Maurice Daly (rugby union)

Last updated April 03, 2024

Maurice John P. Daly (born August 1914, died 3 November 1994, Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia) was an English player of rugby union football, who played internationally for both Ireland and East Africa.^[1]^[2] Along with W.B. Young of Scotland he is one of only two people to have been capped by a major rugby playing nation and by East Africa.

Prior to World War II

At his senior school, Maurice was a keen rugby player, cricketer, track athlete and Rugby fives player. After leaving school he played for Old Haberdashers RFC (1932–37) and the Harlequin F.C. (1938–39), scoring tries prolifically in both the 15-a-side and 7-a-side versions of the game. He was capped once for Ireland on 12 February 1938 playing on the right-wing against England at Lansdowne Road. England led 23–0 at half-time but Ireland improved during the second half managing to score four tries (the last of which was scored by Daly), though Ireland were unable to completely overcome the opposition, eventually losing 36–14.^[2]

During the war

He was commissioned in the 35th (First Surrey Rifles) Anti-Aircraft Battalion, T.A. in January 1939 and was called up in September of that year. It is believed that Maurice played for Clifton RFC during the 1939–40 season; an Army posting may explain his presence in Bristol at this time. He saw action in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany. The war caused much disruption to regular rugby in the United Kingdom though he continued to play some rugby during this time, turning out for various military units and also for several invitation sides for various charitable causes.^[2]

Date	Year	Played for	Played against	Venue	Notes
16 December	1939	combined Scotland and Ireland	combined England and Wales	Richmond	In aid of The Red Cross
21 September	1940	Rev. P. W. P. Brook's West of England XV	a British Empire XV	Clifton College	In aid of The Red Cross. The Empire XV won 23–21. The attendance was 4,000.
19 October	1940	a British Empire XV	L.J. Corbett's West of England XV	Bath
2 November	1940	Rev. P. W. P. Brook's West of England XV	a Welsh Army XV	Clifton College
23 November	1940	Voyce's XV	Wakefield's XV	Gloucester
14 December	1940	L.J. Corbett's West of England XV	Police of South Wales XV	Taunton
1 March	1941	Anti-Aircraft Command XV	Aldershot Services XV	Aldershot
22 March	1941	L.J. Corbett's XV	a Police XV	Taunton
22 January	1944	Anti-Aircraft Command XV	Scottish Services XV	Inverleith, Edinburgh

After being wounded he became Air Liaison Officer, North West Europe in December 1944 with the rank of major and was awarded the M.B.E. ^[2]

After the war

After the war he returned to play with Harlequins (1945–48); he captained the Harlequins VII that lost the final of the 1947–48 Middlesex 7's to Wasps 14–5. He was also selected to represent Middlesex County consistently between 1946 and 1949, captaining the side that lost the 1946/47 semi-final with Gloucestershire.^[2]

Sometime in 1949–50, he moved to Kenya where he continued to play rugby for the Ruiru R.F.C. and was awarded a cap by East Africa for a match that he played in 1951. Though the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) did not exist until 1953, Maurice played for Kenya Colony (the precursor of the Kenya national rugby union team) against the " Oxford and Cambridge Universities" touring team in September 1951 at Mitchell Park (now Jamhuri Park), Nairobi. All players on the Kenyan team in that match were awarded backdated East Africa caps after the formation of the RFUEA. Oxford and Cambridge were returning by air from a successful tour of South Africa and they stopped off to play one final match on the continent. The visitors fielded six international players (Ian J. Botting (England), John V. Smith(England), Laurie G. Gloag (Scotland), Lewis B. Cannell(England), John MacG. Kendall-Carpenter (England) and George C. Rittson-Thomas (England)) and three players who were to achieve international status on their return (Chris E. Winn (England), Ricky M. Bartlett (England) and Mike Walker (Scotland)) and proved too strong for their hosts, winning 44–5.

He met his wife in Kenya and they were married in 1952. They left Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising moving to Sussex, where they lived for 15 years until they finally emigrated to Australia.

Related Research Articles

James Thomson Greenwood was a Scottish rugby union player and coach. He won twenty caps for Scotland and four for the British Lions as a number eight and flanker.

Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season was in 2003–04 when they were relegated after losing to Coventry RFC in their final match. The club was based at College Grove in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safari Sevens</span> Annual rugby sevens tournament

The Safari Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Safari Sevens is open to international representative sides, professional and amateur clubs, invitational teams, university and school teams.

The Kenya national rugby union team, commonly known as the Simbas, is the country's national team managed by the Kenya Rugby Union. The team plays in red, green, and black jerseys with black or white shorts. The Simbas represent Kenya in the Africa Cup and various other tournaments across the continent. They currently rank 34 in the World Rugby Rankings and fourth in Africa. Kenya is yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

Rugby union in Kenya is a popular sport, in particular due to the success of the Kenya national rugby sevens team in the rugby sevens format, and tournaments such as the Safari Sevens, which has been growing yearly, and now includes numerous international teams.

Mike Brown is an English professional rugby union player who plays fullback or wing for Leicester Tigers in Premiership Rugby. Brown joined the Harlequins senior team in 2005, having played youth rugby at Salisbury and Melksham, and began playing for the England first team two years later. Between 2021–2022 Brown played a season for Newcastle Falcons.

