Required: Football Boots and a Love of Country

Sean Fagan - ColonialRugby.com.au

Playing rugby for a country other than your own, or even playing for two different countries, was hardly uncommon a century ago.

Blair Swannell Member of the British Lions in 1899 and 1904, repped for Australia in a Test in 1905.

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 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 to 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 gentry 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.

Former Sydney University player Garnet Vere Portus (better known as 'Jerry' Portus) attended Oxford University in 1908 - unable to break into Oxford's first XV, Vere took up with the Blackheath club, where he gained selection as five-eighth for England in matches against France and Ireland.

One interesting move was that of Alf Larard, half-back and sole try-getter in South Africa's first ever Test match victory in August 1896 (v the British Lions).

Larard had migrated to the Transvaal from Hull in England's north as a 17 year old in 1887. In Johannesburg he began playing rugby union with the "Diggers" club, soon progressed to the Transvaal rep team for the Currie Cup, and then to the South African combined team in 1896.

When the Anglo Boer War erupted in 1899, Larard joined the English side of the divide, enlisting with the "Imperial Light Horse Regiment". In mid-1901 the now 30 year old Larard sailed back to England, where he signed on with the Huddersfield rugby league club, notching up 100 games over the next four seasons. [Legend has it that Larard played rugby league before he went to South Africa, but given the professional rugby code was not born until 1895, the myth is false.]

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 first 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 first Wallabies 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 - with service in the Boer War in between - the former Northampton Saints RFC player remained in Sydney after his second tour.

Playing for Northern Suburbs in 1905, Swannell's form (and reputation) was so good that he was selected in a Test for Australia against New Zealand.

Just under a decade later, when the Great War erupted in Europe, the then 39 year old Swannell was one of the first to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. The Boer War veteran 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, Herbert '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."

© Copyright - Sean Fagan - ColonialRugby.com.au