Historical Rugby Footage

[Set piece magic]

If you're a history nut like me there's nothing better than stumbling across some delicious footage that until the advent of youtube had been locked in the basement of some news channel for years, and Rugby history is no different! And so it was with great delight that I discovered the youtube channel British pathe, which is basically a raw film warehouse that has everything from Nicolae Ceausescu's last speech (atmosphere more hostile than Eden Park) to some of John Curtin's wartime speeches. Anyway these punters have also added some juicy Rugby footage!

Here's a link to their channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGp4u0WHLsK8OAxnvwiTyhA is the link for their channel

And here's some links to some of their cool Rugby videos:

There's actually heaps on that channel, but it got me thinking, who's got some great footage? Doesn't even have to be that old

 

[p.Tah]

In the last video 1967, how did England score 11 points with 3 goals? (Time 1:58)

 

[RugbyReg]

I thought it was earlier than this but you used to be able to mark from anywhere in the field I think and kick a goal from there? Think that was 4 pnts.

 

[wamberal]

In the last video 1967, how did England score 11 points with 3 goals? (Time 1:58)

View attachment 6485

Because in those days, an unconverted try was a try, but a converted try was a goal.


A converted try was worth 5 points. Penalty goals were worth 3 points. Total 11.


A long while before that, the scoring of a try had no intrinsic value, other than it enabled a kick for goal. No goal, no score.

Yes, it used to be possible to take a mark anywhere on the ground, and a dropped goal from a mark was worth 4 points.

Another relic from the past was that a kick for the line after a penalty could be taken from the spot, i.e. a place kick. I actually saw that in a club game at Milner in the late sixties.


When I first went to the UK in the early seventies, the Times of London was still publishing the rugby scores using that old method (converted tries were "goals")

 

[Strewthcobber]

I think it was a bit like AFL today, they only recorded it as a "try" if you missed the goal (the conversion being worth 5 points, while a miss was worth 3)

So 1 converted try = 5 + 2 penalty goals worth 3

And for oz, 1 try worth 3. 1 converted try worth 5. 5 penalty goals worth 3

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

I thought it was earlier than this but you used to be able to mark from anywhere in the field I think and kick a goal from there? Think that was 4 pnts.

Correct, but only up to ~1948: SA v NZ 1949 series had 3-point DGM's, ditto 1950 Lions in NZ. Finally consigned to the dustbin of history mid-70's when IRB mandated that a mark could only be taken inside the defenders 22 (an Australian ELV, I believe).

ESPNScrum tells us that in the match in question England scored a converted try (5 points) & 2 x penalties, total 11. Oz got 2 x tries, 1 converted (8), 2 x penalties & 3 x DG, total 23.

http://www.espnscrum.com/statsguru/rugby/match/20286.html

 

[RugbyFuture]

not footage but interesting article and photos:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...rchLimits=sortby|||l-decade=190|||l-year=1900