipts was 22 pounds. It cost us 40 pounds in fares to get there and back.

We twice played Wigan. The first game was so befogged it wasn't counted and doesn't appear in the records. Wigan beat us 10-7. We replayed the game because this was supposed to be one of our best draw cards. We drew only 7,000 to the replay and were beaten 16-8.

We had been at the Grand Central Hotel, Manchester, where the tariff was very reasonable. But without good gates from the matches, the position was serious. Mr. Giltinan dug out a vacant mansion at Southport and he engaged a staff of his own. That altered the whole atmosphere. Everyone became happy, we had two pianos, a few of the boys could rattle the ivories, and the place was a home from home, especially on cold nights.

We had started the tour hoping to make about 200 pounds each as the All Blacks (All Golds) had done the previous year. We got nothing and were lucky to get home. In fact, we had to leave several players there to get the fare back.

I had a guarantee of 500 pounds from Mr. Giltinan. I released him from the guarantee. I explained to him that if we didn't make any profits I didn't want anything. He was a gentleman to me and he made nothing out of the tour. He lost money on it.

Before we set out, I told Mr. Giltinan we took six too many players and were playing in a dozen too many matches. Other games were added in a desperate effort to boost the finances.

I am not sure of my facts here, but I think that Mr. Giltinan had to borrow a fairly large sum from the Northern Union for the return trip and ultimately finished up losing about 400 pounds on the tour. Seeing how the New Zealanders had made a profit of 6,000 pounds, this was a terrific turn of the tide.

Things were so bad the English League made a present to each player on sailing of just over 1 pound for pocket money on the voyage."

Primary source: Various issues of The Truth Newspaper