Rugby: Rugby records conflict as NSW games are declared tests

SYDNEY - Transtasman rugby historians have a conundrum on their hands.

The Australian Rugby Union has ended years of debate by confirming the status of all international matches played in Australia by New South Wales in the early 1920s as official test matches.

These include 15 matches against New Zealand, six against New Zealand Maori and three against South Africa.

At this stage, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union has not reciprocated, leaving the record books of the Bledisloe Cup rivals differing.

The ARU says its decision was based on the fact that in the 1920s, NSW were effectively the Australian team because rugby elsewhere in Australia was non-existent.

It says the matches fit the definition of a test match as "the best representative team from one country against the best representative team from another country."

ARU media officer Strath Gordon said the decision was actually made more than decade ago but had not been widely circulated, resulting in continuing confusion which last week prompted the ARU board formally to confirm the 24 matches as tests.

Gordon said it was Australia's prerogative to grant test-match status to the matches without New Zealand's joint approval. The ARU planned to approach the NZRFU on the subject in order to bring their respective record books into line.

"There will be discrepancies in the record books now and it provides a problem for people like those who publish the international rugby yearbook. They have to decide whose version to take."

The NZRFU's unofficial historian, Geoff Miller, said he agreed with the ARU's version of history.

"In my mind, NSW were the best team Australia could have put out at the time and the New Zealand teams would have been full-strength," Miller said.

New Zealand had the option to grant test status to the matches more than 10 years ago but declined. However, Miller said, the structure of rugby administration had changed markedly in that time.

The addition of the test matches fills a massive gap in the history of transtasman rivalry, which started in 1903 but was previously devoid of test matches between 1914 and 1929.

But before New Zealanders go thinking Australia have granted test status in order to bolster their record: they come out a lot worse, with 16 losses out of the 24 matches, all played in Sydney.

New Zealand won 11 of 15 games over a six-year period and won the series in 1920, 1924, 1925 and 1926. Australia/NSW won the 1922 series 2-1.

New Zealand Maori also performed well in this era, winning the 1922 series 2-1 with a 23-22 victory in the decider, before losing all three games in the 1923 series, each game by no more than five points. In 1921, Australia lost the series to South Africa 0-3.

When the respective unions publish their media guides and programmes for the Bledisloe Cup matches later this year, the Australia version of transtasman history will read: played 123, New Zealand 84, Australia 34, drawn 5.

New Zealand's records will say: Played 108, New Zealand 73, Australia 30, drawn 5. - NZPA