The Rorkes Drift Rugby League Test Match Fiasco by Tom Mather

One of the most famous games in the history of rugby league was the third Test match played in Sydney on Saturday, July 4, 1914. That game is always referred to as the Rorke’s Drift Test. The reason for this is well known: namely because the Englishmen played most of the game with eleven men due to injuries. In some parts of the game the English had only 10 men and/or one period just nine! What perhaps is less well known are the dramas that occurred in the time leading up to that Test match. The week of the Test was fraught with claim and counter-claim between the English managers and the New South Wales League committee. This was as a result of the host insisting that three Test matches be played in eight days. Sadly, the week of that Third Test was the culmination of some four years of disputes between the Northern Union and the New South Wales League. Strange as it may seem, these disputes had their origins in the 1908-1909 tour undertaken by James Giltinan in England. This book examines and analyses the events off the field that occurred in the period from 1910 through to 1914 and which culminated in what we now call the Rorke’s Drift Test