Say goodbye to the old Lansdowne Road.1900s A short Historical Back drop of Britain
- Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward VII 1901
- The 'Taff Vale' case leads to the birth of the Labour party 1901
- Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War 1902
- 'Lib-Lab' pact enables Labour to break into national politics 1903
- Women's Social and Political Union is formed to campaign for women's suffrage 1903
- Olympic Games open at White City in London 1908
- Parliament approves old age pensions 1908
1900 - Rugby played in the Olympic Games in Paris - France win the title. Germany & Moseley Wanderers, GBR share the silver after a round robin.
Cross Keys (Wales) founded.
1901 - Abertillery (Wales) and Pontypool (Wales) founded.
The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) merged, and became the Northern Rugby League (the first time the name Rugby League was used officially (see also 1922).
Here is a report of the 1901 Scotland England International: "At the Rectory Field, Blackheath, on Saturday, the 9th inst., Scotland brought their international contests to a close with a brilliant victory over England by three goals and a try to a try. Within fifteen minutes of the start, some capital work between Fell, Turnbull, and Gillespie ended in the last-named scoring a try, which he easily converted, and ten minutes later the visitors had increased their advantage to 1.5 points. The second score came through Welsh, who, having an opening made for him by Flett, easily outpaced the English backs and ran well round. Again Gillespie converted, and he was also successful with a third place kick, Timm gaining the try after a fine run by Turnbull. Half-way through the second portion of the game Robinson obtained a try for England, Alexander failing to improve, but before the end the English line was crossed for the fourth time-on this occasion by Fell, after a splendid bout of passing; right across the three -quarter line. Gillespie did not improve this try, but at the call of "No side" Scotland won by 18 points to 3."
1902 - Canadian team tour England.
1903 - New Zealand play their first international with their revolutionary 2-3-2 scrum against Australia, winning 22-3 at the Sidney Cricket ground. On three previous occasions had New Zealand teams ventured to play in Australia (they had won 28 games with just two losses against New South Wales) but this was the first time against a combined Australian team. At this point in time they were not called the all blacks (this would occur two years later in Britain).
 |
||
Click for larger image |
The Ranfurly Shield, the challenge trophy for New Zealand's provincial rugby championship, was presented by the Governor to G. H. Dixon, the Earl of Ranfurly for the first time to Auckland who had an unbeaten record at the time. It had to have it's center engraving replaced to show a scene from rugby rather than association football.
1905 - In the USA newspapers showed a running count of injuries and fatalities in Football throughout 1905, and the final totals listed 18 deaths and 149 serious injuries across the country. Those figures wouldn't have amounted to much for some factories or many mines, but they were shocking for a sport. Football was branded as brutal and many perfectly nice people wanted it outlawed. The result was a review and changes to the rules governing the game to reduce the level of brutality. John Heisman, the successful and innovative coach of Georgia Tech, proposed legalizing the forward pass. Heisman correctly deduced that the pass could "open up" the game, but Walter Camp, college football's leading guru, opposed throwing the ball. Sir Walter usually got his way, but in this case the rulemakers were willing to clutch just about any straw. Henceforth, the tossing forward of the pigskin was to be allowed.
England first play France.
Bouncing the ball in from touch and the field goal done away with.
The first New Zealand team was named "The All Blacks" which toured the British Isles and beat Scotland, Ireland and England. In fact in thirty two matches they were only beaten once by Wales on 16th December at Cardiff. During their tour they scored 830 points to 39 with 109 tries to five.
The 1905 All Blacks Tour of Britain - Paper by: Gareth Williams University of Glamorgan
1906 - In the USA the forward pass was introduced to the 'American game''. The laws of rugby died and the game of American football evolved further.
Despite this, rugby union enjoyed a growth in popularity in the US, particularly in California, where major universities, including the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford, had withdrawn from football - the "American game" - with concerns about brutality and professionalism.
The break away Northern Union reduce the number of players to 13.
October 31st - In their first-ever appearance at Cardiff Arms Park the South African touring side were made to work hard for a narrow 6-3 victory against Glamorgan.
1907 - Rugby ground at Twickenham purchased by RFU committee member William Williams. 10 1/4 acres of market garden purchased for £5,572 12S 6d. To become known as "Billy's cabbage patch" since the site, was previously used to grow cabbages and other vegetables, along with fruit trees and mushrooms.
Two men were responsible for the purchase of the ground, firstly Billy Williams who was a bachelor with a private income who lived in a fine house in Walpole Road, Twickenham, entertained handsomely, and was everybodies friend. Williams used to play fullback for Harlequins, Middlesex, and London and was an international referee. He was also part of the RFU commitee and went to see the Mann family about purchasing their Orchard which had been put on the market. He recommended the land to the RFU as an excellent place to build a rugby ground.
