1947–48 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America

The squad's leadership

A squad of 30 players was selected under tour captain Bill McLean. McLean was an experienced Wallaby and leader. His father and brother had represented as both Wallabies and Kangaroos, with his other brother Jack also a Wallaby tourist. Bill McLean had been selected in the 1939 side who'd travelled to England under captain Vay Wilson and were promptly turned about upon the declaration of war without playing a match. He had seen action in World War II against the Japanese as a Captain in an AIF Commando unit in Borneo. He had captained Australia's first post-war Wallaby sides on four occasions against the All Blacks and his return to the British Isles was in some ways a completion of unfinished business.

Trevor Allan was only 20 when selected as vice-captain of the squad. He had impressed in his first state and national representative starts a year earlier but in a squad of veteran campaigners including Graham Cooke and Phil Hardcastle his vice-captaincy was a surprise and an indication that he was being groomed for the future.

The tour was only six matches old when Bill McLean fulfilled his dream of playing at Twickenham in a minor clash against Combined Services. The match was near completion when McLean was hit by three tacklers from different angles. Howell, Tressider and Shehadie all write that the snap of bone breaking was audible to onlookers. McLean suffered a serious spiral fracture of the tibia and fibula and had played his last representative match. The tour captaincy passed at that moment to Allan, now just a few days past his 21st birthday. Allan was leading a squad comprising war veterans in Ken Kearney, Col Windon, Eddie Broad and Neville Emery; three qualified medical practitioners in Phil Hardcastle, Doug Keller and Clem Windsor; and a mixture of new and experienced Wallabies.

The tradition on earlier Australian tours had been that the manager took care of arrangements and the Asst-Manager fulfilled the coaching duties. Shehadie reports that Arnold Tancred and McLean coached and trained the 1947–48 side with vigour while Jeff Noseda took care of tour administration. Journalist Phil Tressider accompanied the touring party and wrote of Tancred "I remember Tancred as a grim, brooding man who not only managed the team but coached it and was sole selector. He would brook no interference and he kept the press at arm's length. He was fortified by his experiences as a player with the 1927–28 Waratahs and he had an aching ambition for victory", Shehadie wrote of Tancred. * "[He] was a very strict disciplinarian who was determined that we would win as many matches as possible. He would constantly remind us that we would only be remembered for the number of matches we won"* and goes on to quote Jack Pollard: ''"The only criticism of Tancred was that relied perhaps too heavily on the team's proven stars and did not give newcomers many opportunities. He barred sportswriters travelling with the team from staying in the same hotel, was uncooperative with the press, and the team did not enjoy very sympathetic media coverage".'''

Tour itinerary

The squad sailed southwards from Sydney Harbour in July 1947 aboard the passenger liner Orion. They departed Australia from Fremantle after crossing the Great Australian Bight, next docking in Colombo, Ceylon where they were welcomed and entertained by the expatriate community like the 1927–28 Waratahs before them. From there they sailed to Aden in Yemen, then Port Said, Egypt before arriving in England in the port town of Tilbury.

After seeing the sights of a London still scarred from wartime devastation, the party left by train for Penzance in Cornwall where their on-land training would pick up ahead of the first tour match against Combined Cornwall and Devon at Camborne won by the Wallabies. The minor matches would have an exacting toll with firstly McLean's injury in the sixth game and then the loss of champion Manly winger Charlie Eastes in the match against Newport to a broken arm which also spelled the end of his tour participation.

Rugged matches in Cardiff and Llanelly followed before the Wallabies returned to London where they visited the House of Commons and the House of Lords and met Clement Attlee at 10 Downing Street. Later at St James's Palace they were received by the Duke of Gloucester, a former Governor-General of Australia and met his young son Prince William. A tour highlight was a royal reception at Buckingham Palace where the squad met the King and Queen and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. When the squad travelled to Ireland for the second Test they met the President Éamon de Valera.

Back in Britain after the France Test, the Wallabies met the British Barbarians in their inaugural match against an international team – such fixtures would thereafter become a regular event against touring national southern-hemisphere sides. The fixture was arranged during the tour as an extra match to raise funds for the Australians' journey home via Canada. The Barbarians fielded six internationals from England, five from Wales, two from Scotland, one from Ireland. A Barbarian tradition is to select one uncapped player and on this occasion it was Blackheath F.C. winger Martin Turner. The Barbarians won 9–6 and at the after match function tour captain McLean was given honorary Barbarian membership.

