Penguin globe-trotters up the magic of an old
Brendan Gallagher talks to Alan Wright, President of The Penguins, arguably world rugby’s most travelled touring team
The art of rugby touring – and make no mistake you need to be some sort of artist to fully participate – is alive and well thankfully with the Penguins Rugby club and their president Alan Wright still leading the way. Yesterday they kicked off this season early up in Orkney with a 38-15 defeat, celebrating that club’s 50th anniversary with their usual sprinkling of creaking ex-internationals, very decent junior club players, impecunious students and the odd waif and stray picked up en route.
The Penguins were billeted – or nested as the locals prefer to call it – with their opponents and their families and were all the better for it.Who needs a four-star hotel, and frankly sleep is not really encouraged on tour, especially in the gloaming of a glorious northern summer night to enjoy. Sleeping is cheating.
A post-match 50th anniversary dinner-dance for 600 in Kirkwall sold out months ago and will probably just be drawing to a close as you read this. Ten years ago, when the Penguins celebrated Orkney’s 40th anniversary, it was complete carnage and that frankly was just the warm-up for the big one.
Have boots will travel, the Penguins have been touring every year since they were founded in 1959 and there is scarcely a nook or cranny in the rugby world they haven’t explored. As well as roaming all over Britain, co-founder Wright reckons they have played against teams from 73 nations. Probably the only surprise is that the Penguins haven’t yet been to Madagascar.
Wright and his co-founder Tony Mason were great mates and colleagues at Sidcup RFC and, in their youth, so intoxicated were the lively duo with the game that they founded their own invitation only touring side, initially for their own amusement. It was pitched at a level below the Barbarians with their bevy of internationals and taxing fixture list. A touring side for junior club players.
That was the idea but so successful were the Penguins forays into the sport’s hinterlands and exploration of the blanks on world rugby’s map that top players started hinting they were also available. In fact it wasn’t that subtle.They would often phone up and beg for a place on the plane or boat. And like everybody else they would have to pay for the privilege although Mason and Wright were usually able to beg, steal or borrow enough help and support to keep costs down to a minimum. For years it was all done by word of mouth, in fact it was 1980 before they even held a committee meeting and even now such occasions are kept to a minimum. “That has always been the ethos of the club, the DNA if you like,” says Wright, left. “Of course the game has changed enormously and rugby went open but even when that happened our philosophy was the Penguins would provide amateur rugby for professionals if that’s what they want occasionally.” Lest you think it’s all a complete jolly the Penguins operate at two or three levels depending on the opposition and still, every now and again, like to put their game face on and mix it with the big boys. They were the outstanding winners of the Hong Kong Tens this year which is a very tasty tournament when a squad largely consisting of strapping young tyros and juniors from Super Rugby franchises put plenty of stick about. They are past winners of the Middlesex Sevens and twice semi-finalists at the Hong Kong Sevens when it was considered the unofficial world championship.
“Over the years we have built up a great network of contacts with some of the Super Rugby franchises and coaches who often welcome the chance of sending a few of their promising younger players out to Hong Kong and Malaysia or wherever with us,” says CEO and stalwart former player Craig Brown.“And we have the same relationship with England and the other Home Union sides if some of their players need a run.We had Marcus Watson with us a while back.
“We still like to preserve the Penguin traditions but you have to play fair with the clubs and Unions who are helping us out and trust us to look after their professional players. So we tend to go out for a couple of quiet beers and a meal on the Wednesday night, then it is teetotal and sensible all the way through to the end of the tournament at the end of the weekend after which everybody has earned a big night out.
“It’s always great to observe a group of rugby strangers gather from all over the place at the start of the week develop into a tight band of brothers and mates for life by the end of the week. That is what the Penguins is all about, nothing ever changes in that respect.”
Right from the start it wasn’t just big name players that supported the club. Their first president was Field Marshall Sir Claude Auchinleck GCB, CGIE, CSI, DSO, OBE, LLD and he was succeeded by Sir Douglas Bader CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAcS, DL.
Wright well remembers the ‘recruiting’ of Bader.“We needed another president when the ‘Auch’ died and somebody mentioned that Douglas Bader had been a very accomplished player indeed with Harlequins before his pre-war flying accident when he lost both legs. He seemed the sort of individual who possessed the Penguin spirit in abundance.
“I wrote to him and he wrote back saying that although he loved his rugby ever since his accident he found it very difficult – in fact impossible – to watch a game at which he has so many unfulfilled ambitions.With that proviso, however, he would be happy to support the club so I arranged a lunch in London. It was a perishing winter’s day and I was still frozen despite a heavy overcoat, scarf, gloves when I spotted him getting out of his taxi with just a light sports jacket on.
“Douglas aren’t you freezing,” I asked.“Not at all, one of the few advantages of losing my leg is that the blood hasn’t got so far to travel around, I’m warm as toast thank you.”
The Penguins have toured remorselessly, it’s their raison d’etre with some trips even transcending rugby itself. An ambitious politically-loaded tour of Russia in 1977 was particularly interesting. It was at the height of the Cold War but nonetheless the RFU received an invitation basically to represent the Western World in an Eastern bloc tournament to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia were all going to compete along with the full Russia team and a Russia B squad.
“I don’t think the RFU were too keen on sending any sort of official England side,” recalls Wright.“But Derek Morgan, who was chair of the RFU fixtures committee, was a good friend of the Penguins and rather tentatively passed the invite on to us. Politically relations might have been strained but the rugby fellowship between all countries is strong and we were keen to support the event if possible.
“Russian rugby was pretty strong in those days and, of course, Romania were extremely handy so we took the precaution of taking a strong squad
“Our philosophy was the Penguins would provide amateur rugby for professionals”
- Alan Wright