A scene from the 1950 rugby league Ashes series
CHAPTER 7 | 1950-1960
CHURCHILL’S DECADE
The Kangaroos began the decade by regaining the Ashes from Britain for the first time in 30 years, with winger, Ron Roberts scored the winning try in the series decider played on a SCG mud heap. The victory was met with scenes never seen before at the SCG with grown men crying, and fans running onto the field to hail their heroes.
The win confirmed future Immortal, Clive Churchill as the code’s superstar. One of the well wishers in the Australian dressing rooms was James Giltinan, manager of the first Kangaroos. He died a few months later, aged 84, and the JJ Giltinan Shield was struck in his honour. It is now awarded to the NRL Minor Premiers.
The 1950s also saw the launch of World Cups, with the first tournament held in France in 1954, 33 years before the first Rugby Union World Cup. Australia won the first tournament held on our shores – in 1957, with Newtown’s Dick Poole the captain. Britain, captained by Scotsman, Dave Valentine, won the 1954 tournament, beating the host country in the final in Paris. The Kangaroos won the first tournament held in Australia – in 1957 – and also beat a ‘Rest of the World’ selection after it was decided not to play a final, given Australia was the only undefeated side.
Tours by France in 1951 and ’55 confirmed rugby league as Australia’s most popular International Sport, with crowds totalling 340,000 across six Tests in the two series. The flamboyant French won both series, and the Kangaroos lost to the French in France in 1952-53. The ‘Tricolors’ lost to the Kangaroos in France in the 1956 and 1959 series. The emergence of France as a rugby league power was made even more remarkable by the fact the game was banned by the Nazi backed Vichy Government in France in World War II, and all the code’s assets seized or destroyed.
Newcastle born Clive Churchill captained Australia from 1950 to 1955, and is the only rugby league player honoured with the naming of a grandstand at the Sydney Cricket Ground. After that memorable 5-2 win over Britain in his debut series as skipper, he was chaired from the field by his players. He was just 23 at the time.
THE BEST EVER?
In 1951 the duels between Churchill and France’s Puig Aubert became the stuff of legend. Hall of Fame journalist, Ian Heads rated the French as the most fabulous team to ever tour this country.
“It was a winter drenched in red, white and blue, as a dazzling team of character and characters re-wrote the manual on how to play the sport, exposing Australian ‘orthodoxy’ in the process,” Heads wrote. The French fullback, Puig Aubert took on, matched, and now and then even bettered Churchill in the three Test series, which the French won 2-1.”
But Aubert didn’t like tackling, saying that it was the job of the players in front of him. He also claimed to have been wounded in World War II, and he considered his wounds a good enough reason for not tackling.
France won the First Test 26-15 at the SCG with Aubert kicking seven goals. Australia replied with a 23-11 win at the Gabba in the return clash, restricting France to one try. Referee, Tom McMahon sent off Australian centre, Noel Hazzard from Bundaberg and Edouard Brousse after a fierce fight. Hazzard was a centre with enormous strength, known for throwing 44-gallon petrol drums around with ease. Brousse, a giant of a man, had been part of the French Resistance fighting the Nazis in World War II.
Halfback, Jo Crespo scored three tries as France demolished Australia in the deciding match at the SCG in front of a crowd of 67,009. On their return to France, the side was greeted at the Marseille docks by 50,000 locals, and then given a ticker tape parade through the city streets, sitting in open cars. Aubert was named French Sports Star of the Year, beating soccer players, cyclists and rugby union stars to the honour.
Australia’s 1952 home series against New Zealand was a disaster. The Kiwis lost the First Test 25-13 at the SCG, but then belted the Kangaroos 49-25 in the return match at the Gabba, scoring nine tries to five. Journalist, Jim Mathers, writing in Brisbane’s Truth newspaper, rated it the worst ever effort by an Australian side. “They shamed the men who selected them,” he wrote. The Kiwis won the deciding Test 19-9 in Sydney.
The Kangaroo touring side to Britain and France at the end of the season was rated in many quarters as the weakest to represent Australia abroad. Britain retained the Ashes by winning the first two Tests, but Australia regained some pride with a 27-7 win in the third match in Bradford. Australia began the French leg of their tour with a 16-12 win in the First Test in Paris, but lost the next two Tests. Rugby League was on a high in France with big crowds attending the Tests and provincial and club games.
There was an amazing incident in the Third Test in Lyon when French referee, Pierre Ribas dismissed Australian halfback, Keith Holman. Holman refused to leave the field, so Ribas allowed him to complete the game.
During the domestic 1953 season the Kangaroos toured New Zealand, and lost another series to the Kiwis, 2-1, but there were no blowout scores. Australia’s win came in the Third Test in Auckland with centre, Harry Wells scoring two tries in the 18-16 win. In 2025 Harry, 92, was living near Port Macquarie, with the local Family of League Foundation Committee keeping in contact on a regular basis.