After the Barbarians match the team sailed for New York aboard the Queen Mary. From there they travelled across the Rockies by train, playing a number of fixtures against sides comprising expatriates and American footballers. The final tour match was against a University of California team in Los Angeles. The homeward legs were taken by air – Australian National Airlines flew a Skymaster from Los Angeles to Hawaii (an overnight stop), to Canton Island, to Fiji (another overnight) before arriving in Sydney on 28 March 1948. Two years later that very same plane – the Amana – would crash on a scheduled flight from Melbourne to Perth killing all 29 on board.

Test matches

bg = #eeeeee | team1 = | team2 = | score = 16–7 | report = | points1 = Arthur Tonkin (3 – 1t) Max Howell (3 – 1t) Ken Kearney (3 – 1t) Graeme Cooke (3 – 1t) Brian Piper (4 – 2g)| points2 = (4 – 1dg) Derek Hepburn
(3 – 1g) Charles McDonald | date = 22 November 1947 | stadium = Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh | attendance = 50,000 | referee= | AUSTRALIA: Brian Piper, Arthur Tonkin, Trevor Allan, Max Howell, Terry MacBride, Neville Emery, Cyril Burke, Eric Davis, Ken Kearney, Eric Tweedale, Joe Kraefft, Graham Cooke, Doug Keller, Arthur Buchan, Colin Windon

SCOTLAND: Ian Lumsden, Graeme Jackson, Donny Innes, Thomas Wright, Charlie McDonald, Peter Hepburn, Dallas Allardice, Robert Bruce, Dod Lyall, Ian Henderson, Leslie Currie, Hamish Dawson, Douglas Elliot, Gordon Watt, Jimmy Lees

bg = #eeeeee | team1 = | team2 = | score = 16–3 | report = | points1 = Arthur Tonkin (3 – 1t) Trevor Allan (5 – 1t, 1g) Cyril Burke (3 – 1t) Colin Windon (3 – 1t) Bob McMaster (2 – 1g)| points2 = (3 – 1g) Kevin Quinn | date = 6 December 1947 | stadium = Lansdowne Road, Dublin | attendance = 50,000 | referee= | AUSTRALIA: Brian Piper, Arthur Tonkin, Max Howell, Trevor Allan, Terry MacBride, Neville Emery, Cyril Burke, Bob McMaster, Ken Kearney, Eric Tweedale, Joe Kraefft, Graham Cooke, Doug Keller, Arthur Buchan, Colin Windon

IRELAND: Dudley Higgins, Des McKee, Kevin Quinn, Paddy Reid, Kevin O'Flanagan, Jack Kyle, Ernest Strathdee, Jimmy Corcoran, Karl Mullen, Albert McConnell, Richard Wilkinson, Jimmy Nelson, Bill McKay, Ernie Keeffe, Desmond McCourt

bg = #eeeeee | team1 = | team2 = | score = 6–0 | report = | points1 = Bill Tamplin (6 – 2g) | points2 = | date = 20 December 1947 | stadium = Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff | attendance = 45,000 | referee= | AUSTRALIA: Brian Piper, Arthur Tonkin, Trevor Allan, Max Howell, Terry MacBride, Neville Emery, Cyril Burke, Bob McMaster, Ken Kearney, Eric Davis, Joe Kraefft, Graham Cooke, Doug Keller, Arthur Buchan, Colin Windon

WALES: Billy Cleaver, Ken Jones, Bleddyn Williams, Jack Matthews, Leslie Williams, Glyn Davies, Handel Greville, Emlyn Davies, Mal James, Cliff Davies, John Gwilliam, Bill Tamplin, Ossie Williams, Les Manfield, Gwyn Evans

Australia were beaten squarely in a dull, forwards based game with neither side penetrating to score a try.

bg = #eeeeee | team1 = | team2 = | score = 11–0 | report = | points1 = Colin Windon (6 – 2t) Alan Walker (3 – 1t ) Arthur Tonkin (2 – 1g) | points2 = | date = 3 January 1948 | stadium = Twickenham Stadium, London | attendance = 70,000 | referee= H Lamber (Ireland)| The Wallabies enjoyed a feast of possession in the first half with their locks Cooke and Kraefft dominating the line-outs and their forwards ahead in the scrums three to one. The match was played at a furious pace and at the twenty-minute mark suddenly for the first time in four Tests the Australian goal line was threatened when the English centre Bennett put Swarbrick into open space.

