The Sporting Legacy of the 1905 "All Blacks"

Sean Fagan

The 1905 "All Blacks" are recognised as the team that defined New Zealand rugby union. On their tour of the United Kingdom, they swept all before them, losing just one match.

Their style-of-play and crowd popularity reinvigorated English rugby union. A century on, numerous books and countless newspaper and magazine articles laud the achievements of the All Blacks of 1905.

Rarely mentioned though is the effect and influence (both on and off the field) they had on two other football codes - rugby league and Australian rules.

If not for the 1905 All Blacks, rugby league would have faded away in England, and never arrived in New Zealand or Australia. However, it is naive though to believe that amatuer rugby union would have continued to hold sway in Sydney and Brisbane in the absence of rugby league. With vast working-class populations in both cities, and large attendances at big matches, the recipe for the founding of a professional football code still existed. There can be little doubt that Australian rules would have taken up that opportunity.

Indeed, before the All Blacks tour, Australian rules was already growing in popularity in Sydney amongst footballers and spectators. The Victorian born football code was not tied to the RFU and would, albeit not openly, pay money to footballers. The financial opportunities that lay in NSW v Victoria "football" matches was also not lost on many.

Just in time perhaps, the booming gate-receipts taken during the All Blacks tour led to men such as James J. Giltinan and Victor Trumper (founders of Australian rugby league) to seek financial opportunities in professional rugby instead of Australian rules.

In Britain the All Blacks had showcased an attacking style of rugby developed in New Zealand - players would refuse to fall with the football in hand, always looking for a support player, to continue the movement and attack the opposition line.

Their objective was to avoid scrums, rucks and mauls, to keep the play continuous, and wear down their opponents with rapid passing movements and spectacular back play. As a result, the All Blacks attracted supporters to their matches in their tens of thousands.

This caught the attention of the professional Northern Union (English rugby league). Desperate to popularise their income-driven game, many rugby league officials were mesmerised by the crowd-pulling, entertaining style of the All Blacks.

To bring about "All Blacks style rugby" on a weekly basis amongst their own club footballers, rugby league made two significant rule changes the following season. The first was to reduce the number of players on each team from 15 to 13, to create more space for attacking rugby. The second was to mimic the All Blacks preference to avoid scrums, rucks and mauls - rugby league introduced the play-the-ball.

Suddenly, rugby league found new crowd-appeal - just in time for its introduction to New Zealand and Australia in 1908. When rugby league arrived in Sydney, it was the differences in the playing rules between the codes that favoured the professional game with the sporting public.

This article is based on The Rugby Rebellion.

Enjoying far more popularity and much larger crowds than the NSWRU, the NSWRL quickly became a rich and powerful body. It was readily able to meet the financial needs of the working-class footballers that dominated the city, and could out-bid the rugby union authorities at every turn.

The changes the English rugby league made in 1906/07, as a direct result of the 1905 All Blacks' British tour, together with the tour's financial success, convinced footballers and entrepreneurs to turn away from the possibility of Australian rules. Instead they formed professional rugby league in Sydney (NSWRL), Queensland (QRL) and New Zealand (NZRL).

Had the 1905 All Blacks never been formed, or not been such a success, professional rugby league may never have come to Australia and New Zealand. Ironically, the winner from that would not have been rugby union, but Australian rules.

Rugby History Article © Sean Fagan