History of Newport RFC :: 1874

"From Cardiff to-night will be broadcast a talk by Captain A. S. Burge, giving the account of an eye-witness of the Rugby football match between New South Wales and Newport, which is being played at Newport this afternoon; and the same station, together with several others, is issuing a relay of the Promenade Concert at the Queen's Hall. ......."

Surely one of the earliest broadcast reports of a Newport game?

From the match programme:-

"WELCOME THE WARATAHS."

"INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE MEN FROM NEW SOUTH WALES.",

"We extend to-day the heartiest of welcomes to the New South Wales Rugby team, who are the eighth touring team to appear on Newport Athletic Ground. Their welcome is all the more sincere because they have already shown their good sportsmanship. They have not come heralded by tall tales of their prowess, and make no secret that the ambition to emulate the invincibility of the 1924 All Blacks comes second to their desire to leave behind them a good name. Withall, they have made a wonderful start with a victory by 5g (2pg) 3t 30 pts to 1pg over Devon and Cornwall."

"The Waratahs, who take their name from a lovely bush flower which grows in Australia, are all ex-public schoolboys, and are drawn, with one exception, from the eight first-class clubs of Sydney. Their predecessors, the 1908 Wallabies, played 31 games, of which they won 24 and lost five. Four of their defeats were sustained in Wales - by Wales by 1pg 2t to 2t., Llanelly 1g 1t to 1t., Swansea lpg 1t. to nil. and Cardiff 3g (1dg 1pg) 4t to 1g 1t. They drew at Abertillery, and beat Newport by 1g to 1t.."

"The Newport team who played them were Stanley Williams; Melville Baker, J. P. Jones, F. Birt, R. C. H. Plummer; T. H. Vile, W. J. Martin; E. Thomas, E. Jenkins, J. E. C. Partridge, P. Waller, G. Staite, H. Jarman, A. Hockey, J. Adams. Mr. Jack Games was referee. Tommy Vile was the man of the match, which Newport were unlucky to lose, as neither score should have been allowed. Baker scored Newport's try."

"Included in the Welsh team who beat the Wallabies were J. P. Jones and P. D. Waller (Newport), George Travers (Pill Harriers) and J. Webb (Abertillery)."

........................

"Notable among our visitors to-day are A. C. Wallace, the Captain an Oxford Blue and Scottish International, who has played twice against Wales, Tom Lawton, another Oxford Blue, and Ross, the young full back, who is said to be better than Nepia!"

"It should be added that the Waratahs have no War-Cry."

The game itself proved not to be Newport's greatest against a touring team. A hugely talented Waratahs side ripped open the Newport defence to win the game by six tries to one. Although the Newport pack played well, the backs were run ragged with Oxford Blue Tom Lawton controlling the game and injecting pace into the three quarters. Newport's back line included three Welsh internationals in Everson, Griffiths and Stock but they could not contain their opposite numbers.

This was the second Australian team to visit the UK on tour and although they were exclusively picked from one state it was clear that they were a far superior outfit to their predecessors. Newport's try was scored by Reg Hathway.

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The Times of 23rd September 1927 carried the following report:-

"AUSTRALIAN'S VICTORY AT NEWPORT."

"The New South Wales team proved yesterday that their overwhelming defeat of Devon and Cornwall was no fluke by outplaying Newport in the mud of one of this summer's most horrible days. Newport scored first, but they never looked the better side and in the end they were well beaten by one goal and five tries (20 points) to one try (3 points)."

"It still is too early to estimate the full value of the Australians. Nearly all of one's first impressions, however, are distinctly favourable and their right to figure in international matches is not likely to be disputed, even if they fall to one or two club sides in Wales or elsewhere who are more capable of pinning them down in front than were Newport yesterday. A poorer Newport team can hardly ever have taken the field. The forwards were wild and undisciplined and the backs were hopelessly slow and lacking in confidence. Perhaps the Newport half-backs could plead that they were severely handicapped by the exceptional speed of the men in the Australian back row of the scrummage. Some of this winging undoubtedly was marred by off-side and obstructions, but, on the other hand, most of it was not. Players like J. W. Breckenridge, J. Ford, and E. J. Thorn, not to mention other singularly large but alert individuals like C. L. Fox and H. F. Woods, cannot be dismissed lightly as mere swift obstructionists, even though the Australian rules tend to make some magnificent forwards into such. Quite apart from the brilliant activities of the wingers, or rather quickly breaking up forwards, was the equally brilliant scrummaging of the Australian pack as a whole. There, at any rate, no one could question their worthiness as forwards, and the remarkable thing was that every man, including the back row, got in a solid push before breaking up. Newport often got the ball, but they were generally pushed off it, and the opposing wingers merely completed the discomfiture of Jermand and Vincent Griffiths. This is a point that is well worth bearing in mind. The New South Wales pack outscrummaged as well as outpaced the Newport men, and in the end outrushed them as well."