''Swarbrick licked up the pass like a sprinter head down for the finish. Sheer pace carried him on. Tonkin could not get to him. He swerved out, his flying feet not brushing the chalk from the touch line. Piper's dash to the corner was too late. Swarbrick pounced forward – he was clear ! The 70,000 crowd were on their toes. Wild arms waved to high heaven. The Twickenham Valley, pinched between the canyon grandstands, reverberated with thundering clanging to a crescendo. He was not only clear – he was through ! He was indeed over the line, safely, marvellously home. He had but to fall on his face and England would be a try up. A dead man must have scored us three points. And then, as Swarbrick hurled himself down, a pin-pointed rocket caught him, swept him through mid-air, ball and all, into the no-man's land of touch in goal. It was Trevor Allan, the forlorn hope, saving his side after all was lost. '''

The sides were evenly matched thereafter with both sets of backs depriving the other of a scoring opportunity. Then right before half-time a kick by Syd Newman failed to find touch and landed in the Australian pack for Ken Kearney to bring the ball forward. It went through many hands before Colin Windon scored in the corner to give the Wallabies a 3–0 lead at the break.

With the game three-quarters over England's full-back Newman hit the post with a penalty attempt that would have kept them in the match. Then with ten minutes to go, the game opened up in Australia's favour. Alan Walker chip-kicked ahead, regathered in spectacular fashion and scored. Then Col Windon's punishing defence on English pivot Tommy Kemp saw Kemp spill the ball and Windon set off like "the Breeze" he was affectionately known as, and outpaced all to the try-line.

AUSTRALIA: Brian Piper, Arthur Tonkin, Trevor Allan (c), Alan Walker, Terry MacBride, Neville Emery, Cyril Burke, Nicholas Shehadie, Ken Kearney, Eric Tweedale, Joe Kraefft, Graham Cooke, Doug Keller, Arthur Buchan, Colin Windon

ENGLAND: Syd Newman, Dickie Guest, Billy Bennett, Edward Scott, David Swarbrick, Tommy Kemp (c), Richard Madge, Eric Evans, John Keeling, Harry Walker, Joe Mycock, Samuel Victor Perry, Micky Steele-Bodger, Brian Vaughan, Jika Travers

bg = #eeeeee | team1 = | team2 = | score = 13–6 | report = | points1 = Michel Pomathios (3 – 1t) Guy Basquet (6 – 2t) Andre Alvarez (4 – 2g) | points2 = (6 – 2g) Arthur Tonkin | date = 11 January 1948 | stadium = Stade Colombes, Paris | attendance = 30,000 | referee= | AUSTRALIA: Brian Piper, Arthur Tonkin, Trevor Allan, Alan Walker, Terry MacBride, Neville Emery, Cyril Burke, Nicholas Shehadie, Ken Kearney, Eric Tweedale, Joe Kraefft, Graham Cooke, Doug Keller, Arthur Buchan, Colin Windon

FRANCE: Andre Alvarez, Michel Pomathios, Pierre Dizabo, Maurice Terreau, Roger Lacaussade, Leon Bordenave, Gerard Dufau, Lucien Caron, Lucien Martin, Eugene Buzy, Alban Moga, Robert Soro, Jean Prat, Guy Basquet, Jean Matheu-Cambas

Touring party

• Manager: Arnold Tancred
• Tour secretary: Jeff Noseda
• Captain: Bill McLean
• Vice-captain: Trevor Allan

Squad

Matches of the tour

The "Exhibition Matches" are not classed as important as the "Tour matches", they are listed on the tour although the starting line-ups are not counted in the players' stats.

