Royals Versus the Giant
On a Sunday in August just before the finals of 1993, Royals played the touring Welsh provincial team Cardiff at Manuka Oval. Nine years earlier, on a 1984 Grand Slam Tour, the Wallabies lost four games - one of them was to Cardiff. Outside wingers Phil Alchin and Anthony Hofmeier, Royals rested the entire first grade squad for the Saturday club game against Daramalan (and lost narrowly). The honour of playing Cardiff trumped it. Plus the minor premiership and club championship was in the bag anyway. Cardiff … they’d played NSW and Queensland, along with ‘A’ and ‘B’ selections from those states, yet chose to play Royals because of their coach, Alec Evans’ association with the club that went back to Dougal Whitton’s time at University of Queensland in 1975, and flourished under Kim Thurbon and John Kelsey through the 1980s and ‘90s. From the kick-off, even without Paul Brown who was in Manchester preparing the wicket at Old Trafford for Shane Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’, Royals ran riot. Slick ball from No.10 Paul Cornish and Brown’s replacement, Nick Farr-Jones, saw centres Matt O’Connor and Clayton Brown making breaks with impunity. There followed first half tries to Brown, David Mead and Graham Emery. Cardiff’s only points came from an intercept. And at half-time Royals, a club side from Canberra, led the provincial powerhouse 23-7. “Then they brought on some Welsh internationals, a couple of them absolute giants,” Royals six-foot-seven lock Drew Smith recalls in Royals’ 75-year anniversary book, Blue Bloods. “It was meant to be an easy game for them, and they were looking at being quite embarrassed.” Farr-Jones left the field five minutes before half-time. On the back of a photo of the halfback sitting on his bottom in between Cornish and Jim Taylor, which is today housed in the ACT Heritage Library, it is written in pen: “Farr-Jones left the field five minutes before half time with a sore thumb”. With the Wallabies captain out and Royals third grade halfback Paul Robertson in, and on the back of some spirited half-time oratory from coach Evans, the Cardiff forwards rolled their maul down-field 40, 50, 60 metres at a time, dominated the set piece and kept Royals scoreless to post a 34-23 win. “Once their big guys got a roll on, and our adrenaline and such wore off, class probably told,” Smith says. “But when I look back on my playing days, that day will stand out. Playing with and against so many international and provincial-class players was massive.” Smith had been looking forward to packing down with one of those internationals, Farr-Jones’s mate, Peter FitzSimons, who had pulled out on the morning of the match. “He thought it was going to be like a charity match or something,” Dougal Whitton says. “He said his last Test match had been three years earlier and the idea of taking on a provincial side in a serious match had little appeal.” His place was taken by Royals stalwart Stuart ‘Tonka’ Thomas, who, like Smith, made memories for life. “It was pretty special. We had special jumpers on, we lined up for the national anthem,” Thomas says. “Then we went out all full of it and let rip from the word go. We had a bloody good team, good players. They were a provincial bloody team and we caught them on the hop. “Then I think they had a bollocking at half-time and came out and kept us scoreless in the second half. Farr-Jones had gone off. They’d been pretty physical with him.” Afterwards, Evans said: “Royals played superbly, they constantly put it to us in the first half but I am pleased with our comeback.” He added that Cornish should again play for Australia. “He had an outstanding game — he has not lost any of his outstanding ability or skills. He’s probably not ready for the home Tests but he should be considered for the tour of Canada and France,” Evans said. Cornish didn’t tour, of course, and 18 months later was playing rugby in Japan. This has been provided as an excerpt from Blue Bloods by Matt Cleary - if you would like to purchase a copy of the book, click here
