St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future
One (Start)
Transcript:
On Saturday the 28th of September 1935, Swansea RFC beat the New Zealand All Blacks, at the St Helen’s ground, Swansea. This not only earned them the substantial accolade of being the first club side to defeat the All Blacks, but also the honour of being the first club side to have beaten ‘the big three’, the touring sides of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. The following audio trail shares the story of New Zealand’s tours to St Helen’s, and to Wales more generally, as well as capturing the material legacy left behind. On the St Helen’s Archive website you may also find sister trails for the other members of the ‘Big Three’, a trail each for South Africa and for Australia.
At St Helen’s, the archive displays each object shared in this trail, as well as the sister trails. As such, the trails also act as a record of these displays, in the case of this trail a large number of jerseys. Each part shall take a moment to describe the highlighted objects as they are today. This trail covers a period between 1905 and 1989.
The first stop in this trail, 1905, the first time the All Blacks would tour in the UK. This New Zealand side would see the first use of the ‘All-Blacks’ sobriquet, but this side would also come to be known as ‘The Originals’, a title that distinguished them from the New Zealand Māori team who toured in 1888-89 and marked them as being the Original New Zealand All Blacks tourists. Overall, the New Zealanders would play thirty-five matches total, five of which were test matches. They won each of their tests, with exception to the second to last against Wales at the Cardiff Arms Park. Played on the 16th December 1905, Wales would take the win 3 - 0. Over the next two weeks, the All Blacks would play four Welsh sides, Glamorgan County, Newport, Cardiff and then Swansea. They won each game, with the first and last, against Glamorgan and Swansea respectively, played at St Helen’s. They won the Swansea game 4 - 3 on the 30th December 1905. A Swansea try by forward Fred Scrine was eclipsed by a drop goal from All Blacks full-back Billy Wallace. At this time any goal was worth 4 points and a try just 3. A short silent movie of the match between Glamorgan and the All Blacks at St Helen’s is on display at St Helen’s, truly a fascinating window into rugby football in 1905. It can also be viewed on the St Helen’s Archive website in the “Video & Aural” section. The All Blacks scored 976 points in these thirty-five games, conceding only 59. 17 of those 59 were to Welsh sides in only five games.
Additionally, we know that the All-Blacks made their base of operation at Newton Abbot in Devon. This would be the same place that the Australian tour of 1908-09 would be based, with a photograph of the Australian team outside Newton Abbot’s town hall opening the sister trail on the Wallabies. The All-Blacks have a similar photograph outside the same building, but unfortunately the photograph isn’t in the St Helen’s archive’s collection. The actual material legacy of this tour is a substantial one however. At St Helen’s, the jersey on display for this 1905 game is a replica - but at one point it was the original article. The original 1905 jersey had found its way via Tycroes RFC to the Welsh Rugby Union, where it is now on display at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. To replace it, the All Whites Former Players' Association purchased a replica in 2013. This exact replica was manufactured as part of a project overseen by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union by two manufacturers in Manawatu, New Zealand who are still in operation: Manawatu Knitting Mills and Robert Embroiderers in Parlmerston North. The jersey was made on the same old looms used at the start of the 20th century and used to make the original 'All Blacks' jerseys. The original pattern for the fern leaf had also survived, so the motif was copied exactly by hand. As it utilised the original practices and equipment as the original jerseys, only age allows us to identify the difference between the replica and its counterpart in Cardiff.
To describe this replica jersey, it is of course in the New Zealand black, with the large white fern leaf on the left breast. There is no number on the back. The most obvious detail to point out is the large grey mantle-like collar around the shoulders. The collar itself is the same colour, a dark grey, and is laced up rather than buttoned. The lace itself is no different to a thick brown shoelace. This grey collar is quilted in appearance, which repeats over the shoulders down about one third of the rear.
It is said that only three of these replica jerseys were produced, truly making this object a special item in the collection here at St Helen’s even without its relationship to the original jersey that was once here.
With an exceptional start, and a literal name-making for themselves, the All-Blacks began with what was clearly a statement of what also was to come. The following tour, in 1924, would only build upon this and come away with even greater results for New Zealand. 1924 is the topic of the next part in this trail, so please do follow on to find out more. Don’t forget to press next.