December 16, 1905: Rugby's "Match of the Century"

Illustration for a children's book about the match

December 16, 1905: A rugby union match is played, becoming known as the sport's "Match of the Century."

Rugby was allegedly invented at the prep school of the same name in England's Midlands in 1823. Wales began playing it in 1850, the Welsh Rugby Union was formed in 1881, and the Home Nations Championship, between Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland was first played 2 years later. (France was added in 1910, making it the Five Nations Championship. In 2000, Italy was added, making it the Six Nations Championship.)

The sport was first played in New Zealand in 1870. By 1904, New Zealand was sending its national team on tour. Because of their all-black uniforms, they became known as the All Blacks. (The soccer team eventually became known as the All Whites, and their cricket team as the Black Caps.)

The Original All Blacks, also known simply as "The Originals," were the first New Zealand team to tour outside Australasia. They toured the British Isles, France and the United States during 1905–1906. Their opening game, on September 16, 1905, was against Devon, in England's West Country, whom they defeated 55–4. They defeated every English side that they faced, including a 16–3 victory over English county champions Durham in the North-East, and a 32–0 victory over Blackheath in South-East London.

They defeated the national teams of Scotland, 12-7, easily the closest match on the tour before December 16; Ireland, 15-0; and England, also 15-0. On December 13, they beat Yorkshire in Leeds, 40-0. By the time the tour arrived in Wales, the All Blacks had not conceded a single point in their last 600 minutes of rugby. They had played 27 matches on the tour so far, scoring 801 points and conceding just 22.

The team travelled to Wales by train on 15 December, arriving at Cardiff Station in the evening. Despite the late hour, the visitors received a raucous welcome, a large crowd (contemporary estimates put it crowd at 20,000) had gathered to greet the All Blacks both inside the station and along the neighboring streets, preventing the players from getting to their hotel, and police had to force a path through the crowd for the tourists.

As early as October, the Welsh Match Committee had been observing the All Blacks tour. On October 19, the committee travelled to Gloucester, and say the tourists defeat one of the best club sides in England, 44–0. Rugby historians tend to accept that the scale and manner of this All Blacks victory encouraged the Welsh observers to develop new tactics that could match the tourists' unorthodox style.

As early as 1888, the New Zealand players had been performing a pregame routine that featured the haka, a dance of their native Māori people. They brought it with them to Britain. The Wales team debated how to counter this, and it was agreed that they would simply sing "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" ("Land of My Fathers"). It is believed to be the earliest performance of a National Anthem before a sporting event, and it whipped the crowd at Catdiff Arms Park into a frenzy, charging the players up.

As has become traditional for them, Wales wore all red, which would have been distinctive in person against New Zealand's literal all-black uniforms, but makes it difficult to tell the teams apart in black & white photographs.

Having studied the All Blacks' tactics, Wales concentrated on outside play. This resulted in a defensive struggle, and accounts of the match were unanimous in reporting how unusually poor New Zealand were in the 1st half, conceding an abundance of penalties in the opening 15 minutes. (Rugby union matches are 80 minutes, 2 halves of 40 minutes each.) One reporter stated that the normally free-scoring All Blacks did not get any play inside the Welsh 25 yard line until the very moment before half-time.

In the 23rd minute, a scrum was called, and Dicky Owen saw a chance to call the move he devised in training. As Wales won the ball, Owen ran it down the blindside, with the backline of Percy Bush, Gwyn Nicholls (the team Captain) and Willie Llewellyn following him in support. This initial move drew several New Zealand players. Owen then switched the play, throwing a long pass back to the openside, with Cliff Pritchard having to take the ball at his feet. The long pass gave Pritchard time to draw a covering tackle, before passing to Rhys Gabe, who similarly drew a would-be tackler. Finally, Gabe passed to Teddy Morgan, who sprinted more than 20 yards to touch down in the left corner. It was 3-0 to Wales, the first time that the All Blacks had conceded without first scoring themselves. Wales failed to kick the conversion.

The All Blacks had most of the attacking play in the 2nd half. Billy Wallace crossed the try line, but was called back, having run into touch and a forward pass from Bob Deans prevented an inevitable try for Duncan McGregor.

