by Jim Webster –

This is a special time to remember and reconcile with those friends of ours across the Tasman and we should never lose those Anzac memories.

Anzac Day is the most important national occasion for both countries, marking the first major military action fought by both nations during the First World War.

So many from both nations fought, and died, together.

Since then we have often fought each other; especially on the sporting field and, if it was rugby, they generally have won.

Yet having seen so many Tests between both nations, one of them especially remains with me and proves that at times we have been able to thump the All Blacks. What made it so special were the circumstances leading into this particular Test match, the unexpected result and an aftermath that shocked this writer to the bone.

It was the Wallabies 1978 tour of New Zealand and very early on it began turning into a mitigated disaster.

The Wallabies lost the opening Tests by 12-13 in Wellington and 6-22 in Christchurch, the horror tale continued when coach Daryl Haberecht suffered a heart attack during the next game against Wanganui and finally we faced a 3-0 whitewash, should we lose the third and final Test at Eden Park, Auckland.

Here was Australia’s team that very important day:

Geoff Richards; Paddy Batch, Bill McKid, Ken Wright, Brendan Moon; Tony Melrose, John Hipwell; Greg Cornelsen, Gary Pearse, Tony Shaw©, Peter McLean, Garrick Fay, Chris Handy, Peter Horton, John Meadows.

Little did we know that rugby history was about to happen, for the very talented country boy from northern NSW we had playing breakaway, Greg Cornelsen, scored an amazing four tries that afternoon, which saw the Wallabies through to a historic 30-16 victory – the highest total ever by any nation against New Zealand.

Cornelsen’s 16 points (four points for a try in those days) beat South Africa’s Okey Geffin’s individual record of 15 points against the All Blacks set in 1949.

He also became the first forward from any country to score four tries in a major Test match since 1881, the first player to score four tries against New Zealand and to this day remains the only Wallaby forward to score that many in a Test.

Afterwards, the celebrations in the dressing-room were monumental and later that night, back at the team’s hotel, they were set to continue into the early hours.

Now, Corny and this writer had one thing in common – and it wasn’t our place of birth, school background and it certainly wasn’t our rugby talents.

We both liked the occasional cigar, and what a time for each of us to enjoy them together, along with a few celebratory beers. The presses of The Sydney Morning Herald were already running with my story and Corny was simply relaxing in the enjoyment of such a massive victory and what he himself had achieved.

“Suppose your story’s all done with?” he asked, “and can’t be changed?”

Of course not, I laughed. Yes, the Herald would shortly be on the streets and hopefully all sports lovers would be lapping up this memorable story.

“But I bet you missed a very important point?” he told me.

“And what’s that?”

Only then did Corny tell me what it was I had missed, and I couldn’t believe it.

“Did you realize that in scoring those four tries I never once caught the ball?”

What rubbish! I couldn’t believe what he had just said…

I sat down, took another long puff on my cigar and swallowed another glass of beer while he went through his try-scoring actions, which amounted to simply falling on loose balls when they were either toed or dropped over their line, picking up a loose ball and diving over and finally skidding in on his knees for his fourth and final try.

What he had just told me made his historic performance even more remarkable. Four tries and yet not having taken a single solitary pass!

I’m not sure that anybody else in the Wallabies team had cottoned on to the manner he had scored each of those tries, or if many among the 48,000 spectators were aware.

“Thanks Corny, but why the hell didn’t you tell me that in the dressing-room, so I could have given the four-try performance even more prominence?”

I’ve forgotten his reply, but I have since given historic prominence to his no-pass performance and have written about it repeatedly. Like now….