Footnotes

References

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney – (Essay specific to this article Phil Tressider's The Class of '47–48 1st published Sydney's Daily Telegraph 1987)
• Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ
• Shehadie, Nicholas (2003) A Life Worth Living, Simon & Schuster Australia
• Batchelor, Denzil (1949) Days Without Sunset, Eyre and Spottiswoode London
• Pollard, Jack (1994) Australian Rugby – The Game and the Players Jack Pollard Sydney

References

1. Jack Pollard ''Australian Rugby The Game and the Players''; Ironbark, 1994, p.654
2. Batchelor, Days Without Sunset.
3. Shehadie, A Life Worth Living p 227
4. Phil Tressider reproduced in ''Spirit of Rugby'' p43-46 (1st published Sydney Daily Telegraph 1988
5. Shehadie, ''A Life Worth Living'' p54
6. (3 December 2009). "Barbarians at the gate".
7. as described by Nick Shehadie in A Life Worth Living
8. Shehadie, A Life Worth Living p59
9. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Australia/pr-cornwall%20&%20Devon%20v%20A%2047.jpg Cornwall/Devon program]
10. [http://www.love-rugby.com/rugby-memorabilia/rugby-Programmes/matchpage.php?matchid=12864&hometeam=Midland%20Counties%20(Eng)&year=1947&awayteam=Australia love-rugby.com]
11. Goodman, Tom. (18 September 1947). "Doubt Over French Tour by Wallabies". trove.nla.gov.au.
12. "Gloucester/Somerset program".
13. [http://www.sportspages.com/rugby_union/rugby_programmes/australia/abertillery_cross_keys_v_australia_1947_48_19753?search Abitillery programme]
14. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/tour/aus2/47-Cardiff.jpg Cardiff program]
15. [http://www.sportspages.com/rugby_union/rugby_programmes/australia/combined_services_v_australia_1947_48_4702c?search Combined Services program]
16. Goodman, Tom. (6 October 1947). "Record Win Gives Wallabies Heart". trove.nla.gov.au.
17. (1947). "North of Scotland V. Australia (The Wallabies), Linksfield Stadium, Aberdeen, Wednesday, 8th October, 1947". North District Rugby Union.
18. Goodman, Tom. (13 October 1947). "Wallabies Last Out to Defeat South Scotland". trove.nla.gov.au.
19. Goodman, Tom. (17 October 1947). "Wallabies' Display was Best of Tour". The Sydney Morning Herald.
20. (20 October 1947). "Australian Rugby Union Team Wins Again". The Advertiser.
21. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/tour/aus2/47-Ab-Neath.jpg Aberavon program]
22. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/tour/aus2/99.jpg Llanelli program]
23. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/aaaaa/jk/85.jpg London Counties program]
24. [http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/page/83602.html Scrum.com dateline]
25. "Hampshire/Sussex program".
26. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/aaaaa/lx/48.jpg Oxford program]
27. "East Midlands programme".
28. [http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/page/83602.html Scrum.com November timeline]
29. [http://www.love-rugby.com/rugby-statistics/genericmatch.php?matchid=12883&hometeam=Ulster&awayteam=Australia love-rugby.com]
30. [http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/8288.php munsterrugby.ie]
31. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/aaaaa/mv/59.jpg Swansea program]
32. [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/tour/aus2/47-pontypool.jpg Pontypool program]
33. [http://www.love-rugby.com/rugby-statistics/genericmatch.php?matchid=12886&hometeam=London%20Counties&awayteam=Australia love-rugby.com]
34. [http://www.love-rugby.com/rugby-memorabilia/rugby-Programmes/matchpage.php?matchid=12887&hometeam=South%20West%20France&year=1948&awayteam=Australia love-rugby.com]
35. Griffiths, John. (4 July 2011). "Cricket and tennis stars, SH tours by the Home Unions and early tourists in France". espnscrum.co.
36. (26 January 1948). "Wallabies Win". The Courier Mail.
37. (1 March 1948). "Wallabies defeat Vancouver". The Canberra Times.
38. (8 March 1948). "Wallabies Win Final Game of Tour". Townsville Daily Bulletin.
39. (22 March 1948). "Wallabies beat Stanford Team". The Canberra Times.