The closest opportunity came for the All Blacks when Deans was brought down inches from the line. By this point, there was a mist over the field, and it wasn't clear who had made the key tackle, with reports at the time saying it was a combined effort of Morgan and Gabe, but Morgan gave Gabe sole credit.

The mist led the All Blacks to believe that Deans had scored, which would have tied the game, and given them the chance to take the lead on the ensuing conversion. Even some of the Welsh players admitted that they thought he had scored, then been pulled back. But the referee, J.D. Dallas of Scotland, ruled that he never crossed the line, and was 6 to 12 inches short.

The 3-0 score held, and the crowd invaded the pitch after the final whistle, carrying some of the Wales players off on their shoulders. Dave Gallaher, the New Zealand Captain, went into the Wales locker room, congratulated their team, and admitted that the better team had won. He and Captain Nicholls exchanged shirts. Gallaher's shirt is now on display at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham Stadium, "The Home of Rugby" in South-West London.

The All Blacks continued their tour, and managed narrow wins against 4 Welsh club teams, before opposing the France national team in its 1st-ever test match. On New Year's Day, January 1, 1906, New Zealand beat France, 38-8. They returned to New Zealand via North America, where they played 2 matches against Canadian teams. Overall, they played a total of 35 matches, which included 5 Tests. The Wales Test was their only loss.

The 1905 All Blacks tour of Britain went on to achieve legendary status within the rugby world, and New Zealand in particular. They scored 976 points and conceded only 59, and thus set the standard for future All Blacks sides. The tour also saw the first use of the All Blacks name, and established New Zealand's reputation as a world-class rugby nation. Some of these players eventually defected, to participate in the professional 1907-08 tour of Australia and Great Britain, where they played against Northern Union sides, in the variation on the sport that would eventually become known as rugby league.

Bob Deans died in 1908, only 3 years after the match, from a botched appendicitis operation. He was only 24. To the end, he insisted that he had scored.

Despite the sport's popularity around the world, there wasn't a Rugby World Cup until 1987, a joint hosting by Australia and New Zealand. It's also been hosted by each of those nations separately, England, Wales, a joint British-Irish hosting, France, South Africa and Japan. It's been won by New Zealand in 1987, 2011 and 2015; Australia in 1991 and 1999; South Africa in 1995, 2007 and 2019; and England in 2003. (UPDATE: South Africa repeated in 2023, making them the 1st 4-time winner, surpassing New Zealand with 3.)

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December 16, 1905 was a Saturday. There were no scores in North America: Baseball was out of season, football season had just ended, and basketball and hockey were mostly all-amateur.

England's Football League played that day, among the games being a 2-2 tie between Woolwich Arsenal and Yorkshire team Middlesbrough, at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South-East London. In 1913, the hosts moved to the Highbury section of North London, and dropped the Woolwich locality from their name, becoming simply Arsenal Football Club.

February 16, 1926: Women's Tennis' "Match of the Century"

Suzanne Lenglen (left) and Helen Wills

February 16, 1926: The women's tennis final of the Carlton Club Tournament is held, at Cannes on the French Riviera. Tennis fans would call it "The Match of the Century."

This was at a time when France dominated tennis. Jean Borotra (1898-1994), Jacques Brugnon (1895-1978), Henri Cochet (1901-1987) and René Lacoste (1904-1996) were known as "The Four Musketeers." Between them, they won 8 French Opens, 5 Wimbledons, 4 U.S. Opens, and an Australian Open, won by Borotra.

Brugnon didn't win any of them. In fact, he never even made a singles' final at a major tournament. Cochet and Lacoste never even competed in the Australian Open: In those early days of commercial air travel, it was too dangerous, and going from Europe or America to Australia by ship took too long, so the Australian Open was the last of the modern majors to be recognized as such. These 4 men also helped France win the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928. In 1933, Lacoste founded the sportswear company that bears his name, its logo his nickname: "The Crocodile."

The best female tennis player in the world was also French. Suzanne Lenglen was born on May 24, 1899 in Paris. In 1921, when individual tennis rankings were first issued, she was named the Number 1 women's player. They continued to rank her 1st through 1926, as she won Wimbledon 6 times and the French Open twice -- but never the U.S. or the Australian Open. Her career record in singles matches was 332 wins and 7 losses. That is not a misprint: Three hundred thirty-two and seven. The French press called her La Divine: "The Goddess."