The Elgon Cup is contested between the rugby union teams of Kenya and Uganda. The men's and women's teams of these countries each compete annually for their respective cups on a Home-and-Away basis. The competition and the cups are named after Mount Elgon, a mountain on the border of the two countries.

In 1968 the British Lions toured South Africa. The tour was not successful in terms of international results, the Lions losing the Test series against South Africa by three matches to nil, with the other match drawn. The Lions won 15 of their 16 non-international matches, losing only to Transvaal. The touring party was captained by Tom Kiernan, coached by Ronnie Dawson and managed by David Brooks. Star back Barry John broke his collar bone in a dangerous tackle in the first Test.

In 1955 the British Lions rugby union team toured Southern and Eastern Africa. The Lions drew the test series against South Africa, each team winning two of the four matches. They won the first test by a single point and the third by three points and lost the second and fourth matches by wider margins. As well as South Africa, the tour included a match against South West Africa, two games against Rhodesia and one versus East Africa.

Established in 1950, the East Africa rugby union team is a multi-national rugby union team drawing players from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, though the vast majority of these came from Kenya which has traditionally been the strongest rugby playing nation in the region. The team has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides and it conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982.

William Young was born in Ardrossan and was a Scotland international rugby union player. He later played for the representative East Africa multi-national side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impala Saracens</span> Rugby team

Impala Saracens is a Kenyan rugby club based at the Impala Club. The club competes in the Kenya Cup as well as the Enterprise Cup. The club is based and trains at their ground on Ngong Road, adjacent to the RFUEA Ground, and also has an association football division.

The RFUEA Ground is a rugby union stadium located on the Ngong Road in Nairobi, Kenya. It was purpose built to be the home of the national team and to serve as the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFUK). Coincidentally, the RFUEA ground has another parallel with Twickenham Stadium in the United Kingdom in that it also serves as the home ground for the Kenya Harlequin Football Club, just as their sister club the London Harlequins once played at Twickenham.

Kenya Harlequin Football Club, is a Kenyan rugby union club that competes in the Kenya Cup, the top level of Kenyan rugby. The club motto "Nunquam Dormio" is Latin, meaning I never sleep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby Football Union of East Africa</span> Umbrella group of East African football organizations

The Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) is an umbrella union for the Kenya Rugby Football Union, Tanzania Rugby Football Union and Uganda Rugby Football Union. It owes its existence to the fact that, prior to independence, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were either a protectorate or mandate of the British Empire. It now has little to do with the direct administration of the modern game but it continues to exist in order to promote and support the game in the three countries, to facilitate club competition between the three unions and to administer the RFUEA Ground and the East Africa rugby union team.

The Enterprise Cup is an annual rugby union competition in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, though the competition frequently has the appearance of being an all-Kenyan affair as the majority of rugby clubs in the African Great Lakes region are based in this one country and frequently clubs in Tanzania and Uganda are unable to take part due to financial constraints. The original cup was donated by sailors from HMS Enterprise, who had toured British East Africa in 1928. The only years in which the competition has not been played is between 1940–1946 due to World War II and in 1987 because an international rugby competition was held on RFUEA Ground as part of the All Africa Games.

Rugby union in East Africa is almost entirely an amateur sport. It has been played in the three East African nations for more than a century; the first recorded match taking place in 1909, though it was almost certainly being played for several years prior to this. There are many club and school teams, the oldest of which were established in Colonial times.

The Scorpions RFC is an invitation rugby team in East Africa that was established upon principles that have many parallels with the Barbarian F.C. in terms of values, playing style, selection policy and the lack of a home ground. The team wears black shirts and white shorts and, like the original Barbarians and the French Barbarians, players wear socks of their choice provided that they have played for the team that the socks represent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Assassins</span> Rugby team

The Anti-Assassins Rugby Union Football team (A-As) was an invitation team that selected players from the northern counties of England to play friendly charitable matches locally and to go on tour. The team was remodelled in 2004, teaming up with the Wooden Spoon Society to become the Spoon AAs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlesex Rugby Football Union</span> Rugby team

Middlesex Rugby is the governing body for rugby union in Middlesex, England; Middlesex is a historic county of England that covers areas in the ceremonial counties of Greater London, Surrey and Hertfordshire. The historic county is still in use when referring to sport, and some businesses in the area. Middlesex RFU was originally created as the Middlesex County Rugby Club but within six years was being referred to as the Middlesex County Rugby Football Union and is now known simply as Middlesex Rugby.

References

Campbell, M; Cohen, E.J. (1960). Rugby Football in East Africa 1909-1959. Rugby Football Union of East Africa.

↑ "Maurice John P. Daly". ESPN scrum. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
1 2 3 4 5 "Clifton RFC History - Maurice Daly". www.cliftonrfchistory.co.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[scrum-1] "Maurice John P. Daly". ESPN scrum. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[Clifton-2] 1 2 3 4 5 "Clifton RFC History - Maurice Daly". www.cliftonrfchistory.co.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[1]

[2]