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7 December 2014
Isn't it amazing what you sometimes find in a box of old 'stuff' at your place. This is one such piece of rugby memorabilia.
In amongst a box of old clippings and papers I found the programme of a 1973 rugby day which Australia would prefer to forever forget but Tonga will always shout to the heavens over!
That year Tonga celebrated having completed 50 years of organised rugby in the 'Friendly Islands.' To celebrate there was a tour to Nuku'alofa by a 'International Invitational' team, there was also a tour by the New Zealand Maori team and Tonga's test team flew out on a two-month tour of Australia and Fiji.
Wow! What a year!
There was a mix of results for the Tongans; they shared a win each against the Invitation team (Which was curiously 'co-captained' by 37 year old Colin Meads and 44-year old Uaisele Latukefu); Tonga beat the New Zealand Maori team by 11-3 in the only test match and Tonga were then well beaten by the Wallabies in the first test in Sydney by 30-14.
But instead of fading meekly ahead of the second test the Tongans ran out onto Ballymore in Brisbane and were all fired up. They scored a superb 4 tries-to 2 victory by 16-11. Australian rugby was stunned. The result hastened the end of several test careers while some others quietly decided to accpet invitations to join professional rugby league.
Apparently the score would have been much more if the touring team's goal kicking had have been better.
[It was considered then - and still is - Tonga's greatest test victory. (Right up until their Rugby World Cup win over France in Wellington in 2011]
By all accounts the Tongans were very popular in Australia. One writer wrote warmly about their off-field appearance at social functions; 'with their crimson blazers, shell necklaces and cream sarongs, with taovala belts showing their rank in Tongan society.'
That was nice, although to call one of the players a 'golliwog halfback' the same writer's words would not not have gone down so well these days!
.....
Comments 0
They did it in style too; beating Canada 38-10 to win a Youth Olympic Gold medal in Nanjing China. The victory saw an Olympic rugby gold medal presented for the first time in 90 years!
BAKER, REGINALD ‘Snowy’
New South Wales and Australia
2 internationals for Australia, 1904
Though Reg Baker’s international career of playing halfback in both losses against the 1904 British side reads unglamorously, he is listed in any record as one of the sport’s earliest all-rounders. He became the first man to represent Australia in five sports: rugby, boxing, polo, swimming and diving. He actually competed in 24 other different games! Among his greatest achievements was to represent Australia at boxing in the 1908 Olympic Games, where he lost the middleweight final to J.W.H.T. (‘Johnny Won’t Hit Today’). Johnny Douglas was later an England cricket captain. For the record, the bout was refereed by Douglas’s father!
After his brief rugby career, Baker settled in Hollywood, where he taught film stars to ride, swim, fence and fight. He also starred on screen several times. By then, his younger brother Harald (correct spelling) had also represented Australia in rugby and had won Australian titles in boxing, swimming, water polo, and wrestling. Harald Baker was a lock in three tests against New Zealand in 1914.
It goes without saying that ‘Snowy’ Baker won his nickname for having distinctive blond hair.
Why was the kickoff for the Japan v Wales in Cardiff in 1983 delayed for 15 minutes?
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