Wakefield’s wily RAF ‘juniors’ are still punching above their weight
BRENDAN GALLAGHER celebrates the heroes of RAF Rugby since its inception 100 years ago
THE RAF is officially 100 years old today and their commitment to rugby and rugby excellence is almost as old as the service itself. Elsewhere on these pages I’ve picked an imaginary all-time RAF XV from players who made their mark while playing in RAF Blue. I reckon it could take on any such composite Services team in the rugby world, and I haven’t included illustrious internationals who achieved their rugby fame before or after their stint with the RAF such as Prince Alexander Obolensky and Wales and Lions speedster Ken Jones.
Always the ‘junior’ service and massively shorthanded in terms of numbers compared to the Army and Royal Navy, the RAF have needed to make the best of their resources and right from the start – contrary to the social snobbery of the time – lower ranks were given prominence and responsibility within the team. In fact that mimicks the Force generally. Lacking a long history – and the accompanying traditions, prejudices and pecking orders – it has always been possible to rise from a 16-year-old apprentice mechanic to an Air Vice-Marshall.
With such an even handed egalitarian approach and its strong tradition of stations ‘up north’, the RAF was also always a safe haven for many incredibly talented Rugby League pros, either during World War II or during National Service, notably in the Fifties when the RAF really did punch massively above its weight.
The result, against pretty massive odds, has been 15 outright titles in the annual Inter-Services tournament and ten shared titles. Yes, they still lag a little way behind the Navy and a long way behind the Army, but that’s an impressive haul, probably the equivalent of Italy having already garnered three or four Grand Slams.
Within months of being formed on April 1, 1918 and with the majority of the team still using their Royal Flying Corp ranks, the RAF rugby team took flight at Richmond – although it soon crash landed against a distinctly physical Royal Navy Depot Devonport XV who beat them comfortably despite having a player dismissed from the field, very rare in those days. In many ways though that game set the tone, the RAF have often found themselves outmuscled physically up front and been forced to rely on wit, cunning and pace.
It was a young gung-ho Flight Lieutenant, William Wavell-Wakefield, barely out of his teens, who set the tone straight after World War I when, as the youthful secretary and captain of the RAF team he badgered the Navy to finally grant them a fixture the following year, although initially the senior service would not award ‘caps’ against the upstart airmen.
At which stage the formidable figure of Chief of Air Staff Lord Hugh ‘Boom’ Trenchard – he used to shout a lot apparently – intervened, cornering the RAF-loving King George at Twickenham one day to point out this ‘oversight’. The King promptly called for the First Sea Lord and the conversation was short and sweet: “I would like to know more about this insult to my Royal Air Force.”
RAF Rugby was promptly brought into the fold and the Inter Services Championship was born but now, having kicked up a fuss, they had to prove themselves. Over to Wakefield again. A precocious rugby and indeed all-round sporting talent, Wakefield was already a regular in the Harlequins and England teams and felt the RAF could ultimately field a much stronger fifteen if the five or six really top quality players they possessed played regular top level club rugby during the season to hone their talents.
The RAF top brass disagreed violently with Wakefield but the junior officer then boldly took his plans to Lord Trenchard and ‘boom’ it was done. Wakefield was given the green light, and along with the cream of the RAF rugby crop, were spared meaningless weekly matches for their stations and squadrons and were drafted into the RAF squad only shortly before the Army and Navy game. The result was that RAF rugby achieved take off with a first ever Inter-Services title in 1923.
Wakefield and fellow England Grand Slam star Cyril Lowe were the only England players of the time but JS Chick was a phenomenally quick and slightly eccentric flanker, a seven specialist with Quins and a final England triallist. He was also given to playing the violin in the changing room to calm his nerves before a big game. JC Russell was a quality scrum-half who played in 18 InterServices games between 1921-30, while prop Tommy Rose later found fame by flying to the Cape of Good Hope and back again in record time and also won the King’s Cup air race.
The next title wasn’t to come until 1947 but the intervening years were chock full of ripe rugby characters not least the four Beamish brothers – a remarkable sporting fraternity – while during World War II itself all sorts of outstanding individuals came to prominence. Douglas Bader DFC and Bar DSO and Bar was going to be a rugby star of the future until his accident on December 14, 1931 – just over a week after playing for the Combined Services against South Africa – which resulted in a double amputation. No more rugby but it was just the beginning of his story.
Then there was the RAF’s stalwart flanker Ken Rees who also captained London Welsh and starred for Cheshire in their County Championship win of 1950. Rees was also the original “cooler king”, the individual who somehow morphed into the mythical Steve McQueen character in The Great Escape. The diminutive Rees was piloting a Wellington bomber when shot down and crash landed in a lake in Norway and made himself a thorough nuisance at various POW camps before being sent to Stalag Luft lll in Silesia. Being short and Welsh it was assumed that he would have some sort of mining skills, although in fact he was a draper by training, and was put in charge of one of the tunnels planned for the mass breakout – the 330 foot long Harry – which in the event was the only one used.
