Required: Football Boots & A Love of Country

Sean Fagan

Playing rugby for a country other than their own, was hardly uncommon a century ago.

The greatest example of "house-shifting" came in early 1899, when news broke that the soon-to-arrive down-under British rugby union team would only be visiting Australia.

While there was initially an outpouring of dismay across the rugby-mad New Zealand over the decision, many footballers decided to rectify the problem themselves.

Tossing aside their jobs, they jumped aboard steamer-ships for the five-day journey to New South Wales.

Barely weeks before the Brits arrived, more than a dozen New Zealand footballers had hooked-up with Sydney rugby clubs. Australian rugby had no residential rules - and the New Zealanders knew it. Once they took the field, they qualified as Australians, and played in the hope of being selected for the Test team.

By the time Australia's team for fourth Test was chosen, with the home side desperate to square the series with a victory, the national selectors had no qualms in choosing four New Zealanders, including 1897 All Black Bill Hardcastle.

The Australian selectors were hardly pioneers in the habit though - their British opponents included Melbourne's Alec Timms in the centres. The sons of Australia's wealthiest men in the late 1800s were sent to schools and universities across Great Britain to finish their education. Like Timms, many went to obtain medical degrees at the Edinburgh University, thus becoming available to the Scotland rugby team and the British Lions.

Amongst the numerous Antipodeans who played for Scotland was Australian rules footballer, Reggie Morrison. A contemporary of Charles Brownlow at Geelong in the early 1880s, Morrison got his first look at rugby with the University's third XV in 1883. Three seasons later he represented Scotland in matches against England, Ireland and Wales. Another was Herbert Bullmore, Kerry Packer's grandfather, who was in the Scots' forward pack in 1902.

Melbourne born (1858) James Alfred Bevan went on to become the captain of the inaugural Wales rugby union team in 1881. His transfer from Australia to Wales though came when, at the age of seven, both his parents drowned in a shipping disaster - Bevan was sent to live with relatives in Wales.

The RFU in England didn't miss out on utilising colonial talent, picking Charles Wade from Oxford University in the 1880s. The future NSW state premier was capped eight times for England as a wing three-quarter.

Aside from those who happened to be in an opportune place at the right time, there were other footballers who travelled the globe in search of international honours.

Queensland's Tom Richards, a miner, went to South Africa in early 1906, holding hopes of being selected for the inaugural Springbok tour of Britain. After playing for Transvaal in the Currie Cup, he learned that the South Africans had invoked a seven-year residential rule. Unfazed, Richards followed the team to England anyway, and took up with the Bristol club.

After hearing that Australia was to send her first team to Great Britain in 1908, Richards returned home. He duly gained selection in the tour team, and played for Australia in Tests against England and Wales.

After the tour, he again moved to South Africa. Richards' previous short stint at Bristol was considered to be a sufficient qualification for the touring British Lions to twice call on his services for Tests against the Springboks in South Africa in 1910.

It seemed that if a man was resident, and committed to do his best, what more mattered?

Of all the footballers who traded national allegiances a century ago, England's Blair Inskip Swannell made the ultimate contribution to his adoptive country.

A British Lion to Australia in 1899 and again in 1904, the former Northampton Saints RFC player remained in Sydney after his second tour. Playing for Northern Suburbs in 1905, his form (and reputation) was so good that was he chosen in a Test for Australia against New Zealand.

Just under a decade later, when the Great War erupted in Europe, Swannell was one of the first to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. A Boer War veteran, the 39 year old was appointed to the rank of Major.

On the morning of 25 April 1915, Swannell led his men on one of the first charges at Gallipoli. He barely made any ground before being fatally shot through the forehead.

The 1908 Wallabies captain, "Paddy" Moran, wrote of Swannell's demise: "The hard porcelain of his spirit had richer glaze than we had previously perceived; it was love of country."

Rugby History Article © Sean Fagan