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Ewen McKenzie’s Wallabies fly out on Friday for another crack at a Grand Slam. This will be the ninth attempt.
Only the 1984 squad, captained by Andy Slack and coached by Alan Jones, have been successful, although the 1947-48 Wallabies gave the Slam a big shake, winning three of the four, without having their line crossed once, but scoring 11 tries themselves.
The 1958 Wallabies have the embarrassment of being the only country in 23 Slam attempts to lose all four internationals.
The All Blacks and the Springboks have won four Slams each, and with the sole Wallaby success, nine from 23 isn’t a good strike rate.
So let’s take a trip down memory lane from an Australian point of view:
The 1927-28 Waratahs were the first cab off the rank, captained by Johnnie Wallace.
They finished 2-2, beating Ireland 5-3, and Wales 18-8, but losing to England 18-11, and Scotland 10-8.
Cyril Towers was the legend of the day, the father-in-law of tough-as-teak Wallaby prop Jake Howard, grandfather of Pat Howard, also a Wallaby and currently with Cricket Australia.
Others of note on this tour were Syd Malcolm, Arthur Tancred, Tommy Lawton Snr, Wally Meagher, Alec Ross, Wylie Breckenridge, Jack Ford, and Billy Sheehan.
The 1947-48 tour was captained by Trevor Allan, after the selected captain, Bill McLean, broke his leg early on in the tour.
To this day Trevor is the youngest ever Wallaby skipper on tour at 21.
They beat England 11-0, Ireland 14-3, Scotland 16-7, but lost by two penalty goals, 6-0, to Wales.
Crowds flocked to see the Wallabies play great running rugby, with 70,000 at Twickenham, 50,000 at Murrayfield and Lansdowne Road, and 45,000 at Cardiff Arms.
The stars – Col Windon, Nick Shehadie, Phil Hardcastle, Ken Kearney, Brian Piper, Nev Emery (father of Australian cricketer Phil Emery), Arthur Buchan, Charlie Eastes, and Australian cricketer Alan Walker, who toured South Africa.
The 1958 tour saw Bob Davidson as captain, and Dave Cowper, father of Australian batsman Bob Cowper, the coach.
They lost all four in tight games – England 9-6. Ireland 9-6, Scotland 12-8, and Wales 9-3.
Shehadie backed up, and was joined by Kevin Ryan, Alan Cameron, John Thornett, Tony Miller, Arthur Summons, Jim Lenehan straight out of St Ignatius College, Des Connor, Rod Phelps, Terry Curley, Alan Morton, Don Logan, and Saxon White.
For the 1966-67 tour – captained by John Thornett – no coach was named.
They finished 2-2, beating England 23-11 and Wales 14-11, losing to Ireland 15-8 and Scotland 11-5.
Lenehan backed up in a great backline with Ken Catchpole, Phil Hawthorne, John Brass, Phil Smith, Dick Marks, Stewart Boyce, Alan Cardy, and a young John Hipwell.
Up front Tony Miller backed up with Roy Prosser, Rob Heming, Peter Johnson, John O’Gorman, Greg Davis, Jim Miller, Jules Guerassimoff, Ross Teitzel, and Peter Crittle,
The 1975-76 tour had John Hipwell as captain and Dave Brockhoff coach.
They finished 1-3, beating Ireland 20-10, but losing to England 23-6, Scotland 10-3 and Wales 28-3.
This side had a whole lot of new faces after a decade break, with Geoff Shaw, Laurie Monaghan, Paddy Batch, Billy McKid, John Berne, Kenny Wright, Jim Hindmarsh, Paul McLean, Rod Hauser, Ray Price, Gary Pearse, Tony Shaw, Mark Loane, John Meadows, John Lambie, Greg Cornelsen, Reg Smith, Garrick Fay, Chris Carberry, Brian Mansfield, David Hillhouse, Stuart Macdougall, Steve Finnane, Ron Graham, and Peter Horton.
The 1981-82 tour was captained by Tony Shaw and coached by Bob Templeton. This should have been a Grand Slam-winning tour but the Queensland rivalry towards NSW was insipid.
It was led by Paul McLean, who wasn’t good enough to be in the starting XV, but kept Mark Ella out of the first two games, then Michael Hawker, then took over from Roger Gould as full back, when Gould was the best custodian in the world.
Three Ellas – Mark, Glen, and Gary – two Coxs – Phillip and Mitchell – Gould, Andy Slack, Mick Martin, Peter Grigg, Michael O’Connor, Hawker, McLean, John Hipwell, Tony Parker, Simon Poidevin, Peter McLean, Mark Loane, Stan Pilecki, Greg Cornelsen, Tony D’Arcy, John Meadows, Chris Carberry, Steve Williams, Bruce Malouf, Chris Roche, Lance Walker, Declan Curran, Duncan Hall, Peter Lucas all played.
The most savagely treated of all, Mick Mathers, captain of Sydney and NSW, never got a run.
Then came the all-conquering 1984 tour, with Andy Slack captain and Alan Jones coach.
The four-zip scoreline – beating England 19-3, Ireland 16-9, Scotland 37-12, and Wales 28-9 – saw Mark Ella creating history by scoring in all four internationals.
The squad comprised Nick Farr-Jones, Ella, Michael Hawker, David Campese, Roger Gould, Brendan Moon, Mathew Burke, Peter Grigg, James Black, Michael Lynagh, Ross Hanley, Ian Williams, Phillip Cox, Topo Rodriguez, Andy McIntyre, Chris Roche, David Codey, Stan Pilecki, Ross Reynolds, Mark McBain, Steve Tuynman, Steve Williams, Steve Cutler, Tom Lawton, Cameron Lillicrap, Bill Calcraft, Gregg Burrow, Bill Campbell, and Nigel Holt.
Most recently was the 2009 tour, captained by Rocky Elsom and coached by Robbie Deans.
A 2-1 tour was another missed Slam, beating England 18-9 and Wales 33-12, drawing 20-20 with Ireland, and losing 9-8 to Scotland.
The squad was James O’Connor, Kurtley Beale, Lachie Turner, Tyrone Smith, Peter Hynes, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Ryan Cross, Digby Ioane, Matt Giteau, Will Genia, Luke Burgess, Drew Mitchell, Quade Cooper, Richard Kingi, Matt Toomua, Wycliff Palu, David Pocock, Mark Chisholm, James Horwill, Ben Alexander, Stephan Moore, Benn Robinson, Richard Brown, Matt Hodgson, Matt Dunning, Dean Mumm, George Smith, Salesi Ma’fu, Sekope Kepu, Mitchell Chapman, and Dave Dennis.
Now it’s up to James Horwill and Ewen McKenzie to lock in Wallaby Grand Slam number two, to get back on track with how the Wallabies can, and must, win.
The Slam is there for the taking – take it.