Helen Newington Wills was born on October 6, 1905 in Fremont, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. She won the U.S. Open in 1923, 1924 and 1925. As Lenglen had won the Gold Medal in women's singles in tennis at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, Wills won it in 1924, in Paris, Lenglen's hometown.

The hype for a match between Lenglen and Wills began in late 1923, following Wills' 1st U.S. Open title. Their 1st encounter was expected to take place in 1924, when Wills made her first trip to Europe to compete in the Wightman Cup against Great Britain, before partaking in Wimbledon and the Olympics later that Summer. However, Lenglen contracted jaundice, and, not fully recovered, withdrew from Wimbledon after winning the Quarterfinal, preventing a meeting with Wills in the Final, which Wills lost to Kitty McKane. Despite the Paris location, Lenglen did not defend her Olympic title, and Wills won it. Wills did not return to Europe in 1925, instead focusing on her college studies as a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley.

But in 1926, both women entered the Carlton Club tournament. Each one approved the various officials for the Final, and those officials, in the interest of neutrality between the Frenchwoman and the American, were British. Most were, themselves, former tennis players, and one was a winner of the British Amateur golf tournament.

The 1st set saw Wills take a 2-1 lead, but Lenglen broke her service 3 times, to win the set, 6-3. Wills led the 2nd set  3-1, 4-3 and 5-4, before Lenglen took a 6-5 lead, before Wills forced a tiebreaker. But Lenglen won it, 8-6. After 1 hour and 3 minutes, the match was over, and Lenglen had won.

There was never a rematch. But Wills did find a match on the trip: She met Frederick S. Moody Jr., a San Francisco stockbroker. They married in 1929, and divorced in 1937. She married Aidan Roark, an Irish polo player, in 1939. She never had any children.

Nor did Lenglen, who never married, although she dated California heir Baldwin Baldwin for a few years. She wrote 3 tennis instruction manuals, and a romance novel, The Love Game: Being the Life Story of Marcelle Penrose. But she never won another major tournament, and died of pernicious anemia on July 4, 1938, at the age of 39. Antibiotics were not yet available to save her.

Wills succeeded Lenglen as the most dominant female tennis player in the world. In those days, not many tennis players (male or female) made the long trip to Australia to play their Open. If she had, she might have won the Grand Slam, because she won the other 3 in 1928 and 1929. Between 1923 and 1938, she won Wimbledon 8 times (a record until Martina Navratilova surpassed it in 1990), the U.S. Open 7 times, and the French Open 4 times -- but never entered the Australian Open. On 7 occasions, a Grand Slam Final came down to "The Two Helens," with Helen Wills Moody (she used her married name from 1930 onward) beating Helen Hull Jacobs in 6 of them.

She wrote an instruction manual in 1928 (titled simply Tennis), a memoir in 1937 (also with an ordinary title, Fifteen-Thirty: The Story of a Tennis Player), a mystery novel in 1939 (with more imagination, titled Death Serves an Ace), and articles for The Saturday Evening Post, and painted up until her death, on January 1, 1998, at 92.

In 1950, the Associated Press named Suzanne Lenglen the greatest female tennis player of the 1st half of the 20th Century, along with Bill Tilden as the greatest male tennis player. In the 2nd half of the 20th Century, she would be surpassed by many, including Margaret Court, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. In the 21st Century, they were all surpassed by Serena Williams.

Both Jack Kramer and Don Budge -- contemporaries who lived long enough to see Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles -- called Helen Wills the best female tennis player ever. She was elected to the International Tennis and Bay Area Sports Halls of Fame.

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February 16, 1926 was a Monday. English film director John Schlesinger was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Americans lost to the Toronto St. Patricks, 3-2 at the brand-new building that would eventually be known as "the old Madison Square Garden." Bert McCaffrey scored the winning goal, with 1:25 left in regulation.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0 at the Mount Royal Arena in Montreal.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at the Boston Arena (now the Matthews Arena). Lionel Hitchman scored the winning goal, 36 seconds into overtime.