About how some Rabbits could have played the Tri-Series...

Here are two postcards showing Dr H.M.Moran's rugby team which travelled to British Isles to win the 1908 Olympic gold. Both postcards ("printed in England") show the same photography (+ some early "photoshop" corrections in the background on the second one... )... but not the same caption... (larger pics here and there)

The Australian team - indeed almost New South Wales rugby team -  is named "The Rabbits" in the upper picture, and "The Wallabies" (as we know them...) in the bottom one...

Moran (portray below) wrote in Viewless Winds (his recollections, published in 1939) that when the touring squad first arrived at Plymouth a pack of journalists were there who were anxious to give the team some distinctive name. The "Rabbits" was first suggested... and quickly rejected (rabbits were an introduced pest in Australia...) and soon after the team adopted the moniker of "The Wallabies"... but the first "Rabbits" postcards were already issued and printed !

"Wallabies" sounds better, I admit... but a Tri-Series All Blacks vs Rabbits, or a test like Lions vs Rabbits is something we could possibly miss...

All Blacks in 1905... Springboks in 1906... Wallabies in 1908... all "colonial" teams got their nicknames in a few years... let's recall that these early rugby tours were as much commercial enterprises as much as sporting challenges... touring team had to finance their travel and local expenses from gate money at the stadium or business deals (postcards... or sponsored rugby fixtures such as the game played by the All Blacks in Paris in January 1906 negotiated and financed by Stade Français officials ) ... amateur rugby, but professional methods... hence the "show business" circus (cool names, war cry...) with the objective complicity and support of British newspapers which found there material to narrate these long rugby tours...



PS : there's an "online exhibition" about 1908 Wallabies / Rabbits @ Rugby Memorabilia Society... just follow this link... and I've just asked the State Library of NSW the permission to use some of their wonderful old rugby pictures for future posts... stay tuned !