Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?

"Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?" asked this full page cartoon published by British weekly newspaper The Sketch, November 1st, 1905.

According to illustrator Harry Rowntree (a New Zealander, I admit...), it seemed that All Blacks fullback Billy Wallace, Leon MacDonald and Mils Muliaina predecessor in the famous 1905 "Colonial" squad, was so easy during the games that he could rest in a deckchair and have tea while his teammates were outrageously dominating their opponents...

Full caption reads :

A hint to the opponents of the "All Blacks"

If you will not let the New Zealanders' full back take part of the game, why not entertain him in this fashion until the end of the match ?

To put the things back in their historical context, Rowntree and all rugby commentators were utterly impressed by the first results of these newly named All Blacks in this loooong tour (September 1905- February 1906 ! 35 games played... 34 won and 1 lost to Wales... 976 points "for" 59 points "against"....). As of November 1st 1905, the Blacks had already played 13 games against serious regional teams (Cornwall, Midlands, Leicester, Gloucester...) with an impressive series of stats : 100% won... 450 points "for" and 15 points "against"... 107 tries "for" (8 per game... !!) and only 2 tries "against"...

But if one can imagine that Billy Wallace could have been pretty idle "defensively" during these games, just consider that his personnal "offensive" stats are as impressive as the "defensive" ones.... 30 games played (out of 35.... no turnover for him...), 27 tries, 74 conversions and 3 penalty kicks... hardly no time to rest in a deckchair...

Here is a portrait of Billy Wallace, from The Sketch, November 29, 1905 (strong press coverage, indeed....)

edited Sept.27 : Sean Fagan of RL1908 fame is referring this link to the New Zealand Rugby Museum where you could read Wallace's full bio. Sean also suggest that my stats are misleading because they include many games where Wallace was not playing fullback... Sean has it right, as usual !

"Yet Wallace was never more than a reluctant fullback. His personal
preference was as a wing and of the 11 tests he played only three, his
debut in 1903, against Ireland in 1905 and the Anglo Welsh in 1908,
were as a fullback. Of his 51 All Black games only 19 were as a
fullback."

 

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