New
Zealand 'Kangaroos'
Sean Fagan of RL1908.com
The
inclusion of the Warriors into the premiership
in 1995 meant that it was conceivable for players
who qualified as Australian to be called upon
by the national selectors.
However,
the likelihood of such a selection still seemed
remote given the small number of high profile
Australians signing on with the Warriors.
Since
2000 though this has changed as the Warriors signed
more Australians.
The
Queensland State of Origin team began by selecting
New Zealand based players Kevin Campion, PJ Marsh
and Steven Price.
Meanwhile, Warriors prop forward Richard Villasanti
came to the attention of Kiwi selectors as his
form improved through the 2003 season. After playing
for the Junior Kiwis in 1999, Villasanti represented
Tonga at the 2000 World Cup. With his Polynesian
background, most assumed he was a Kiwi and ineligible
for Origin football and Australia.
However,
Villasanti soon made it clear he was born in Canberra
and declared his loyalty to playing for Australia,
admitting this would also give him the opportunity
to play State of Origin for New South Wales.
In early October 2003 the ARL announced the players
selected for the Kangaroo Tour and Richard Villasanti
was included. Many in the media heralded his selection
as a first for a player in New Zealand.
Villasanti
is clearly the first Warrior to gain Australian
representative selection, however, he is actually
the sixth New Zealand based player to be included
in a Kangaroo Tour team. [Note 1]
In
1911 the 2nd Kangaroos included four players chosen
from New Zealand, while the 3rd Kangaroos had
one for their 1921 tour.
The
inclusion of players from New Zealand in the 1911/12
Kangaroos can be traced back to the tour invitation
issued by the English rugby league (Northern Union)
authorities who asked that it be an ‘Australasian'
team.
It
had been originally mooted that the Kiwis would
make their second tour to England in 1911/12.
However, the change to requesting the visit of
an ‘Australasian' side was probably the result
of the visiting 1910 English Lions encountering
little opposition outside of Sydney.
The two largest matches of the Lions tour were
matches against 'Australasia' in Sydney. The team
wore blue, maroon and black hooped jerseys and
included players from NSW, Queensland and New
Zealand. These games were extremely profitable
(50,000 attended each) and provided tough challenges
for the English team - one was a draw, the other
they lost 32-15.
The
concept of 'Australasia' was in regular use at
the time. Many workplace unions and other groups
had the term in their name.
So
the invitation was issued to the NSWRL to send
their team to England, but the side had to be
representative of 'Australasia' rather than just
Australia.
The
NSWRL arranged a triangular series for the 1911
season between NSW, Queensland and New Zealand
with a view to selecting the Kangaroos. However,
after poor performances by both the Kiwis and
the Queenslanders in the games in Sydney the concept
was abandoned.
When the Kangaroos 28-man tour party was announced
there was just one Queenslander and four New Zealanders
included in the so called ‘Australasian' team.
They
were however decked out appropriately, wearing
a sky blue NSW jersey with a large maroon "A"
on the left breast, along with black Kiwi shorts
and Queensland maroon socks. The official logo
featured the capital "A" letter imposed over a
fern and a kangaroo.
The
four players from New Zealand were forwards Arthur
Francis, George Gillett and Charlie Savory, along
with half-back Frank Woodward. Both Francis and
Gillett were very well known players in Australia,
having played for the All Blacks in Sydney and
Brisbane in Tests in 1907 - the bulk of their
opponents switched to rugby league over the following
seasons.

George Gillett - a 1905 New
Zealand All Black who played for the Kangaroos
(1911-12) |
George
Gillett was also a member of the famous 1905 All
Blacks that toured England. Interestingly, he
spent the early years of the 1900s in the goldfields
of Kalgoorlie where he is believed to have represented
Western Australia at Australian rules.
Whether
selection bias raised its head on tour is not
clear, but of the New Zealand Kangaroos only Francis
rose to noteworthy heights. Of all the tourists
Francis was unusually tall at 6'3" (1.90m) and
strongly built, with a playing weight of 14 stone
(89kg). He was also a handy goal kicker.
