The Post

Adventures of a lifetime

Kiwis World Cup pioneer John Bond – aged 90 – fondly recalls the 1954 series in France, and other dramas.

- Tony Smith tony.smith@stuff.co.nz

TRugby league

he Rugby League World Cup is rekindling remarkably vivid memories for a Kiwis pioneer from the first tournament 68 years ago.

Canterbury forward John Bond – ‘‘91 next month’’ – is a long-retired freezing worker still living independen­tly and driving his own car. ‘Bondy’ was just 22 when he left on the adventure of a lifetime for the inaugural 1954 World Cup in France.

Most previous Kiwis teams had toured to Europe by boat, but the Class of 54 ‘‘flew on a Constellat­ion. It took us a week to get there’’, Bond told Stuff this week.

‘‘Every so many thousand miles you had to refuel. We stopped one night in Singapore at Raffles Hotel.’’

There were just four teams at the first World Cup – hosts France, Australia, Great Britain and the Kiwis. Bond said the players were aware they were creating history. ‘‘We got given a World Cup medal with our names on it. I gave mine to my grandson.’’

The Kiwis were one of the best teams in the world in the early 1950s. They had won a test series in Australia in 1952 and another at home in ’53 and they also beat Great Britain here in 1954 before the World Cup. But six leading players, including goalkickin­g supremo Des White, scrumhalf Jimmy Haig, star back Tommy Baxter and tough forward Frank Mulcare, weren’t available for France.

‘‘We didn’t have a very good side, [there was] no discipline amongst the players. The other sides were too good for us.’’

Bond said the Kiwis were well led by coach Jim Amos, from Canterbury, and manager Tom McKenzie from the West Coast.

He had a lot of respect for some team-mates, including front row mate Bill (Ginger) McLennan from Blackball on the West Coast, loose forward Alister Atkinson (‘‘very quick off the back of the scrum’’) and hooker Lory Blanchard, ‘‘a great guy’’ who ‘‘went right to the top’’ as a future Kiwis coach.

The Kiwis had the honour of playing the first-ever World Cup match against France at Paris’ Parc des Princes. Captain Cyril Eastlake joined France’s flamboyant skipper Puig Aubert for the coin toss and the Kiwis entertaine­d 13,000 Parisians with a haka. Jimmy Edwards scored the first try in World Cup history after five minutes. ‘‘He was a good

quick winger, we called him Aussie Edwards,’’ Bond said.

Bond, playing in the second rower, kicked two goals but France won 22-13, scoring four tries while superstar fullback Aubert kicked four goals and a field goal.

Bond missed the Kiwis’ 34-15 defeat to Australia – captained by the great Clive Churchill – before 20,000 fans at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome. Kiwis halfback Lenny Eriksen scored a try after a 45m break and Ron McKay kicked six goals. But Bond was back at prop for game three against Great Britain at Stade Municipal in Bordeaux where they were restricted to three McKay goals in a 26-6 defeat.

The first World Cup final was a northern hemisphere affair. Great Britain, boasting just three players from the squad that toured New Zealand earlier in the year, broke French fans’ hearts with a 16-12 win.

But the World Cup was still a success for the Kiwis in Amos’ eyes. ‘‘I think the games have done a tremendous amount of good for rugby league in all four countries, but it is a pity they could not be arranged to suit everybody,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘They were out of season for us and for Australia. The effect of that has been apparent in our play.’’

The tour wasn’t over for the Kiwis, though. They had a few games in Britain before embarking on a series of exhibition matches with Australia in America.

Bond said the team ‘‘came home over the North Pole and landed in New York’’, but not without some drama before their outward flight left Scotland. ‘‘We had to go back to the hotel that night on account of the motor had to come out of the plane. Then, in the morning, I didn’t want to get on that plane to fly over Poland, Greenland and one thing and another because the motor had to be replaced.’’

But fly he did, and the Kiwis had a memorable United States stay. They were due to play three games in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, to promote rugby league to uninitiate­d Americans.

But the first game was abandoned after six minutes when a thick sea fog swept over Long Beach Memorial Stadium. The players couldn’t see more than a few metres.

He recalled this week that the

players had to ‘‘form a queue’’ by linking arms to advance to the other side of the ground where the line umpire and some players ‘‘didn’t know the game was called off’’.

‘‘We stopped all night in the clubhouse that night and next day we played a daylight game, said Bond, who chuckled when recalling how the fans couldn’t believe us guys running around in shorts with no padding on and belting s… out of each other.’’

The Kiwis lost the first game 30-13 despite tries by Neville Denton, John Yates and captain Eastlake.

Bond kicked three goals in the second encounter, won 28-18.

Ayear later Bond was back in Europe for the Kiwis’ northern 1955-56 tour, but said that trip was ‘‘a disaster’’. He said coach Harold Tetley reckoned ‘‘he wouldn’t have one of us South Island guys in his club side back home’’, so Canterbury and West Coast players struggled to get early games.

‘‘I smashed a shoulder, which put me out to the [third test], and it was the only test we won. The British papers said, ‘where the hell’s this Bond been all tour?’. But I only played six games all told.’’

When a visiting dignitary implored the Kiwis to play for coach Tetley, Bond dismissed it and said: ‘‘I’m playing for the jersey on my back’’. That was Bond’s last test – a week after turning 24 – but he still turned out for Canterbury and the South Island and ‘‘stopped playing when I was 38. Silly old bugger!’’

Bond’s father Roy was responsibl­e for his son switching from playing rugby union in his teens. ‘‘Dad came down to watch me play on the wing for Kaiapoi at North Hagley Park one day. He said that night, ‘You’re playing the wrong bloody game, why don’t you turn over to league?’’

So, young Bondy did, and never looked back. He was in the first Papanui club premier team as a 15-year-old forward, and a year later made his Canterbury debut.

His test debut came in 1953 on home soil at Addington Showground­s against Australia.

Almost 70 years later, Bond still rapidly reels off the names of his Kangaroos front row rivals ‘‘Roy Bull, Brian Davies and Ken Kearney, the hooker they got back from England’’.

The Kiwis won 25-5, with Bond kicking a superb sideline goal. ‘‘Des White had kicked four of four and Haigy [captain Jimmy Haig] said, ‘Do you think you could kick that one Bondy?’ Bond replied: ‘‘Yes, I’ll have a go anyway. And I stuck it right in the middle.’’

Bond gave as good as he got on the pitch, but reckoned he only once deliberate­ly went out to hit someone – former Kiwis captain Maurie Robertson, who had ‘‘stiff armed me when were playing up in Auckland’’.

Today, Bond still avidly follows NRL on television

‘‘I love that Aussie league, but it’s got to the stage now where there are all these gang tackles. A lot of the guys that hit one another are hitting their own man. They come over the top, bang, smack in the head. A helluva lot them today are getting head injuries. We never had that in our day, it was only one-on-one or two-on-one. Now there’s three of four in a tackle. The game’s got too profession­al, too much money. In our day we were amateurs and we were playing profession­als.’’

 ?? CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF ?? John Bond, 91 next month, is the last surviving South Island player who played for the Kiwis rugby league team at the first World Cup in 1954.
CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF John Bond, 91 next month, is the last surviving South Island player who played for the Kiwis rugby league team at the first World Cup in 1954.
 ?? ?? John Bond takes his place in a team photo in his first Kiwis team in 1953. He is in the middle of the back row.
John Bond takes his place in a team photo in his first Kiwis team in 1953. He is in the middle of the back row.
 ?? ??

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