The centenary of the first ever series-deciding international Rugby League game is to be celebrated in Cheltenham later this week.
The Cheltenham Civic Society has granted permission for the creation and display of a green plaque on the site of the original Cheltenham Rugby Union ground on 15 February, exactly 100 years since the landmark in Rugby League history.
The decision to commemorate this historic occasion was taken after an initiative led by Cheltenham-based lawyer Lionel Hurst and letters of support from Tony Collins, Professor of the Social History of Sport at Leeds Met Carnegie and from David Evans the Secretary of Cheltenham Rugby Union Club.
Chris Wilson, Media Manger of the Gloucestershire Warriors Rugby League Club, takes up the story of the first international tour.
One hundred years ago this week, 27 Kiwis and an Australian arrived in Cheltenham to play a game of rugby. This was no ordinary game of rugby. This was rugby under new rules – rules that the antipodeans had only heard about six months before they set off on what was to be an historic adventure.
For these were the professional All Blacks, known as the All Golds.
Led by Secretary, Promoter and sometime player Albert Henry Baskerville, the squad boasted nine amateur All Blacks and 14 provincial players as well as Dally Messenger, the star of Australian rugby. Messenger came with the party to help teach them the rules of the new game.
The arrival of the New Zealand tourists was a huge boost to the Northern Union, a dozen years after their breakaway from the RFU and the party was welcomed in Leeds by a large and enthusiastic crowd.
Originally, only one international against the Northern Union had been scheduled but at a meeting in Manchester, the New Zealanders suggested two additional games, one in London and another in the Midlands in an attempt to promote the game to as wide an audience as possible. Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground was chosen as the London venue while Cheltenham, where the 1905 All Blacks had played, was to host the third match.
At Headingley, Leeds, the Northern Union won the first Test 14-6 but the All Golds squared the series with an 18-6 win at Stamford Bridge.
It was to Cheltenham the following week, 15 February, for the decider. With several members of the 1905 touring All Black side in their line-up, the All Golds proved to be an attraction for the rugby aficionados of the south west.
However, a deluge on the morning of the game affected the attendance and the play, which became attritional and passing and running was difficult.
Despite their captain George Smith being off the field injured for a long period and having forward Tom Cross dismissed, the tourists recovered from a 5-0 deficit to score two late tries through Messenger and William ‘Massa’ Johnston to clinch the series.
The majority of the team returned to the Southern Hemisphere to launch Rugby League in Australia and Messenger returned to England with the first Kangaroos the following year. However Baskerville caught influenza and pneumonia on the journey home and died before reaching New Zealand.
about GR
L e a g u e
The Gloucestershire Rugby League is an organisation for local rugby league clubs in Gloucestershire. Our main activity currently is to promote rugby league through the County and give useful information about our sport to the public of Gloucestershire.