Rees always played down his omission from the film and made light of any comparisons with himself and McQueen: “He is taller than I am, I’m heavier than he is, he’s American and I’m a Welshman, he rode a motorbike I don’t – the only things we’ve got in common is that we both seemed to annoy the Germans and ended up doing stretches in the cooler.”
Bleddyn Williams, the Prince of Centres, was another RAF pilot in World War II, training as a fighter pilot in Arizona, before returning to Britain where he played plenty of representative rugby for the RAF and Combined Services. He later switched to Gliders where he saw service in Operation Varsity, the Battle of the Rhine in March 1945.
Williams in particular recalled two RAF wins over a South Wales XV
“RAF Rugby achieved take off with a first ever Inter-Services title in 1923”
groaning with internationals at Swansea and the pleasure of playing alongside great Welsh talents such as Willie Davies, Alan Edwards and Ike Owens – a parachute instructor and PT officer – who had switched to Rugby League but who, as member of HM Forces, was entitled to represent the RAF at Union.
“That was some side the RAF could muster around that time,” Williams recalled to me one time. “We had England front row players like Ray Longland and Bert Toft. They didn’t give much away. Ray was the fitness man at a base at Skegness. Bob Weighill was a fine player who won England caps, Keith Geddes was a future Scotland wing and, of course, we had the great Wales flanker Arthur Rees. Arthur and Keith were both fighter pilots. Gus Walker, who became Air Chief Marshall, was another England player and supporter of the team but had lost an arm in an accident at RAF Syerston. The League guys were very tough and talented as well.”
After the war came an outstanding tranche of national service recruits who helped the RAF to four titles between 1955 and 1962 and perhaps epitomised by future Rugby League legend Alex Murphy.
“I was in the last ever intake for National Service late in 1960 and I can honestly say my two years at RAF Haydock were the happiest years of my life,” recalls Murphy. “It was all very civilised with the RAF letting me play for St Helens most weekends as long as I played for them in midweek and of course the Inter-Services games and one or two or the more important warm-ups.
“I’m not sure to this day what my official job title was but what I actually did was play rugby, train hard and grow tomatoes in our massive greenhouse. It was a real cottage industry and we took all the stuff the base didn’t need down to St Helen’s market and did a roaring trade. I’m not sure I didn’t make more playing for the RAF than Saints!
“As a League man the only time in my two years I encountered a bit of bother playing Union was when I was playing for the RAF against the Army at Twickenham. A Twickenham official told me I couldn’t come onto the ground as we went out for a look around and to stretch our legs.
“I started explaining that it didn’t matter in the Services – everybody was equal – and then I spied Group Captain Cameron – later Air Marshall Sir Neil Cameron – marching down the touchline covered in scrambled egg (medals) to see what the bother was about. ‘See that man coming our way,’ I said, ‘he can decide whether we drop a nuclear bomb on Russia tomorrow or not so shall we let him decide whether I play at Twickenham or not?’
“I played, enjoyed every moment, and apparently won some sort of MOM award for which they presented me with the corner flag for some reason. I’ve still got it somewhere. Great memories. I go to all the old RAF reunions, best of the best.”
Possibly taking their cue from Cyril Lowe, two of the modern day greats of RAF rugby have been wings, namely Billy Steele and Rory Underwood. Steele was a Lion in South Africa in 1974 and famously introduced a favourite song from his favourite group the Corries into the weekly singsong. Thus for the first time
Flower of Scotland was heard in a rugby setting. So now you know who to blame.
Underwood epitomised just about everything you would hope for from an RAF rugby player and pilot. Professionalism at all times despite not being paid a penny on the rugby pitch, precision, calm execution under pressure. To witness a trade mark Rory Underwood touch down one handed in the corner where there appeared no space whatsoever was, in effect, to witness an inch perfect surgical strike by the RAF in the combat zone.
With well under 40,000 personnel in total these days it has been very difficult to maintain standards and there have been times – notably 2006 and 2011 – when the RAF struggled to raise a competitive side and you feared for the future.
In extremis they went back to basics and adopted the Wakefield doctrine of placing their best players with good local junior clubs so they could play a much better standard of rugby than could be guaranteed internally. Back at their various stations the emphasis has been on supreme fitness and the result, after ten years without a win against either the Army or Navy, was a triumphant 2015 season when they again took the Inter-Services Championship.
The challenge remains there constantly: relax and lose concentration for a minute and it could all go badly pear shaped. But then again that applies to their working lives as well.
“With under 40,000 personnel these days it has been very difficult to maintain standards”