Sporting & General Medals, Badges & Awards - Rugby &

Lot 3196    SESSION 12 (4.30PM WEDNESDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER)    Sporting & General Medals, Badges & Awards - Rugby & Ru

Estimate $500
Bid at live.noble.com.au

BRITAIN V. NZ, August 13th 1904, tin badge (23mm), no maker, pin-back. Fine and excessively rare.

The following courtesy of Huw Richards and ESPN:

"A crowd variously estimated at 21-25,000 crammed in what one report described as 'uncomfortable confusion' into Athletic Park, Wellington on August 13 1904 -- the effort of transporting them over-stretching Wellington's new electric trams. Bedell-Sivright, wearing a top hat, watched from a grandstand whose occupants also included New Zealand Premier Billy Seddon, first in a line of large-bodied, larger than life populists who have occupied the post, who had entertained the team at a reception on the previous Thursday.

The All Blacks included seven new caps including skipper Billy Stead at first five-eighth and dynamic forward Charlie 'Bronco' Seeling, destined for a great career in rugby league, but had a solid core of understanding built up on the Australian tour a year earlier. They had been training together, under the supervision of coach Jimmy Duncan, for the previous week. Other names which still resonate include loose forward (in fact an auxiliary half-back in the New Zealand formation of seven forwards and eight backs) Dave Gallaher, and the wings Billy Wallace and Duncan McGregor.

The All Blacks had the better of the first half, but kicker Wallace, usually lethally accurate, admitted to being so nervous that 'I could not see the posts, I was shaking all over' and missed two chances before finally landing one three minutes before half-time. From the restart a break by Morgan, captain in Bedell-Sivright's absence, led to a penalty which London Welshman Arthur Harding landed for the tourists, making it 3-3 at the break.

At half-time the All Blacks resolved to keep it tight and rely on their forward power, with their seven men -- specialists in their roles -- more than holding their own against an eight which was short on quality and top-level experience as well as packing down for scrums in the order in which they arrived. Two tries by McGregor sealed their 9-3 victory, leading one New Zealand paper to editorialise that 'Rugby is King', a position which it has arguably retained for 113 years and counting."