Just as the Wallabies were running out onto Cardiff Arms Park and the until-then invincible All Blacks were preparing to face Ireland in celebratory, baseball-loving Chicago last weekend a group of Wellington Kiwi old rugby players were remembering returning from an amazing grand world rugby tour.
It began with a game against Harlequins at Twickenham on October 8, 1966, included games in Dublin, Hong Kong, and Japan, and ended by enjoying the relaxing hospitality of the Manly Rugby club and the Long Reef Surf Club before returning to Wellington – tired and happy – on November 6.
The club team was Wellington Athletic and the unique club tour was largely initiated by All Black forward legend Nev MacEwan (All Blacks 1956-62, toured Australia 1957 and 1962) who had also played with London club Blackheath in 1963-64 and established the key contacts which got the world tour idea rolling.
Once the initial Blackheath game was arranged, and UK publicity spread the word that an actual Kiwi club side, not the traditional All Blacks national side, was travelling from the other side of the world to play locally, other English clubs including Harlequins quickly arranged games.
Then the invitations spread, led by the Clontarf rugby club in Dublin which was happy to pay all travel and hospitality expenses to enable a home match. The hospitality naturally extended to a visit to the Guinness brewery the night before when Clontarf managed to send along its second team to mingle. A very fresh and different Clontarf 15 ran onto the field the next day.
Wellington contact had been made earlier with the Hong Kong rugby union and the Japan rugby union – Moscow was keen but couldn’t finalise details – and so the return grand world tour leg saw an entertaining game in Hong Kong followed by four
matches in Japan against Doshisha University, Kinki Railways, Toyota Motors, and Yawata Steel.
Yes, they did play rugby union in Japan in 1966 and had already established an innovative wide-running style which often left the more traditional Athletic Kiwi side struggling in cover defence. It was a style which former Australian coach Eddie Jones perfected when coaching Japan to victory over rugby giant South Africa at the Rugby World Cup last year and may again lead to surprises with his new English team.
As a playing member – at No. 10 or flyhalf – of the grand Wellington Athletic world touring team – I was happy to join in with the memories of old tour colleagues on a
visit back to Wellington last month. It reinforced for me the real spirit of ongoing rugby union friendship and reminded us all of the fantastic embrace thrown out
instantly by other rugby clubs around the world. You don’t need to be an All Black or a Wallaby tourist to be welcome at the bar, even in Cardiff and Chicago.
And to commemorate it all Neven MacEwan, assisted by Seamus Coogan, has just had a book published in New Zealand on “the untold tales of Wellington RFC’s 1966 World Tour. How it happened, the results, the players, the hangovers. It’s all here.The story of a true Kiwi world rugby first”.
And I think most of it is all true, as least as far as I remember.
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