Warren Rugby puts the football back up the jumper for 70th anniversary

​An excerpt of this report appeared in Rugby News on 5 July. Here is the full report.

Victoria Oval at Warren in central western New South Wales is no stranger to spectacular rugby contests. It was in 1954 with the founding of the Warren Rugby Club that it hosted its first rugby union match since the Great Schism with League - “GPS v The Rest”. Three years later, the All Blacks themselves came to town to take on the best of the Western Districts.

At the club’s 70th anniversary celebrations on the weekend, a mismatch of experience versus functioning hamstrings saw a Warren Old Boys team take on the current Second Grade side as a curtain raiser to the First Grade match between Warren and Walgett. Officially an Over 35’s squad, the Old Boys might equally have been dubbed an Under 94’s team, as two of the originals of 1954 showed up offering their services as super subs.

Rarely in its 70 seasons has the club witnessed a more wily display of law-defying forward play or scintillating subterfuge from a backline. First there was the Dead Ant lineout manoeuvre popularised by 14E Riverview rugby coach “Doc” Haines in the 1990s, requiring the forwards to collapse to the ground on the hooker’s signal and writhe like Mortein affected ants. Then there was the the Mexican Wave lineout manoeuvre, involving a similar ploy of distraction.

Up the Jumper Tap

​But the piece de resistance came in the second half with the return of the most famous country rugby ploy of them all: the “Up the Jumper” tap.

An account of the original Up the Jumper tap is given in the Warren Rugby history documentary “From an Ace to a Puma” I recorded for the Club’s 60th anniversary back in 2014. In the film, the Warren Club’s one and only Wallaby Glenn Eisenhauer, along with club stalwart Rob Leslie, a Waratah, tell the tale of that day at TG Millner Field, back in 1975, when Country beat Sydney by means of this most elaborate rugby ruse. Nevertheless, for the unsuspecting 20-somethings of Second Grade, the site of a forward pack huddling backwards in a tight line mid-field for a penalty tap seemed harmless enough - that is, until all eight Old Boys came charging at them like freight trains clutching what appeared to be footballs up their jumpers.

The defence temporarily floundered until high flying lineout specialist Ben Egan revealed himself as the true ball carrier hurtling up the sideline to offload to Andrew Cosgrove who carried on over half way. The crowd roared its approval, while referee Harry Gaynor wisely disregarded a slew of regulations.

​Bomber Moxham scores at 93 years young

Then it was time for the Old Boys to unleash their secret weapon from the bench: 1954 Warren original Bomber Moxham, now 93, discarded his walking frame, to seize the ball from behind the scrum and dash up the sideline. While seagulling out wide, he conferred briefly with fellow 1954 original Ian McKay (now 90), before receiving again mid field and crashing over the line (Bomber quite literally crashed over, but came up smiling). “We should start a team again,” he suggested while counting out his fellow nonagenarian survivors of that original ’54 season, including McKay, who still lives in Warren and Barry Beach in nearby Dubbo.
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​Celebrations continued

The Old Boys were runaway victors (not unaided, some claimed, by sympathetic refereeing and an inability of certain Second Graders to stop laughing in the rucks) - but all agreed that it was the best Old Boys match witnessed at the Oval since the last one. Following the game, veteran hooker Tim Whiteley announced his seventh retirement from rugby.

In First Grade, the Warren Paraway Pumas, who are top of the Western Plains table, defeated the Walgett Rams 38-5, taking some of the sting out of the morning loss by the homeside Pumarettes in the women’s tri tag rugby. After long droughts in previous decades, Warren have had a golden decade in the Western Plains comp, and are reigning champions after taking out the Lloyd Bullock Shield last year.

Later in the evening, over 420 club members and supporters continued celebrations in the Sports Hall for the 70th Anniversary Ball, MC’d by Club President Tom Noonan. Former Wallaby Warwick Waugh, originally from nearby Gulargambone, was the guest speaker, and offered up a farming analogy on how to build the Wallabies of tomorrow: “before grass roots, we need to plant seeds”, he said. Stalwart Warren coaching contributor Mal Smith then announced the club’s “team of the decade” to an appreciative crowd, who ended the night looking forward to Bomber’s return match for the 80th. ​