At
the conclusion of the tour the team's manager
Johnny Quinlan said: "Boller Francis was one of
the best forwards the Dominion has produced -
his diving tackles being as clever as they were
thrilling."
In the fourth game of the tour Francis starred
in a win over the Lancashire county side at Blackburn.
Francis kicked five goals and scored two tries
in the 25-12 win. This set up his inclusion in
the team for the first Test.
He featured strongly as Australia defeated England
for the first time in a Test match. In the second
Test the result was a draw, which meant the series
would be decided in the third. Australia argued
it could have won the 2nd Test as a penalty goal
attempt from Francis was signalled a goal by one
of the touch judges (who was Australian). The
other touch judge and referee disagreed and ruled
no goal.
Francis
did not play in the deciding Test which Australia
won to clinch the Ashes for the first time. Their
achievement in winning the Ashes in England stood
for 51 years. Francis was the top point scorer
on the tour with 125 points (9 tries, 49 goals)
- almost double the next best.

Bolla Francis (left) and
Herb Gilbert
1911-12 Kangaroos |
Bolla
(or Boller) Francis captained New Zealand in 1912
before returning to England to play for Wigan.
He
was apparently by then known as Alf Francis and
was a member of the Hull team that won the Challenge
Cup in 1914.
Francis,
playing on the wing, scored the match winning
try from a pass from fellow 1911/12 Kangaroo Herb
Gilbert. [Note 2]
While
Charlie Savory did not feature highly on the Kangaroo
tour, back home in New Zealand he played Tests
for the Kiwis against the visting English Lions
in 1914.
Weeks
later WW1 broke out and Charlie Savory enlisted
for the army. Savory died from wounds received
at the Dardanelles in mid 1915.
The
Auckland Weekly News reported that "he played
the Rugby Union game for some years and then transferring
to the Rugby League, accepted a position in the
combined NZ & NSW team which toured England. He
played for Auckland and NZ on many subsequent
occasions, his last appearance here being as a
member of the NZ team which put up such a fight
against the English team at the Domain last August."
"He
was a man of fine physique. He enlisted in the
Auckland section of the Army Service Corps and
left NZ with the main expeditionary force."
The
Kangaroo tour to England in 1921 was again conducted
by the NSWRL with its representatives styled as
‘Australasia'. In reality there was just one New
Zealander this time in the 28-man party - five-eighth
Bert Laing.
The Kangaroos wore sky blue jerseys and navy blue
shorts. The badge on the jersey was in colours
of maroon, blue and black and incorporated a big
"A" surmounted with a fern and kangaroo.
The
Kangaroos first stop on their voyage via the ‘RMS
Tahiti' to England was in New Zealand, which
included the playing of an exhibition match at
the Basin Reserve in Wellington. Laing was called
upon to play in only ten of the 36 games and did
not play any of the Test matches.
In
1923 a NSW team toured New Zealand and it included
many of the 1921/22 Kangaroos. A highlight of
the tour was an exhibition match in Auckland between
‘The Kangaroos' and ‘The Rest'. Bert Laing played
in the Kangaroos side, while ‘The Rest' was made
up from local Auckland stars and the remaining
NSW players. The Kangaroos won by 65-27.
Eighty years later, Richard Villasanti became
the second New Zealand based player to turn out
for the Kangaroos in the Dominion, when he played
in the 18 October 2003 Test at North Harbour Stadium.
[Note
1 - while there have also been a handful of other
New Zealanders to have gained selection for the
Kangaroos while living in Australia, they are
not the subject of this article]
[Note 2 - there are conflicting reports that record
Alf Francis of the Hull 1914 side as being Welsh]
[Note
3 - Steven Price (NZ Warriors) represented Australia
in the 2005 Tri-Nations tournament, including
the Test against New Zealand in Auckland.]
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