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 beat ‘the big three’, the touring sides of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. The following audio trail shares the story of South Africa’s tours to St Helen’s, and to Wales more generally, as well as captures 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 New Zealand 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 varied range of different objects each representing different parts of the story of these South African tours. Each part shall take a moment to describe the highlighted objects as they are today. This trail covers a period between 1906 and 1994.
The first object in this trail is from one of the earliest South African tours of the UK, in 1912-13. This tour also so happens to be the tour that the All Whites, Swansea RFC would take a win over the tourists, and take their second step towards the accolade that this trail opened with. The object is a stuffed and mounted Springbok head that was presented to Swansea RFC after their win. The head is mounted on a wooden shield, and given the oddity of it, can be quite a draw of visitor focus within the display at St Helen’s. The game itself, held on the 26th of December 1912, ended 3 to nil to the home side at the St Helen’s ground. Swansea forward D.J. Thomas scored the winning try in appallingly wet conditions. However, to only add to the achievement, the Springboks only lost two other matches that tour, against Newport, 3 to 9 early in the tour in October, and again against London Counties, 8 to 10 in late November.
The South African side also played five test matches during the tour, against each of the home sides and France, and won each of them. The game played against Wales, held on the 14th of December 1912 at Cardiff Arms Park, also ended 3 to nil, but to the Springboks. Wales had to wait until 1999 for their first win over the Springboks.
The South Africa tour of 1912-13 was not the first tour undertaken, but the second, to the UK by the side. 1906-07 was the first, and was supposedly the tour which coined the sobriquet ‘Springboks’ for the side.Swansea, with six recent Welsh Championships under their belts, were controversially left off the Springbok tour itinerary, though efforts were made direct with the South African management, to achieve a match. To ease the disappointment, the Swansea ground hosted Wales’ test match with the tourists in 1906. This game ended 11 to nil to the tourists. The result was a shock to all of Wales, the All Blacks having been beaten just a year before and Wales considering themselves unofficial “world Champions”. Unfortunately there is no material legacy in the St Helen’s archive from this earliest tour, and as such no object in the display to represent it.
As an additional bonus item related to the 1912-13 tour, in the 2012-13 season former Swansea and Wales captain Richard Moriarty was entrusted with enquiring if the South Africa RFU would like to acknowledge the centenary of the famous Swansea win. In response the club received a letter, dated 18th February 2013 from SARFC chief executive officer Jurie Roux. Whilst the whole letter can be seen on the archive website, or on display at St Helen’s, the following are a few excerpts from it:
‘On behalf of the South African Rugby Union I would like to congratulate the Swansea Rugby Football club on the forthcoming centenary of a significant day in your - and our - rugby history. The Second Springboks tour of 1912-13 were one of four South African touring teams to have recorded Grand Slam tours of Britain and Ireland.[...] In ‘seasonally-appropriate’ Welsh conditions [...] the Springboks were beaten 3-0. Ten days later our team went on to slay England 9-3, and later de-masted France 38-5. But nothing will take away Swansea’s victory. Congratulations to your club on the centenary of that notable day. We will raise a glass in memory, as I’m sure you may be doing too.’ End quote.
As stated previously, this win in 1912 was the second step of three of Swansea’s honour of being the first club to defeat the ‘Big Three’. Whilst the final piece would not come for twenty-three more years, when New Zealand would be defeated in 1935, the win would come and so the honour of being the first club to beat the ‘big three’ would be recorded. Today, outside the St Helen’s ground is a blue heritage plaque that reads: ‘St Helen’s Swansea RFC ground since 1876. First ever club to defeat Australia (1908), South Africa (1912) and New Zealand (1935)’, before repeating in Welsh. The plaque was dedicated in 2015, just two years after Jurie Roux sent the previously explored letter, and commemorates the history made in this period of rugby football at Swansea RFC.
Swansea would not take a win over another touring Springboks side again, but there were five other instances between 1931 and 1994 of the South African sides coming to St Helen’s, and facing Swansea. The material legacy of these further tours, continues in the following parts of this trail, as does the general story of the Springboks in the UK, Wales and at St Helen’s. Please do follow on to find out more, and don’t forget to press next.