KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » News Comment » A Momentum Shift for New Zealand Rugby?
10 August 2014
Gee I hope not! New Zealand rugby's trophy cabinet used to bulge with silver and gold cups, with other assorted medals and golden glories scattered about randomly, to the point where no one at the NZ Rugby Union offices had the time or inclination to collate or sort out the stuff - there was so much of it!
But here we are in 2014 and the cabinet doors have been thrown open and under our noses (and perhaps while we were all in the dark) other countries are sneaking in to plunder some of our best goodies.
Consider the list; In just a few months gone is the Commonwealth Games sevens glory - snatched was the Under 20s proud record - pinched is the Super 15 title - and now our Black Ferns in France are out of the Women's Rugby World Cup! That's four biggies in a very short space of time.
Check the locks Mr Tew - call Security and check that sure the trophies that remain are locked up tight - or else more might go. Like that cumbersome Bledisloe Cup. Are those Aussies ready next weekend to hatch a plan to go all smash and grab with that one too!
Someone say out loud - it ain't gonna happen!
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Today, on this day the Springboks were welcomed back into World Rugby
11 years to the day after the last NZ v SA game they are back! But the ABs win in a Johannesburg thriller by 27-24.
GABE, RHYS
Cardiff, Llanelli and Wales
24 internationals for Wales 1901–08
At the age of 12, in 1893, Rhys Gabe walked from his home near Llanelli to watch Wales play Ireland at Stradey Park, a distance of five miles. He and his friends played with a rugby ball all the way there and back, and the game had a profound influence on young Gabe. Thereafter he only wanted to be a centre and based his play on his hero who had played that day, Sam Lee of Ireland.
Gabe made his debut for Wales in 1901 against Ireland at Swansea in a match that marked the last appearance of the great Billy Bancroft for Wales.
Gabe, as a centre capable of beating his opposites with deception and speed, was a brilliant player in the Welsh teams which won the Triple Crown in 1902, 1905 and 1908, and which enjoyed a period of success called Wales’s first ‘golden era’. He also toured New Zealand with the Great Britain team of 1904.
It was Rhys Gabe who made the run that led to Teddy Morgan’s try which enabled Wales to beat the 1905 All Blacks. He also took part in the famous ‘foggy’ game of 1908 when Wales beat England by 28–18. Gabe scored twice that day – one of the tries was not seen by the England defence because of the murky weather.
There is another story that Gabe was kicked so hard in the backside in the Wales v Scotland game in 1905 that he could not sit down for six months! Being a schoolmaster it meant he had to conduct his lessons standing on his feet. However, the records also actually show that he was fit enough to play in Wales’s next match just three weeks later!
Which former Springbok test rugby captain won a Rugby World Cup winner's medal for Australia in 1999?
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