1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of Britain

Herbert Moran, team captain

Tour manager, who performed the role of coach was New South Wales state selector James McMahon, a veteran of the early NSWRU representative fixtures of 1889 and 1894 against New Zealand. He was assisted by Stan Wickham who had captained the Wallabies on 10 occasions between 1904 and 1905. Tour captain was Dr. Herbert 'Paddy' Moran. The team was also captained in matches during the tour by Chris McKivat and by Fred Wood, the tour vice-captain. They played in blue shirts, emblazoned with the Waratah. Players were paid 3 shillings a day in expenses.[4]

Moran writes in Viewless Winds that when the touring squad first arrived at Plymouth a pack of journalists were there who were anxious to give the team some distinctive name. The "Rabbits" was instantaneously rejected and soon after the team adopted the moniker of "The Wallabies" which for many years was used to describe the Australia national rugby union team when touring to Britain. These days the national side are the Wallabies whether playing at home or anywhere abroad.[5]

Moran also describes as "an affliction" the war-cry which the parent Union in Australia had suggested the team should use for its "box-office value". Moran wrote:

The memory of that war cry provokes anger in me even after all these years ... We were expected to leap up in the air and make foolish gestures which somebody thought Australian natives might have used in similar circumstances and we were give meaningless words which we were to utter savagely during the pantomime ... I refused to lead the wretched caricature of a native corroboree and regularly hid myself among the team, a conscientious objector.

— Herbert Moran, Viewless Winds[6]

Echoing the feelings of the Australian team towards the war-cry, there was little respect shown from their opponents towards it either. In the encounter with Cardiff at the Cardiff Arms Park, Percy Bush responded to the cry by charging onto the pitch brandishing a sword and shield, in what was intended to be an amusing riposte.[7]

The 1908 squad to tour England

The squad left Sydney on 8 August 1908 on board the SS Omrah bound for Melbourne. The ship contained 116 passengers, 1579 bales of wool, 2729 carcasses of mutton, 4650 carcasses of lamb, 2000 quarters of beef, 4800 crates of frozen rabbits and 200 tonnes of lead and copper. They played a game at the MCG against a Victorian XV which was won 26–6. They docked in Fremantle and played and won a fixture against a Western Australian XV 58–6.

Wallabies pre-match war-cry

On the long voyage Moran introduced the practice of team meetings that were part lecture and part brain–storming with players encouraged to voice their ideas on improving team performance. Moran stood at a blackboard and while his lecturing style was initially derided by the players he managed to instill a sense of cleverness and skill in players, creating thoughts of rugby as similar to a game of chess.[8] The Sydney forward Cecil Murnin became ill on the voyage and left the tour in Naples to return to Australia.[9]

The first tour match in England was against Devon. Peter Burge broke a leg in that match and did not play again on the tour.[10] Australia won the match with fourteen men. Bob Craig had brought a carpet snake in his luggage as a tour mascot and the snake died that same day.[5] The fourth tour match saw the Wallabies pitted against the best players from Cardiff and Swansea playing as Glamorgan County. The match at Pontypridd drew a crowd of 20,000 who gave the visitors a standing ovation. In that match another player was lost to a broken leg – this time from the sideline. The Queensland forward Flanagan was running the flag as line–umpire and collided with the winger "Boxer" Russell.[11] Australia's first loss was the ninth match, against Llanelli RFC – a spirited encounter which saw the Llanelli side win the match 8–3 and themselves a place in local sporting folklore.

During the tour, the Olympic Games were being held in London. The Australian team entered the rugby tournament and were the only other team alongside Cornwall, who were representing Great Britain. The interest in the Olympic rugby final was only lukewarm with the final being held in the last week of Games that had taken place over six months.[12]

Australia had already beaten Cornwall, the British county champions early in the tour. Scottish and Irish Unions had turned down the RFU's invitation to participate in the Olympic bouts. France were expected to contest the medal, but had withdrawn, leaving just Australia and Cornwall for England team to play for gold and silver medals.

1908 Olympic Gold Final: Australasia 32 – Cornwall RFU (Great Britain) 3

The match was played on an area alongside the Olympic Games swimming pool which measured 110 yards in length with a long line of netting stretched beside to catch flying balls. Large mattresses were spread along the rim of the pool to prevent injuries to falling players.[13] One day was allocated to what was called the Olympic rugby tournament. Neither Moran, nor the tour vice-captain Fred Wood played so Chris McKivat led the Wallabies to an easy 32–3 victory and to Olympic glory, with each Wallaby in that match thereafter an Olympic gold medallist.