An American All Stars team, made up of grid iron and rugby union players, mainly from Hawaii and California, played 18 games in Australia in 1953, but were not granted a Test. In fact, they won only three games from 18, with two draws. Ken McCaffery, who played eight Tests for Australia between and 1953 and 1957, said the Americans passed and tackled well, most of the time, and some had great pace. But very few of them were elusive with the ball in hand.
THE FIRST WORLD CUPS
Harry Wells was the dominant figure in Australia’s 20-16 win over Great Britain in the Third and deciding Test of the Lions’ 1954 tour down under. The win saw the Kangaroos regain the Ashes Trophy they had lost in the UK in 1952.
The 1954 series saw the debut for Australia of future Immortal, Norm Provan from St George, as well as two Queenslanders who would go on to play 39 Tests between them – centre, Alex Watson from Brisbane Wests, and second rower, Kel O’Shea from the Colts club in Ayr, North Queensland. O’Shea scored a try on debut.
A debutant in the Second Test was North Sydney’s Bob Sullivan, whose father Con, a Kiwi, had toured with the 1911 Kangaroos.
As mentioned earlier, the Kangaroos did not reach the final of the inaugural World Cup in France late in 1954. For the first time an Australian team travelled to Europe by air, but it was still a four day journey, and like their Kiwi counterparts, the Kangaroos took a while to get over jet lag. Australia was beaten by Britain in their first game, but then defeated the Kiwis to keep alive their hopes of a place in the final. But France defeated Australia 15-5 in Nantes.
On their way home, the Kangaroos and Kiwis played three exhibition games in California. These were the first games of rugby league played on American soil. The third game – in Long Beach – was called off early when thick fog rolled in from the Pacific. Australian winger, Dennis Flannery, who was acting as a touch judge on the opposite side to the dressing rooms, was unaware his teammates had left the field, and was left stranded in the gloom for several minutes.
In 1955 Australian spectators finally got another taste of the flamboyant French, and they weren’t disappointed. There was no Puig Aubert this time – he was injured. But Jean Dop from Marseilles was more than an able replacement at fullback, while dual international centre, Jacques Merquey was an inspirational skipper. Merquey, who celebrated his 95th birthday in September, 2024, attended Broncos’ training at Red Hill when he last visited Australia.
Australia won the First Test 20-8 at the SCG in front of a crowd of 67,748 with halfback, Keith Holman scoring two tries. The Kangaroos led 28-16 deep into the second half of the return Test in Brisbane, and in the days of three point tries, victory seemed assured. But in the space of six minutes, France hit the lead 29-28, and that was the final score. Merquey scored two tries and five eighth, Gilbert Benausse kicked six goals.
The decider, back at the SCG, was an all-ticket sellout (62,458) with France winning 8-5, scoring two tries to one. Brisbane Brothers’ second rower, Brian Davies scored for the Kangaroos. The 1955 series saw the debut for Australia of Mackay product, Graham Laird, who sadly died at the age of 24 in a farming accident.
In 1956, the Kangaroos won all three Tests against the touring Kiwis, with former Wallaby hooker, Ken Kearney controversially replacing Churchill as skipper. This series saw the debut at five eighth of Rockhampton’s Cyril Connell, who would go on to become a legendary talent scout for the Brisbane Broncos.
Kearney also captained the Kangaroo touring team to Britain and France at the end of the season, even though Churchill was in the squad after missing the Trans-Tasman series. Churchill later wrote he believed there was an anti-Souths bias on the tour, with Rabbitohs’ players mainly involved in mid-week games. There were 10 Queenslanders in the squad, six from Toowoomba. This was the highest representation from Queensland since 1933-34 when there were 11.
Britain won the Test series 2-1, thanks to a comprehensive 19-0 result in the deciding Third Test at Swinton. The Australians had better luck in France, winning their first series of the 1950s against the French. Although the Kangaroos won all three Tests, they were gruelling affairs, with just 15 points separating the teams across the series.
What might be termed the first use of the sin bin occurred in the Second Test in Bordeaux. Australian prop, Roy Bull was sent off, but after Kearney pleaded for leniency, French skipper, Gabriel Berthomieu agreed to allow Bull to return after five minutes, if the referee, Pierre Ribas was happy. And that’s what happened.
The Third Test was played on January 13, 1957 in Lyon, with snow making for a heavy pitch. Both sides scored five tries in Australia’s 25-21 win, with the difference the goal kicking of Newtown’s Gordon Clifford.
Rugby League’s Golden Jubilee in Australia was celebrated with the first World Cup held in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia finished the tournament undefeated, and, as mentioned earlier, then beat a Rest of the World selection 20-11. Player of the tournament was centre/winger, Brian Carlson, who was not playing club football at the time. Carlson, a Newcastle product, had been playing for Blackall in Central Queensland, where there was big money to be made on the back of a booming wool industry. Blackall felt they had invested so much in him, they would not release him for the World Cup. So Carlson caught a train back to New South Wales. Noted Radio commentator, Frank Hyde, a Hall of Fame inductee, described Carlson as ‘a genius’ footballer.
