. . . with the adoption of the Welsh national anthem?
That 1905 game is considered to be one of the greatest rugby matches ever played, with the NZ team being handed its first defeat on their international tour that included Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Canada and France. When this team had first been formed, back in the 1880’s, it had been called the “Natives,” even though not everyone on the team was Maori, and this team started the tradition of the pre-game haka. (Some typical words from the real thing: “you die, you die. I live, I live.”) It was decided that the non-Maori players were still “natives,” since they had been born in New Zealand. Wikipedia says that when this team toured overseas “The Māori players initially provoked curiosity due to their race, but the British press subsequently expressed some surprise that the side was not as ‘Māori’ as they had expected.”
By 1905, when the story connected to our selection occurs, the team, now called the “All-Blacks” because of the color of their uniforms, was composed of all non-Maoris, if the pictures and surnames are anything to go by. I’d love to be able to trace the history of the team from its beginnings to 1905 and how the change in racial composition occurred, but I think that specific story has been lost. At any rate, whatever the ethnic makeup of the team, the tradition of doing the haka before matches survived, and indeed still goes on today.
So this team arrived in Britain after a 40-day ship voyage, with nothing to do on board but play cards and train. (They visited Canada on the way back home.) Team members were more than ready to get going by the time they finally disembarked, and they showed their eagerness by winning their matches against the Scottish, Irish, and English champions. The Wales team had also won this “triple crown,” so when the All-Blacks arrived in Cardiff the matchup was dubbed by the press as the “Game of the Century.” (Maybe a little premature, as the century was still pretty young.) The stadium officially held 40,000, but as many as 80,000 were expected to cram into the place. Maybe a combination of sitting in the aisles and squeezing two small people into one seat made this attendance possible. However the crowd was distributed, the word “electric” is probably appropriate for the atmosphere in the place. (And maybe even “sweaty,” although the weather was probably pretty cold since the match took place in December.)
The A-B’s came out on the field and started doing their (rather sanitized) haka. The Welsh team administrator felt that this attempt at intimidation could not go unanswered, so he asked a team member (known for his voice? We’re not told) to lead the team in the unofficial Welsh national anthem, “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” (“Land of My Fathers”). The official anthem was “God Bless the Prince of Wales,” which was understandably not seen as all that stirring—or all that Welsh, for that matter, since “Prince of Wales” is the title given to the heir to the British throne. He doesn’t have to have a drop of Welsh blood in his body to qualify. As the Welsh team started singing, the crowd began singing with them. Quite a performance! This is known as the first time a national anthem was sung at the opening of a sports event. Although the song has never been made the Welsh national anthem by law, it is nevertheless recognized as such, and since 1975 has been sung alone at sporting events without the accompanying ode to the Prince of Wales.
Wales won the match 3-0, with the same team member who had led the singing, Teddy Morgan, scoring the winning goal, or whatever it’s called in rugby. There was a disputed call on the NZ team, since they claimed a goal also. The Welsh team said that the NZ player had been downed and dragged back before he reached the goal line, and in the absence of instant replay the referees took their word for it. That call is still argued over even today. (And of course, with all the cameras we have trained on the field today in every single sporting event, there are still disputed calls.)
I am indebted to Margaret Beardall, a Chorale member, for much of the above information. Her husband Andrew, also a Chorale member, is Welsh, and she has visited Cardiff many times to see his parents. She assured me that the singing of the crowd at the stadium is very loud and lusty, as it’s possible to hear it in her in-laws’ back yard several miles away. While I can’t transport you back to 1905, here’s a great video from 2013:
© Debi Simons
