Disturbing the Dust

Since or unless I get a major objections I will start researching my history project,have access to over 130 books.
Covering Tours,History,Biography Coaching Manuals up to late 1980`s early 90`s.NZ Rugby Almanacs from 1945-6
to about 1995,plus a couple of SA ones.It will cover Lions,Nz v SA,NZ to Europe,records as far as possible of tours
to uk from the beginning.Great players and just ordinary ones,law changes,and incites ancient and modern it
will be a major task for me but hopefully a few will enjoy them the rest will Wum me as Usual.

Looking forward to it mate.

Are you going to do something in chronological order Alan? Or leap in somewhere in the middle at an interesting juncture?

I was reading the other day about the England v Scotland match that took place in March 1914 just before the outbreak of WWI. A match won by England by one point but more notable because most of the players from that day perished soon after in the war.

The rise of German rugby between world wars is also interesting to me. Apparently they had quite a team and beat France twice before most of their players too, were killed in WWII and most German rugby clubs were bombed out of existence by the allies.

In fact prominent German rugby player Albert Speer who went on to become a high ranking Nazi officer in charge of weapons manufacture is known in history as "The Nazi Who Said Sorry". I wonder if the inherent morality of the rugby ethos played any part in his admission of moral responsibility at Nuremberg.

I will as far as possible list tour stats from the start late 1800`s as far as my data allows
as a basis for debate chronologically.Then select Tours to discuss in more depth and will
define what constitutes a tour by my definition.How politics and law changes may have
affected results including points.It will be a lot of work and will be mostly in my field
of expertise NZ Rugby.But will as usual try to be as objective as I can the. Tours books
I own are usually covered by writers of both sides of the fence.
There may even be comments the nearly men or the most unlucky players etc.at least it
will stave of boredom.

It will be your magnus opus Alan. Thanks in advance for the effort it'll take. The emack chronicles will be to rugby what Shakespeare did for literature.

The Wikipedia of rugby?

Rather than posting all of the historical stats, ever thought of entering them into a database and making I query able via a web site so that we can dredge up historical facts in support of tenuous and controversial arguments?

GloriousEmpire wrote:Are you going to do something in chronological order Alan? Or leap in somewhere in the middle at an interesting juncture?

I was reading the other day about the England v Scotland match that took place in March 1914 just before the outbreak of WWI. A match won by England by one point but more notable because most of the players from that day perished soon after in the war.

The rise of German rugby between world wars is also interesting to me. Apparently they had quite a team and beat France twice before most of their players too, were killed in WWII and most German rugby clubs were bombed out of existence by the allies.

In fact prominent German rugby player Albert Speer who went on to become a high ranking Nazi officer in charge of weapons manufacture is known in history as "The Nazi Who Said Sorry". I wonder if the inherent morality of the rugby ethos played any part in his admission of moral responsibility at Nuremberg.

Saving his neck from the hang man was probably a greater source of motivation!

You cynic.

Alan, got anything on Paddy Mayne???

I heard he spent most of his free time during the SA tour in the 30s on the lash, fighting dockers and keeping one step away from prison. Now that would have unnerved the old tie network which ruled NH rugby at the time.

Makes the modern day players look like toddlers wetting their pants.