KANGAROOS PROUD HISTORY

Continuing Steve Ricketts potted history of the Kangaroos, a project undertaken at the request of Australian coach, Mal Meninga before the start of the 2024 Pacific Cup. Each player in Mal’s squad was presented with a booklet featuring the Roos’ history.

KANGAROOS PROUD HISTORY
CHAPTER 8
1960-1970

MORGAN BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS.
Lionel Morgan, who was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2024, became the first Indigenous man to represent Australia in rugby league when chosen from the Wynnum-Manly club for the Second Test against France, at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds in 1960. He made his Test debut at the same time as another product of Tweed football, Bobby Bugden, who went to my old school, Murwillumbah High. Bugden scored three tries and Morgan two in Australia’s crushing 56-6 win.

Australia’s front row for the First Test against France at the SCG was made up of players from the Ipswich Rugby League – props, Dud Beattie and Gary Parcell and hooker, Noel Kelly, although Kelly was playing at Ayr in the Burdekin Valley that season. Kelly was named as hooker in Australia’s Team of the Century in 2008. The First Test in 1960 finished in a try-less 8-8 draw.

France caused one of the biggest boilovers in International sport by winning the Third Test at the SCG 7-5, despite barely being able to field a side because of injuries, and having centre, Bernard Fabre sent off 10 minutes from the end for kicking winger, Ken Irvine in the head. Fabre refused to go, and play was held up for four minutes, with French coach, Jean Duhau taking the field and convincing his player to leave. Keith Barnes, a stalwart of the Balmain club, captained Australia in all three Tests and kicked an amazing 10 goals in the Second Test win. The French scored only one try across the series, but left these shores still having not been beaten in a three Test series in Australia.

Morgan was part of Australia’s squad in Britain for the World Cup at the end of the season, and played in a first round match against France at Wigan, which the Kangaroos won 13-12. The Kangaroos then defeated New Zealand 21-15 in Leeds, but lost 10-3 to Britain on a Odsal Stadium mudheap in Bradford. Britain finished the tournament undefeated, so they were awarded the trophy. Britain then beat a Rest of the World side 33-27. The five Australians in the team were Brian Hambly, Barry Muir, Bill Rayner, Ron Boden and Dud Beattie.

Brian Carlson led the Kangaroos to New Zealand in 1961, with the two Test series drawn. Kiwi fullback, Gary Phillips kicked the first ever field goal in Trans-Tasman rugby league to give the home side a 12-11 win in the First Test. Queensland halfback, Barry Muir deputised for the injured Carlson in the Second Test, which Australia won 10-8.

Australia used three captains in the 1962 home series against a Great Britain side rated the best to tour the Southern Hemisphere. Future Immortal, Reg Gasnier had that honour in the First Test; Keith Barnes regained the captaincy for the Second; while former Wallaby, Arthur Summons led the Kangaroos in the Third.

Britain were led by tall, stylish centre, Eric Ashton, and featured legends of the game such as Alex Murphy, David Bolton, Neil Fox, Dick Huddart, Derek ‘Rocky’ Turner, Brian McTigue and giant Welsh winger, Billy Boston. Turner was Wally Lewis’s coach at Wakefield Trinity when Wally had an off-season stint there in 1983.

Britain walloped Australia 31-12 in the First Test at the SCG in front of a crowd of 70,174, with Ashton and fiery winger ‘Mad Mick’ Sullivan each scoring two tries. The Australian debutants were former Wallaby winger, Michael Cleary (who represented Australia in athletics at the 1960 Perth Commonwealth Games) and Bob Hagan from Townsville, who would go on to become CEO of Canterbury-Bankstown. Bob’s younger brother is Michael Hagan.

The return Test at Brisbane’s Lang Park was much closer, but the final scored flattered the Kangaroos. Billy Boston scored two tries and won over the fans in the parochial home crowd of 34,766. The Australian debutants were future Queensland Minister for Sport, Mick Veivers in the second row; lock George Smith from Lithgow and prop, Bill Carson from Sydney Wests.

The Kangaroos salvaged pride in the Third Test back at the SCG in one of the most dramatic finishes in international football. With a minute to go, winger, Ken Irvine scored a try in the corner to bring the Kangaroos within one point of the British. As Irvine was lining up the kick, referee, Darcy Lawler suggested he straighten the ball on the mound (no kicking tees then). Irvine made the adjustment, and landed the conversion to give Australia a 18-17 win.

