St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future
Two
Transcript:
This is part two of the five part audio trail following the story of the Australian rugby team’s tours to the UK, and their visits to Wales and specifically, St Helen’s. This part explores the Wallabies’ 1958 tour, following on from the first part’s exploration of the tour of 1908-09.
This trail, as shared in the first part, follows a display of objects left behind as a material legacy from the Australian tours, and as such does not touch upon every tour that the Wallabies made of the UK (& Europe), instead focusing on the tours that left us with objects to discuss. However, the Australian’s did tour in Britain in 1927-28, 1939-40 and 1947-48, before finally touring again for 1957-58, the topic of this part of the trail. Please note as an aside, the 1939 tour was by the New South Wales Waratah’s, not an Australian national side. Interestingly, as was seen in the first part of this trail, the 1908-09 touring side toured with the Waratah emblem as it was the New South Wales Waratah’s jurisdiction that they toured under - despite being a national side. Neither the tour in 1927-28 or this 1939 tour came to face Swansea RFC again at St Helens however. That was until 1947 when Australia defeated Swansea 11 - 8, on the 13th of December. With barely five minutes of play left, Swansea were leading 8 - 3, and it looked as if the All Whites were to achieve a second historic victory - like in 1908, but the forward Nicholas Michael Shehadie hurled himself over the Swansea line following a lineout which levelled the scores. Then, with seconds to go, the touring side snatched a famous victory against their 1908 conquering club.
But to return to the season of this part’s focus, 1957-58, it was on the 4th of January 1958 that the touring side played an international match against Wales at Cardiff. Wales won the match 9 - 3 with tries by Aberavon's John Collins and Llanelli's 'Lion' and former Swansea full-back Terry Davies. Future Wales coach Carwyn James dropped a goal on his Welsh debut. Tony Miller scored a try for the tourists. The material legacy of this game is a jersey. This jersey, on display at St Helens, belonged to Australian lock forward Norman McLauren Hughes. Hughes swapped jerseys, a culture in rugby that this archive has certainly benefited from, with Swansea RFC’s R C C ‘Clem’ Thomas. The jersey itself is green with a white collar, and bears the Australian Rugby Union crest on the left breast. The crest is a green shield with a gold border, defined and separate from the rest of the jersey. Within the badge is the Australian coat of arms, and beneath it are the words: ‘Australian Rugby Union, 1957-58’. On the jersey’s rear is the number 17, in gold.
As for the overall tour at a glance, the Wallabies won 17 from 36 matches played. Three matches were drawn. They did lose all five tests to Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland & France, but won the match against Swansea at St Helen's on 11th January 1958 by 12 - 6, another win making that 1908 loss to the All Whites feel even more distant.
The next part in this trail takes us to 1975. Another touring Wallabies side, with more material legacy on display at St Helens. Please do follow along to find out more. And please don’t forget to press next.