Noel Hazzard in action for Australia against France in 1951. Jackie Marquey from Avignon is the French player.
Two of Queensland’s greatest ever rugby league centres, Alex Watson and Noel Hazzard were in the headlines for their efforts in different parts of the State.
Watson, who played club football for Wests, was a class above most other backs on the field in Brisbane’s 24-11 win over Ipswich in a Bulimba Cup (inter-city) match at the Gabba, while at Roma, in South West Queensland, a record crowd turned out to see Hazzard spearhead the locals against Charleville.
The Courier-Mail’s Jack Reardon wrote that Watson showed the benefit of Australia’s tour of New Zealand, and the experience of playing under the captaincy of Clive Churchill. (It was Watson’s first time in an Australian jumper. He didn’t play a Test, but went on to play 19 Tests between 1954 and 1957.
“He (Watson) is no longer hesitant about taking an opening,” Reardon wrote. “All he needs now is a little more confidence in his own ability. Yesterday, he could have scored two tries, had he not slowed down, waiting for supports.”
Ipswich used off-side tactics to frustrate the star studded Brisbane side, which included Test forwards, Brian Davies and Harold ‘Mick’ Crocker. Reardon said referee, Vic Vercoe was “technical to the extreme” and was too busy trying to trap Brisbane hooker, Alan Hornery (“not without reason”) to spot the off-side tactics of the Ipswich backs.
“It was farcical however, to see the Ipswich backs so far off-side, they were behind the Brisbane pack,” Reardon wrote.
Ipswich skipper, Bernie Drew (an International) was the best forward on the field, while George Hayes’ four tries for Brisbane cemented his reputation as the most reliable winger in the Brisbane competition.
Toowoomba, the other side in the Bulimba Cup, took their squad to the Gabba – with renowned coach, Duncan Thompson – to gain a few pointers ahead of their match against Brisbane the following weekend.
Meanwhile, at Roma, Hazzard’s presence had revitalised interest in the 13-man code. His clash with Charleville’s Test star, Johnny Graves was one locals would talk about for years, with both men going at each other ‘hammer and tongs’. Reardon wrote that it was ‘strange’ that Hazzard, who had represented Australia in 12 consecutive Tests between in 1951-52, could not make the Queensland side in 1953.
In France, millionaire Rugby League Federation president, Paul Barriere, a hero of the Resistance in World War II, confirmed he would ‘guarantee’ the inaugural Rugby League World Cup in 1954. Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and France were to contest the tournament, which was to feature matches in Paris, Toulouse, Marseilles, Lyon, Bordeaux and Nantes.
FOOTNOTE: In 1983, I organised a photograph of Noel Hazzard and Alex Watson, with Gene Miles and Mal Meninga, at Brisbane’s Park Royal Hotel, ahead of a Trans-Tasman Test at Lang Park. The photograph appeared in Brisbane’s now defunct afternoon newspaper, the ‘Telegraph’. My sports editor, John ‘Morto’ Morton had told me Miles and Meninga were the first Queensland Test centre combination, since Hazzard and Watson were together in the 1954 Second Test against Great Britain at the Gabba. Hazzard was playing in Bundaberg that season.
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