Lawler had sent off two British players – Sullivan and Turner – and Australian prop, Dud Beattie. Beattie was in agony from a rib injury and knew he had to leave the field, but before he went, he goaded Turner into a fight, and that’s when Lawler gave both men their marching orders.

Sydney club, St George, which had won six premierships in a row, challenged Britain to a mid-week game at the SCG. The Sydney public sensed blood in the water, and 57,744 fans poured through the gates. But Britain won 33-5 to dent the pride of the Dragons.

VARIED PROGRAM IN 1963
The Kangaroos played two home series in 1963 – one against New Zealand and the other against newcomers, South Africa. The South African side was made up mainly of players fresh out of rugby union – including six Springboks – but there were several who had experience in rugby league in Britain. The Kangaroos easily accounted for the new chums. 

The Kangaroos also won the series against the Kiwis, but this was a hard fought affair, with New Zealand claiming the Second Test in Brisbane 16-13, at Lang Park, with winger Ken McCracken, father of Canterbury and Parramatta star, Jarrod McCracken, scoring the winning try. Referee, Jack Bradley sent off rival props, Peter Gallagher (Australia) and Maunga Emery (NZ) for punching. They had not even been issued a caution before then.

Future immortal, Graeme ‘Chang’ Langlands made his Australian debut – in the centres – in the First Test at the SCG, which Australia won 7-3. The only try was scored by his fellow Immortal in waiting, Gasnier.

THE BEST EVER?
The 1963-64 Kangaroos are still rated by some historians as the best team to leave these shores. They were the first Australian side to win a series in the UK since 1911-12, and the tourists also won the series in France. On their return to Australia the Kangaroos were afforded a ticker tape parade in Sydney.

Irishman, Mike Gibson, a British Lions Rugby Union representative, described the Kangaroos’ backline fielded for the First Test at Wembley as the finest he had seen in either rugby code. (Gibson was a spectator at the match). The backline was: Halfback, Barry Muir; five eighth Earl Harrison; centres, Reg Gasnier, Graeme Langlands; wingers, Peter Dimond, Ken Irvine; fullback, Ken Thornett. The Wembley Test was the first to be played under flood lights. Australia won the Second Test 50-12 at Swinton, with lock, Johnny Raper featuring in five of the nine tries. One British newspaper carried the heading: ‘Jet Age Aussies’.

Australia lost a violent Third Test in Leeds, with referee, Eric Clay sending off halfback, Muir and prop, Brian Hambly, as well as British prop, Cliff Watson. The crowd called the Australians convicts – and worse. Muir felt they needed cleaning up, so he threw a bucket of water over a section of the crowd near the reserves bench.

Arthur Summons was captain-coach of the Kangaroos, but injury ruled him out of Test selection in Britain and he reverted to the role of non-playing coach. Summons is one half of the famous NRL Premiership Trophy, with Norm Provan.

In 1964, Australia finally won a home series against France. In fact they won all three Tests. In the build-up to the Second Test in Brisbane, the Kangaroos played North Queensland under lights in Townsville, winning 33-2. Gasnier scored three tries in the 27-2 win in the Brisbane Test. Winger, Irvine scored two tries and kicked seven goals in Australia’s 35-9 win in the Third Test at the SCG.

In 1965 the Kangaroos toured New Zealand, winning the First Test 13-8, but losing 7-5 in the return match. Langlands was sent off in the First Test for a high tackle on Kiwi fullback, Jack Fagan.

AUSTRALIA DOMINATES
The Kangaroos dominated the finish to the ‘Swinging Sixties’, winning home series against Britain (in ’66), and New Zealand (’67) as well as retaining the Ashes in England in ’67, and regaining the World Cup in ’68 with a win over France at the SCG, in front of a crowd of 55,000. The only hiccups along the way were a series loss to those pesky French on the ’67-68 tour, a drawn series against the Kiwis in New Zealand in 1969, and the odd loss to club sides like St Helens in England who accounted for the 1967 Kangaroos 8-4 in a spiteful game.

The 1966 season was the last played under the unlimited tackle rule, with England successful in introducing a four tackle rule in 1967. Future Immortal, Arthur Beetson, who had joined Balmain from Redcliffe in 1966, made his Test debut in the third and deciding match of the 1966 Ashes series, and inspired Australia to heart stopping 19-14 victory at the SCG.

