We shall be called 'The Wallabies' (Part 2 of 3 by Chris Thau)

Chris Thau’s first article, entitled ‘A century of Wallaby touring’ looked back on the opening stages of Australia’s first ever tour in 1908. He now delves deeper into that historic trip, including the matches in England and Wales, their pioneering challenges of accepted scrummaging convention and the invention of the nickname, the Wallabies.

It was the first ever visit by Australia’s rugby team to the ‘Mother Country’, as Britain used to be called in its overseas territories, and at the time of departure the players still wore the New South Wales ‘Waratah’ on their blue jerseys.

According to Jack Pollard, the author of the highly rated ‘Australian Rugby’ almanac, as soon as the players were aboard SS Omrah, the discussions raged: What should this team be called?

On September 24 a few days after the team arrival the ‘Gloucester Chronicle’ reported that the tourists had voted to call themselves “The Wallabies” at a meeting the previous afternoon, having turned down other suggested nicknames including the Rabbits, the Kangaroos, the Wallaroos, the Kookaburras and even the Waratahs.

The following day skipper Herbert Moran confirmed in an interview with a London newspaper that the tourists had voted: “We all agreed that any name would be preferable to Rabbits,” Moran said. “Wallabies won by a couple of votes”.

Pollard also writes that the players originally wanted the name ‘Wallaby’ to apply only to those Australian players picked to tour overseas, rather than those playing at home.

Dr Herbert Moran (with the ball) leads his men out for the first match of the tour at Devonport

Reinventing the scrum

Another novelty the newly-baptised Wallabies brought with them to the playing fields of England and Wales was specialised scrummaging, with each of the eight players holding an allotted position in the pack.

The status quo - old-style British scrimmaging - entailed a ‘first up, first down’ style: the first players to arrive at the scrum literally packed down first, in the front row. This British way of playing the set piece was in its death throes and, although the Australian ‘novelty’ was thought to alter the spirit of the game, the battle for the loose head was being waged all across the Empire.

There was the rigid All Black seven-man scrum (scrum formation 2-3-2), the flexible tactics of the Springboks, who used mainly three men in the front row, but sometimes reverted to four in a scrum formation 4-3-1 when it suited them.

Australia’s approach had certainly sparked curiosity in the British media. After watching several training sessions at Newtown Abbott, one Football Herald reporter unwittingly wrote on 26 September, the day of the first match against Devon: “It will be interesting to observe how the Australians dispose their forwards to enable them to pack in allotted positions.

The spirit of the game

“As we have played the game hitherto in the British Isles, the principle of waiting until a set of forwards could arrange themselves on a definite system has not been deemed in accordance with the traditional spirit of the pastime.

“The Colonials argue, however, that the slight loss of time entailed is more than compensated for by the benefits of accuracy from a set plan of packing … it is just possible that the innovation will be recognised as making for the betterment of the game, and the necessary latitude be allowed for its execution.”

After watching their clear yet laboured 15-3 win against a Neath and Aberavon XV, the Western Mail’s ‘Old Stagger’ remained unconvinced by the value of the ‘mechanical tricks of the Australians’.

“Consider this Wallaby patent device,” he wrote. “They pack with three men in front, the two outside men of the first rank practically keeping Griffin their champion hooker off the ground so he may swing his legs when grappling for the ball. This means that the whole strength of the outside men cannot be brought into play. And beyond that loss there are two wing forwards, one on each side, who both are seldom in position to force in a straight line. “

Llanelli spring a surprise

The next opposition Llanelli must have read the comments, for they surprised the visitors with their own unorthodox scrummaging style. Australia’s Herbert Moran later wrote in his autobiography: “It was our first experience of ‘Fishguard’ Thomas (Llanelli’s legendary veteran forward) and Llanelli’s method of packing four of five men in the front row so as to always assure themselves the overlapping head. For the first time on the tour we could not get the ball from the fixed scrums”.

The 8-3 loss to Llanelli was the first defeat of the visitors. The second came 12 matches later at Leicester against a Combined Midlands XV led by the deadly E. Mobbs, who was playing some of the best rugby of his career.

The only English side to defeat the visitors, Leicester scored three tries to Australia’s one in a 16-5 win but the Wallabies soon wiped away any disappointment with a brilliant display against the Anglo-Welsh at Richmond to win 24-0, C Russell scoring an Australian record four tries.

After the Anglo-Welsh match the Wallabies returned to Wales for two weeks, during which time they played seven matches. Three were won, three were lost in succession to Wales 9-6, Swansea 6-0 and Cardiff 24-8, and one was drawn, 3-3 against Abertillery. Arguably Australia’s worst slump in fortunes on tour. *

England v Australia

#With the planned New Years day match against France cancelled due to poor weather, the Wallabies returned to London for the final three matches, including the plum test against England. Deprived of their inspirational captain Paddy Moran, who was sidelined with a sprained Achilles, the Wallabies scored three tries to one under the captaincy of Chris McKivat to record a well-deserved 9-3 win.

“The Australians beat England on Saturday last at Blackheath in a decisive manner and they thoroughly deserve the victory which rewarded their efforts,” read one report.

“For the greater part of the match the beaten side were obviously outplayed and the winners are to be most heartily congratulated, not only on what they did, but more particularly on the way they did it”.

Two more matches yielded two final wins, one against Bristol and Clifton and one against Plymouth, before the visitors set sail for the final leg of their tour in America and Canada.

The 15-6 win over Plymouth at Devonport was the last Wallaby match on British soil until 1947.

* Controversially, of the seven matches in that second foray into Wales, only six were included in the official fixture list compiled at the completion of the tour. It appears that the fixture against North Glamorganshire in Merthyr-Tydfill, won by the Wallabies 13-5, was discounted on the account that some Welsh players assisted the injury-ridden visitors.

**image: Dr Herbert Moran (with the ball) leads his men out for the first match of the tour at Devonport

Source: IRB