KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » News Comment » Nearly 100 years after one of rugby’s greatest scandals, an old scrapbook is dusted off and op
10 August 2014
Sunday night on the couch at around half past eight at my place has always been a bit of a ritual. Its always been the time to settle back and enjoy 'quality theatre' on New Zealand's TV1. This last weekend having a film about a familiar and warm rugby memory for New Zealanders in that timeslot might have been a risk. But 'The Kick' was a delight. I never moved for its near two-hour duration. Read more »
I always travel with a notebook to jot down the hard case or significant sporting stories I hear. My thinking is - 'these are too good to lose.' This website is a perfect place for me to publish them. Read more »
*Your website editor has been chosen to commentate on rugby's return to the SummerB Olympic Programme, in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016. His commentaries on the sevens will be part of the host broadcaster coverage for OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service) the official broadcast TV outlet of the IOC. This will be my tenth Summer Olympic Games. I am publishing here my personal stories and memories of the previous nine Games I have been to. Read here...* Read more »
1 May 2014
This Just in: May 2014; Sad news that one of the veterans of the 1955 and 1959 British Lions Rugby teams, the tough and rugged prop forward Hughie McLeod, had passed away. McLeod a great job in the scrums on two long tours of South Africa then New Zealand and Australia over 55 years ago. Read more »
2 May 2014
This Just In; May 2014; Of course you could say it was 'logical' that Adam Whitelock would go on to become an All Black. Yes he has great form and talent in the 15 aside game. He has shown that for years. But those same skills meant it was only right and rational that Sir Gordon Tietjens would eventually use them and put Adam into his 'Sevens All Blacks' for the last two tournaments of the 2014 IRB World Sevens Series. Read more »
Your comments to me at kqrugby@hotmail.co.nz[mailto:kqrugby@hotmail.co.nz] Read more »
*This Ten Questions idea is to ask a leading rugby personality; either a player, from the the media or an administrator some questions which may prompt a response from them which we have not heard of before;* Read more »
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13 August 1921
The All Black - Springbok rivalry starts
On the first tour of NZ by South Africa, Carisbrook in Dunedin hosts a 13-5 victory for the All Blacks.
WAKEFIELD, WAVELL
Leicester, Harlequins and England
31 internationals for England 1920–27
William Wavell Wakefield was a highly successful player, thinker, innovator and captain. He became one of the world game’s best administrators, becoming an England committeeman before rising to be president of the Rugby Football Union in 1950. He served as a delegate on the International Rugby Board for the seven years up until 1961 and wrote extensively about the game, in his later years becoming a symbol of wise counsel for amateur rugby and its future.
The young Wavell Wakefield was a supremely fit rugby player, winning his 31 international caps as a flanker, lock or No. 8. He first played for England in 1920, when a strong Welsh side thrashed him and 10 other new caps. The selectors persevered with many of the new players, and out of their rising confidence came one of England’s best eras.
The England team, with Wakefield, the brilliant halfbacks ‘Dave’ Davies and Cyril Kershaw, Cyril Lowe the wing, and forwards Tom Voyce and Ronald Cove-Smith, combined to win the Five Nations crown three times in the first four years of the 1920s.
Wakefield played his first 21 internationals consecutively, winning 17 times with one draw. By 1927, when he was hampered by injuries, the highly popular and respected ‘Wakers’ had reached 31 caps – an England record for any position and one that stood until 1969, when it was passed by D.P. ‘Budge’ Rogers.
Wakefield is often remembered as one of England’s best captains and tactical planners. As captain of Cambridge University and England, he insisted on each member of the forward pack undertaking set roles, rather than plodding together from set piece to set piece, as had been the style.
Under his leadership, England’s back row combinations became the first in the world to work together as a ‘team’, which is commonplace in modern times. Certainly he was highly successful. In his seven seasons in the England team he took part in three championship wins, three Triple Crowns and three Grand Slams. It is a tribute to him that those years came to be known in English rugby as the ‘Wakefield Era’.
After his active rugby days he was a Member of Parliament and then became the first Baron Wakefield of Kendal. He died in 1983.
What was different about the British Columbian winger Denny Veitch who played against the British and Irish Lions in Vancouver in 1966?
What do you think?
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