"With the battle at forward going so badly - so unexpectedly badly - against them, perhaps one should not have been so hard upon all of the Newport backs. Up to a point their marking was effective enough, and the tackling, if inclined to be high, not more than a good deal below the old Newport standard. Everson at full back compares well with A. W. Ross, a nicely balanced man with the kind of kick that rarely left any doubt as to its destination. But the longer the game went the more obvious it became that for sheer skill and running power there was only one side in it and that was not Newport. To start with, F. W. Meagher, the Australian scrummage half-back, was not too sure of himself, but directly he found his feet the deadly nature of the triangle of players immediately behind him became apparent. That great player T. Lawton, of course we knew and appreciated. No sounder all-round player existed a year or so ago, and, with a less obvious deliberate pass, he would rank among the greatest of stand-off half-backs. A. C. Wallace, again, needs no reintroduction, though in his case he always has been a greater player on the wing than in the centre. Yesterday, however, he was elusiveness itself, and, when one discovered that his fellow centre, C. H. T. Towers, had all the makings of a first-class player, the prospects of the Australians looked so good that the rush try with which Newport opened the game seemed of very little account. Towers not only knows he has speed and a good pair of hands, but he knows where to run when a movement ceases to be straightforward and orthodox, and becomes eccentric and apt to defeat the attacking as well as the defending side. Towers cannot be said to have constructed any of his side's six tries, but he never failed to support either the wriggling runs of Wallace or the breaks-through of Lawton, whose great, raking stride would be wasted on a team that had not learned the outstanding value of close backing-up in the Rugby game. Towers also scored a fine individual try late in the game. If one may criticize him, it would be on the score of an over-anxiety to keep alongside his wing man when the latter has accepted a pass; he keeps so near to his own man that it borders upon obstruction of an opponent running across to make a tackle. The New South Wales wings were fast and strong runners, but it was the strength of the play in midfield in support of some first-class scrummaging that really accounted for the heaviness of the scoring on such an appalling day."

"Newport's try was touched down by Hathway after Bowers had had his kick charged down almost on the goal line. It was significant that after this New South Wales neither wavered for an instant in front, though they had their work cut out to hold their own, nor even looked feeble in attack behind the scrummage. Whenever they got the ball the midfield players looked dangerous, and eventually two well deserved tries came to them. Wallace paved the way for the first, scored by Towers, and just before half-time one of the several strong runs by Lawton was triumphantly supported by J. Ford."

"In the second half Newport steadily fell away, and New South Wales steadily gained in confidence and technique. E. Ford, on the right wing, completed two passing movements that would not have disgraced the All Blacks, A. J. Bowers completed another fine movement that Lawton really made worthy of that description and, finally, Towers ran through the Newport defence to score a try under the goal posts, for Thorn to add the extra two points."

"Considering the day, there was an excellent crowd, who grew more and more appreciative of the visiting team, even though they strongly disapproved of some of the more daring activities of Breckenridge."

"NEWPORT.- W. Everson, back; P. L. Griffiths, F. Nicholas, W. R. Davies, and Griffiths, three-quarter backs; V. M. Griffiths and C. Jerman, half-backs; H. T. Phillips, W. C. Morgan, W. Friend, J. Collins, R. C. Herrera, R. Hathway, H. Peacock, and M. Burke, forwards."

"NEW SOUTH WALES.- A. W. Ross, back; E. E. Ford, A. C. Wallace, C. H. T. Towers, and A. J. A. Bowers, three-quarter backs; T. Lawton, and F. W. Meagher, half-backs; J. A. Ford, F. J. Thorn, J. W. Breckenridge, C. L. Fox, A. N. Finlay, J. C. Blackwood, H. F. Woods, and B. Judd, forwards."