Secondly there was William Cail who was a hard headed business man, an alderman of Newcastle, head of an engineering and export business, a dour man of few words who, when he spoke, used his deep bass voice in majestic authority. He has been president of the RFU from 1892 to 1894, and it was he who had persuaded the RFU to stanbd firm against the 22 Yoorkshire and Lancashire clubs who wanted to pay players for broken time. Bt 1906 he had been treasurer of the RFU for 12 years and was to remain in office till 1924.
When Billy suggested the land at Twickenham many were against it thinking it too far from London, liable to flooding and too costly since it would pretty much take all available funds and not leave anything to pay for the development needed. William Cail told the RFU to buy it and arranged a £6,000 overdraft at the bank to go with the money they had (£4,919 by selling their Consuls) and 5% debentures of £50 each).
Although they spent more than 10,000 pounds in the year after they purchased the land they were in profit. Cail reported in 1924, the year Billy became vica-president of the union, that before Twickenham the largest profit they had made from an international was £1,940. At twickenham they made £5,509 against Scotland, £4,465 against Wales, £3,679 against France and £2,957 against Ireland.
After Cail had been treasurer for 30 years he retired and the year after died at his home in Newcastle at the age of 76.
Billy Williams died in his sleep at Hampton Wick on April 14, 1951 age 91.
 |
||
|---|---|---|
Twickenham 1915 |
||
First rugby league 'league' was formed, the new Union's rules had diverged from those of Rugby Union, most noticeably in the reduction of players from 15 to 13 and slightly different scoring.
1908 - First Australian tour of England and Wales.
When the Australians arrived in England the press were nick-naming them the Rabbits. Now Rabbits had been introduced to Australia by the British and were reaching plague proportions so rather than be named after a pest they spent a day discussing the matter, by which time the English newspapers were beginning to get hundreds of letters suggesting suitable names such as Wallabies, Kangaroos, Kookaburras and Wallaroos. A vote was held on Sept 22nd and it went in favor of "the Wallabies" by just a few votes.
Australia v Gloucester 16-6 Carmichael Kicks for Goal Oct 1st, 1908. Notice he is still wearing his cloth cap during the game.
The team spent 9 months touring the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America. The players ages ranged from 20 to 27 years old, height from 5'5" to 6'1" (only 1 player was over 6") and weight from 10 stone to 14 stone (a stone being 16 pounds).
During the tour Syd Middleton was sent off by referee A. O. Jones, in a game against Oxford, after punching an opposing forward in a line out and and became the first Australian national player to leave the field.
The Australians won the Rugby competition in the London Olympics vs. the only other team to compete was Great Britain.
They play 31 matches, winning 25, drawing one and losing five. The Australian team receives three shillings a day for out-of-pocket expenses and Scotland refuse to play the team, claiming that paying them makes them professionals. Scotland’s fears are justified because upon arriving home eleven players were enticed, by the money offered by James Joynton Smith, to join the newly formed Rugby League. The captain for the game against England, Chris McKivat, was paid 200 pounds at a time when weekly wages were about 2 pounds.
G V Portus played for England in 1908
Bedford Athletic founded.
Two covered stands for 3000 spectators each, built on East and West sides of the pitch as well as a terrace at the South end for 7000 spectators and an open mound at the North end. A vehicle park for 200 cars / carriages behind the South stand was built. The total cost of these was £8,812 15s. 0d, raised by debentures. The pitch was raised above ground level to avoid the flooding of the River Crane, drainage constructed and fences erected at a further cost of £1,606 9s. 4d.
March 2nd - Wales and France met for the first time at Test level in front of 15,000 on a Monday afternoon at Cardiff and Wales cruised to a 36-4 victory.
| Wales | France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tries Gibbs 4, Jones, Morgan 2, Trew 2 | Tries none | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cons Gibbs, Winfield 2 | Cons none | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pens Winfield | Pens none | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drops none | Drops Vareilles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Scrum.com
On the same day, the RFU issued its report into professionalism, deciding that while it no longer existed in the game, there were instances where expenses paid had been "too lavish". But the detailed findings were kept under wraps as "nothing would be served by making them public".
1909 - Australia beat England 9 - 3 at Blackheath, London on January 9th.
The first German Club Championships were organized.
£20,000 spent on roads and entrances etc for the inaugural match at Twickenham on 2 October - Harlequins v Richmond. Ronald Poulton (Palmer) and Adrian Stoop played. Quins won by 14 points to 10.
Back