It will be remembered that less than a month ago there was a match played between Australia and Cornwall at Camborne and although the Australians also won on that occasion, the beaten side then played on the whole, a very good game. Yesterday the champion England county was practically at full strength, but from start to finish they were outplayed. The methods by which this victory was gained were even more creditable to the winners than the completeness of the victory itself and it is only fair to the Australians to speak of their play in terms of unqualified praise. The ground was very slippery and very heavy and as a result of several hours of continuous rain the ball was very greasy. The continued excellence of the play of the Australian backs therefore surprised the spectators. They gave a display of football which would have done credit to a Welsh international side, at its best. They scored eight tries and so good was the play leading up to each of them that it would be hard to say which was the best.

— Major Trevor in The Daily Telegraph, 27 October 1908[14]

The tour took in 31 games in the British Isles, with the Australians winning 25, losing five and drawing one. Of the Test matches, the team lost against Wales, but beat England. These matches were the first ever encounters between an Australian team and their hosts. A further two matches were played in Australia en route and there were five matches in the US and Canada.[15]

The Wallabies scored 438 points on tour to 149 against, scoring 104 tries in the process and averaging better than three tries per game with 80 scored by the backs and 24 by the forwards.[16]

Complete list of matches played by Australia at British Isles and North America:

  Test matches

#	Date	Rival	City	Venue	Score
1	10 August 1908	Victoria	Melbourne	Cricket Ground	26–6
2	17 Aug	Western Australia	Fremantle	Fremantle Oval	58–6
3	6 Sep	Devon RU	Devonport	Rectory Ground	24–3
4	1 Oct	Gloucestershire RU	Gloucester	Kingsholm Stadium	16–0
5	3 Oct	Cornwall RU	Camborne		18–5
6	7 Oct	Glamorgan	Pontypridd	Taff Vale Park	16–3
7	10 Oct	Penygraig RFC	Tonypandy	Athletic Ground	11–3
8	15 Oct	Neath/Aberavon Combined	Neath	Neath Football Ground	15–0
9	17 Oct	Llanelli RFC	Llanelli	Stradey Park	3–8
10	19 Oct	Monmouthshire	Pontypool	Football Ground	– [note 1]
11	24 Oct	London	Richmond		3–0
12 [17]	26 Oct	Cornwall	London	White City Stadium	32–3
13	28 Oct	Army/Navy RU Combined	Portsmouth	Recreation Ground	8–6
14	31 Oct	Durham	Hartlepool	Friarage Ground	29–7
15	4 Nov	Northumberland/Cumberland RU	Newcastle upon Tyne	St James' Park	18–6
16	7 Nov	Cheshire	Birkenhead	Birkenhead Park	37–3
17	11 Nov	London	Blackheath	Rectory Field	24–3
18	14 Nov	Cambridge University	Cambridge		11–9
19	18 Nov	Oxford University	Oxford	Iffley Road	19–3
20	21 Nov	Yorkshire RU	Wakefield	Belle Vue	24–0
21	25 Nov	Lancashire RU	Fallowfield	Fallowfield Stadium	12–6
22	28 Nov	Somerset	Taunton	Athletic Grounds	8–0
23	2 Dec	Midlands Combined			5–16
24	5 Dec	Anglo-Wales XV [note 2]	Richmond		24–0
25	12 Dec	Wales	Cardiff	Cardiff Arms Park	6–9
26	17 Dec	Glamorgan League	Pontypridd	Taff Vale Park	9–5
27	19 Dec	Newport RFC	Newport	Rodney Parade	5–3
28	22 Dec	Abertillery RFC	Abertillery		3–3
29 [18]	24 Dec	North Glamorgan	Merthyr	Penydarren Park	13–5
30	26 Dec	Swansea RFC	Swansea	St. Helen's Ground	0–6
31	28 Dec	Cardiff RFC	Cardiff	Cardiff Arms Park	8–24
32	2 January 1909	France	Colombes		– [note 3]
33	9 Jan	England	Blackheath	Rectory Field	9–3
34	13 Jan	Bristol / Clifton Combined		Gloucestershire Ground	11–3
35	16 Jan	Plymouth	Plymouth		15–6
36 [15]	6 Feb	University of California	California		27–0
37 [15]		Stanford University	Stanford		13–3
38 [15]	13 Feb	All-California Combined	California		17–0
39		Vancouver	Vancouver		23–0
40		Victoria	Victoria, BC		26–3

Notes