KANGAROOS PROUD HISTORY

Steve Ricketts continues his take on the history of the Kangaroos, a 14 chapter booklet presented to the Australian Rugby League players as they went into camp ahead of their 2024 Pacific Cup campaign.

The booklet, commissioned by Australian coach, Mal Meninga, was printed by Crystal Media, owned and operated by former Queensland forward, Gavin Allen.

KANGAROOS PROUD HISTORY
CHAPTER 2
1900-1910

THE FIRST KANGAROOS

The story of the Kangaroos’ proud tradition of overseas tours began on a sunny August morning in 1908 when a contingent of 35 players sailed through the Sydney Heads on SS Macedonia, bound for Southampton in Hampshire, England.

As the coastline faded from view, the team elected North Sydney forward, Dinny Lutge as captain, and future ‘Immortal’ Dally Messenger his deputy. The players trained on the ship’s deck, and even undertook shifts stoking the boilers. It was Messenger who had the honour of captaining the Kangaroos in their first overseas Test match when Lutge was sidelined through injury. That First Test, which finished in a 22-all draw, was played at Park Royal, London.

The tour was effectively eight years in the making, with Sydney sports lovers regularly getting together to discuss events in the North of England, where most of the top ‘Rugby’ clubs had broken away from the Rugby Union.

One of the catalysts for rugby league was an injury suffered by New South Wales’ Rugby Union forward, Alex Burdon, in a match played at Central Park, Wingham, on the way to Brisbane to play Queensland. (Wingham is the home town of New Zealand Warriors’ Australian Test forward forward, Mitch Barnett). The injury to the popular Burdon focussed attention on the issue of players being compensated if they had to miss work because they were representing their State or Country, or indeed their district. (There is a plaque in Central Park, Wingham acknowledging the game).

Despite threats of players and officials being banned for life by Sydney rugby union clubs, if they tried to establish the ‘new game’, the New South Wales Rugby League was formed on August 8, 1907 at a meeting at the corner of Market and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney, above a sports store run by champion cricketer, Victor Trumper, who was a supporter of the new code. Rugby League’s biggest financial backer was Henry Clement Hoyle, a prominent Labor Party man. The League’s first big ‘signing’ was rugby union’s Australian superstar, Dally Messenger.

A NSW side played New Zealand in a three game series in Sydney in August, 1907. The visitors were called the All Blacks in the official match program, but opponents of the new game dubbed them the All Golds, because they had sold out their amateur status. New Zealand won all three games, which were played under rugby union rules, because no-one had a rule book for the new game being played in England.

The ‘All Golds’ sailed on the SS Ortona for a tour of the UK, and took Dally Messenger as a guest. Referred to in later decades as ‘The Master’, Messenger  appeared in 29 of the All Golds’ 35 games and finished top points scorer. The tourists won the Test series 2-1. Not only was Messenger a great athlete, he was a prodigious kicker of the ball, and regularly landed goals from the halfway line or beyond.

On the All Golds’ return to the Southern Hemisphere, they played Australia in what is officially recorded as the first Test match on these shores, with Messenger playing for Australia, of course. New Zealand won 11-10 at the Sydney Showgrounds, in front of a crowd of  just over 20,000. Australia’s first Test skipper was Arthur ‘Ash’ Hennessy from the South Sydney club. (He went on to manage the 1929-30 Kangaroos on their British Tour). Australia’s first try in a Test was scored by Tom McCabe, an English born lock, who played club football for Glebe. When Hennessy was first shown a Northern Union rule book, he commented: ‘This is a game for race horses.”

New Zealand won the Second Test 24-12 at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds. Ipswich’s Bill Hardcastle became the first Queenslander to score a try for Australia. The Kiwis took the field despite the death of winger, Albert Henry Baskerville, from pneumonia, a few days earlier. Baskerville’s death at the age of 25 was a cruel fate for a man whose vision and perseverance had seen the establishment of the new code in the two nations. It was Baskerville, a postal worker from Wellington, who did most of the work assembling a group of rugby union players willing to take on the challenge of the new code.

The All Golds taught the Australians how to play the new game, telling our footballers not to kick the ball into touch, which was commonplace in rugby union. The Australians were told that the key was to use the ball through passing, and to back each other up – to always be in support of the ball carrier.

A Maori team also toured New South Wales and Queensland, and played Australia in a match not given Test status. The Kangaroos won 20-10.

The first Kangaroos in Britain played a record 46 matches, including six in Wales and one in Scotland. They wore jerseys with the colours blue and maroon, representing NSW and Qld. When Australia played the All Golds, the Kangaroos wore the Sky Blue of NSW, even though five Queenslanders played in the series. There were four Queenslanders on that first Kangaroo tour.

Sydney entrepreneur, JJ Giltinan was tour manager, and essentially financed the whole expedition. He promised the players a pound a week living expenses, but could pay them only half – 10 shillings. The tour took place in the midst of a strike by cotton mill workers, which meant many fans could not afford to attend games. Hotels often proved too expensive for the budget, so Giltinan rented a house on the Lancashire coast at Southport to accommodate the touring party. Other times, the team travelled overnight by train to save money on accommodation.

England was gripped by one of the most severe winters on record, so combined with the mill strikes it was an uphill battle to get people through the gate. Needless to say, Giltinan lost big time financially. So short of cash were the Kangaroos at the end of the tour, the British had to pay the players’ fares back to Australia. Half a dozen players stayed in the UK to play for Northern clubs.

The Wallabies were touring the UK at the same time, and when the Kangaroos returned to Australia there were fears the new code would struggle after the financial losses incurred. But in 1909, 25 of the 31 Wallabies defected to rugby league, largely thanks to Hoyle putting up the money.

A BBC movie, called The First Kangaroos, was released in 1988, with Wayne Pearce (Balmain) and Andrew Ettingshausen (Cronulla) having bit parts. Australian actor, Dominique Sweeney played Dally Messenger.

THE FIRST ENGLISH TOUR

The first England v Australia Rugby League Test played in Australia took place at the Sydney Showgrounds on June 18, 1910, with England winning 27-20 before a crowd of 42,000. The Second Test was played at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, with England winning 22-17. Dally Messenger captained Australia in the First Test, while Bundaberg centre, Bill Heidke was given that honour in the return clash. (Bundaberg is Mal Meninga’s birthplace).

Before the First Test, the English team entered the playing arena on a ‘drag’, or sled, pulled by 100 British sailors. The Australian team was led onto the field by a kangaroo on a leash.

After England won the first two Tests, the Third Test was replaced by a match against a combined Australia-New Zealand side. This game was drawn 13-13, and a further game between the same sides resulted in a 32-15 win for Australasia.

That first English team was captained by Cumbrian, James Lomas from the Salford club. Lomas was inducted into the British Rugby League Hall of Fame at a function in Wigan on October 22, 2024.

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