The 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the third ever Kangaroo tour. Again an Australasian side rather than an Australian team alone (although the 28-man squad featured only one New Zealander) travelled to Great Britain to contest

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

. Coached by

Arthur Hennessy Arthur Stephen "Ash" Hennessy (24 September 1876 – 19 September 1959) was an Australian pioneer rugby league identity. He was a seminal figure in the creation of the South Sydney Rabbitohs for whom he played and later coached. He was a state an ...

and captained by Les Cubitt, the Kangaroos travelled on the RMS ''Tahiti'' to England for best-of-three series of Test matches against Great Britain for the Ashes. The tour took place during the 1921–22 Northern Rugby Football Union season and also featured matches against several of the clubs in that competition as well as other representative teams. The tour also involved some degree of player misbehaviour, with one young footballer almost sent home from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

because of all the broken glasses following a drinking session on board the team's ship.

Touring squad

During 1921, the New Zealand side toured Australia, playing matches against

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, which served as selection trials for the upcoming 'Australasian' team's tour, for which only one New Zealander, Bert Laing, selected. The team wore the sky blue jersey of New South Wales and the only non-New South Welsh player to appear in a test was Queenslander Billy Richards in the third. Billy Cann was co-manager of the Australasian touring squad along with Souths' secretary, George Ball. Secretary of the

Queensland Rugby League The Queensland Rugby Football League QRL Constitution, 2009: 3 (QRL QRL Constitution, 2009: 2) is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL Commission) and selects the mem ...

, and football journalist Harry Sunderland also accompanied the team. On this tour Sandy Pearce at 38 years of age became the oldest Australian international player.

New South Wales

Early in the 1921 NSWRFL season, players who were selected had to leave their clubs for the tour. All but one of the League's nine teams (

University A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

) were represented in the touring squad: *

Cec Blinkhorn Cyril "Cec" Blinkhorn (18 April 1892 – 8 April 1977) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1910s and 1920s. He played in the NSWRFL premiership for the North Sydney Bears, North Sydney and South Sydney Rabbitohs, South S ...

, three-quarter back for

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

* Frank Burge, forward for

Glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

* Harry Caples, half back for Eastern Suburbs * George Carstairs, back for

St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

* Jimmy Craig, three-quarter back for Balmain *(c) Les Cubitt, three-quarter back for Eastern Suburbs * Charles Fraser, back for Balmain * Bert Gray, forward for

* Harold Horder, three-quarter back for

* Clarrie Ives, forward for

* Albert Johnston, half back for

* Reg Latta, forward for Balmain * Ted McGrath, forward for South Sydney * Rex Norman, three-quarter back for Eastern Suburbs * Sandy Pearce, forward for Eastern Suburbs * Herman Peters, three-quarter back for

* Clarrie Prentice, forward for Western Suburbs * Felix Ryan, forward for Newtown * Bill Schultz, forward for Balmain * Duncan Thompson, half back for

* Dick Townsend, forward for Newtown * Dick Vest, three-quarter back for Western Suburbs * Jack Watkins, forward for Eastern Suburbs

Queensland

* Neville Broadfoot, three-quarter back for Queensland * Edwin Brown, three-quarter back for Newtown (Toowoomba) * Norm Potter, forward for Queensland * Bill Richards, forward for Western Suburbs (

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

)

New Zealand

The sole New Zealand player that accompanied the Australians on tour has been listed in the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

's Kangaroos players register. * Bert Laing, half back for Auckland

Matches

Before sailing for England the team stopped in New Zealand for an exhibition match at the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve, also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the Basin, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for Test cricket, Test matches, and is the main home ground of t ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

. Also during the tour, the Northern Rugby Football Union tried to arrange a match in Paris, but opposition from the RFU-aligned

French Rugby Federation The French Rugby Federation (, ; FFR) is the governing body for rugby union in France. It is responsible for the French national team and the Ligue nationale de rugby that administers the country's professional leagues. History Before the FFR ...

made it impossible. After arriving in England, the Kangaroos played four matches against local clubs before the first Ashes test, winning all of them with dominant margins: ---- ---- ----

First Ashes test

The Kangaroos' winning streak came to an end when they played against England. Australasia led 5–3 at the break and the match seemed to be theirs when Frank Burge scored a late try, but it was disallowed by referee Frank Renton. Thus, a sole second-half try from the British close to full-time was enough for them to win it. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- At halftime York led 4–3 in a game that "was characterised by rough and scrambling play, minor injuries being numerous."

Second Ashes test

In the second Test the scores were 2-all at half-time, but after that the Australian backline of Horder, Carstairs, Vest and Blinkhorn cut loose. The Kangaroos scored 4 tries to nil, the win setting up the third and final Test as the Ashes decider. This was also the last Test in the international career of Sandy Pearce and made him the oldest ever Kangaroo. ---- The Kangaroos played sixteen more tour matches between the second and third Tests: Up to and including the final Kangaroo Tour which included matches against English club sides in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, this would be the highest ever score by the Kangaroos. The closest The Kangaroos ever came to this score was an 80–2 win over the Sheffield Eagles in 1994. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Among those present for this match was the UK's Speaker of the House of Commons, J. H. Whitley. The half-time score was 18–3 to the visitors, who were without Dick Vest due to ill health. ---- ----

Third Ashes test

The decider was played on a heavy, snow-bound field, much to the dismay of the fleet-footed Kangaroos. Early in the match the Australians were reduced to twelve men when Chook Fraser suffered a broken leg. In what was described as "a bruising encounter", Herman Hilton took a pass from his captain, the "prince of centres", Harold Wagstaff to dive over, taking two defenders over the try-line with him. The final score was 6–0 to the home side. By winning this third and deciding test of the series, Britain claimed

. ---- ---- By the end of the tour, Australian three-quarter,

, had scored 39 tries in 29 matches, which still stands as the record for most tries scored on a Kangaroo tour. The other winger, Harold Horder scored 35, and forward Frank Burge was not far behind with 33 tries from 23 games. The team travelled back to Australia on the ''Orvieto'', arriving in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

in February 1922. Upon their return to Sydney a large dinner was held for the tourists by the

New South Wales Rugby Football League The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission.It was registered on 21 ...

, which was attended by the likes of Sir Joynton Smith, to celebrate the players' courageous effort and the fact that this was the first team to return to Sydney with a profit.

References

External links

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...