When the Great Britain team arrived in Australia in 1958 for a three Test series, the World Champion Australians were confident of regaining the Ashes Trophy. Hopes soared after the Kangaroos won the First Test 28-8 in Sydney, with former Wallaby, and future television commentator, Rex Mossop making his International league debut.
The return Test was played at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, with fiery Western Suburbs (Sydney) winger, Peter Dimond the only debutant for Australia. The match proved one of the most dramatic in league history.
British skipper, Alan Prescott from St Helens suffered a compound fracture of the arm after five minutes, and then five eighth, Dave Bolton broke his collar bone 15 minutes later. Bolton was forced from the field, but Prescott played on, refusing the doctor’s advise to retire from the game. Inspired by fierce lock, Vince Karalius and cocky halfback, Alex Murphy, Britain pulled off an amazing 25-18 win, with Prescott still there at the end, his arm dangling by his side. The Australian forwards were criticised for being too gentlemanly towards Prescott.
“We couldn’t get at him,” explained Australian captain-coach, Brian Davies. But there have been reports over the years of Davies forbidding his men from attacking Prescott.
Rugby League in the 1950s was fierce in a different way to the game now. Scrums were brutal; stiff arms were commonplace and spear tackles legal. But a three-metre rule applied, not a 10-metre rule, so the collisions in the rucks were not nearly as brutal as now. And the forwards stayed in the middle, rather than spreading to the edges.
Naturally Prescott did not play in the third and deciding Test in Sydney, when Phil Jackson from Barrow assumed the captaincy. Full of confidence, Britain romped home 40-7 at the SCG, with Mick Sullivan scoring three tries. The result stunned the crowd of 68,720 and the Australian selectors went back to the drawing board. Davies was the only Queenslander used across the 1958 series, and that was the finish of his International career. He and Duncan Hall were managers of the first ever Queensland State of Origin side in 1980.
DAWN OF A NEW ERA
The 1959 home series against the Kiwis saw the emergence of future Immortals, St George Dragons’ pair, Johnny Raper and Reg Gasnier along with fellow legends, Barry Muir (Brisbane Wests) and Noel Kelly (Ipswich).
Clive Churchill, who played for Brisbane Norths that season, was Australia’s non-playing coach for the Trans-Tasman series and the tour of Britain, France and Italy at the end of the year.
Australia won the Test series against the Kiwis 2-1, with debutant prop, Dud Beattie from Ipswich scoring the Kangaroos’ only try in the 9-8 win in the First Test at the SCG. Gasnier and winger, Ian Moir, each scored three tries in the Second Test in Brisbane, a match in which Keith Barnes replaced Brian Carlson as skipper. Barnes, a goal kicking fullback, was born in Wales, but his family emigrated to Australia when he was 13 and settled in Wollongong, where he ditched dreams of becoming a rugby union star, and took up the 13-man code. He made his Australian debut during the 1957 World Cup, and his selection as skipper ahead of Provan raised a few eyebrows. But it is believed the selectors knew Provan would be unavailable for the Kangaroo tour of Britain and France, when they made the call. Barnes, who became known as ‘golden boots’ kicked seven goals in that Second Test.
Gasnier also scored two tries in the Third Test back at the SCG, but the Kiwis won 28-12, their defence forcing uncharacteristic errors from the home side.
Known as ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, Gasnier was the favourite of English and French crowds during the Kangaroo tour at the end of the season. He scored three tries in Australia’s First Test win over Britain at Swinton, his pace and anticipation leaving rivals floundering. Barnes kicked five goals on a memorable day for Australia.
Britain kept the series alive with a 11-10 win in Leeds when luck deserted the Australians. Barnes pulled a hamstring kicking a 45-metre field goal, and his replacement, Brian Carlson took over the goal kicking duties. Carlson scored two second half tries, but missed an easy conversion shot after crossing the second time.
So the Ashes came down to the deciding Test at Wigan. Both sides scored two tries, but the difference was the boot of British centre, Neil Fox, who kicked six goals, four of them penalties awarded by controversial referee, Eric Clay.
Deflated by that experience, the Australians did well to lift themselves for the tough campaign across the Channel against a French side strengthened by the signing of rugby union stars, Jean Barthe, Aldo Quaglio and Pierre Lacaze, all members of the side which had beaten the Springboks in South Africa in 1958.
The Kangaroos won 20-19 in Paris; 17-2 in Bordeaux and 16-8 in Roanne, the Third Test match having been switched from Lyon where the ground was unplayable because of ice and snow.
On the way home, the Kangaroos played two unofficial Tests against Italy, winning 37-15 in Padua and 67-22 in Treviso, in matches that were little more than exhibitions, with the Australians taking it easy on their rivals.
Footnote: Graham Roberts, the son of 1950 Ashes try scoring hero, Ron Roberts, went on to play first grade for Brothers in Brisbane and Balmain in Sydney.
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