The Brits had been underdogs leading into the First Test but rocked the Kangaroos with a 17-13 victory, with the likes of Welshman, John Mantle and Londoner, Cliff Watson in fine form for Britain. The return match at Lang Park in Brisbane was played in front of a sold out crowd, given as 45,000 but estimated as several thousand more, as many spectators forced their way through gaps in the stadium fencing, or simply shouldered their way through the turnstiles. Brisbane City Council had to bring in barriers to stop fans encroaching onto the playing field.

Australia won 6-4 in a try-less affair with Keith Barnes kicking the winning penalty goal four minutes from fulltime. British forward, Bill Ramsay was sent off by Hall of Fame referee, Col Pearce in the second half for kicking Mick Veivers in the head. The match was effectively the second Battle of Brisbane, given the level of violence. And there was plenty of violence on the terraces as well.

The match was so vicious, high school sports masters in Northern New South Wales threatened to switch from rugby league to rugby union as a sign of their displeasure for the bad example set by the elite players. It didn’t happen.

The Third and deciding Test offered for posterity perhaps the most famous ‘half game’ in league history. In an unforgettable first 40 minutes, Beetson, created tries for his wingers, Johnny King and Ken Irvine, one from a basketball style pass, the other from a neat grubber kick. Beetson was replaced at halftime, but the damage had been done, and Australia hung on for a 19-14 win. Irvine finished with three tries.

Beetson carried two nicknames during his playing career – early on it was ‘half a game Artie’, but ultimately that went away as his fitness levels improved. But he was always known as ‘meat pie Artie’, because of his love for the Aussie staple. He has even been known to have a pie on the day of a Test.

In 1968 future Immortals, Reg Gasnier and Johnny Raper played their last games for Australia, Gasnier in a provincial game in France and Raper leading Australia to victory in the World Cup Final. Our latest Immortal, Ron Coote, made his Test debut on the 1967-68 tour, and played second row in the World Cup final.

Gasnier had played in the First Test loss against Britain on the 1967-68 Kangaroo tour, but a knee injury ruled him out until the dying stages of the tour in France. He had been captain-coach of the Australian team which had beaten the Kiwis 3-0 at home, after taking over from hooker, Ian Walsh who retired from Test football after the 1966 Ashes triumph. Gasnier became non-playing coach in Britain with Queenslander, Peter Gallagher leading the Kangaroos to victory in the Second Test in London, and then Johnny Raper taking the reins for the decider at Swinton, which Australia won 13-9 on a icy pitch.

The Kangaroos were expected to win easily in France, but after a 7-7 draw in the First Test in Marseilles, lost the next two Tests in Carcassonne and Toulouse.

The tour was plagued by controversy, and proved a turning point in the Australian Rugby League’s attitude towards such expeditions. For many years the Kangaroos had been accommodated in an ageing hotel in the town of Ilkley, in the Wharfe Valley outside Leeds. And while Ilkley is a lovely town, it is boring. So there were times when the tourists got up to mischief.

When the players got home, their tour bonus was docked, because of damage to the hotel. But the biggest scandal was a report that one of the players had walked the streets of Ilkley wearing nothing but a bowler hat and tie. Raper took the ‘credit’, and even posed nude for Cleo magazine later in life, with a bowler hat covering his manhood. But the real ‘culprit’ was Queensland prop, Dennis Manteit, although it seems the nude prank didn’t actually happen in Ilkley’s main street.

After the events in Ilkley, the ARL made a decision to upgrade the standard of accommodation on future tours.

Australian Rugby League’s diamond jubilee was celebrated in 1968, and a World Cup was played both here and in New Zealand. Australia got revenge over France by defeating the Tricolours 20-2 in the final, played at the SCG in front of a crowd of 55,000.

One of sport’s great trivia questions: Who played in a Rugby League World Cup and against the All Blacks in the same year? Answer: Future Immortal, Bob Fulton. He was Australia’s five eighth in the 1968 World Cup Final (marking dual International, Jean Capdouze) and played for Combined Services against the All Blacks at North Sydney Oval. Bob was a National Serviceman.

South Sydney’s John Sattler captained the Kangaroos in New Zealand in 1969 with the tourists playing six games in 13 days. Australia won the First Test 20-10, but lost the return clash 18-14. Australia also lost to Auckland 15-14. Catholic priest, Father John Cootes from Newcastle Wests, made his Test debut on tour, in a squad dominated by players from South Sydney. The Rabbitohs had won back-to-back premierships in 1967 and ’68.

About Author