New book explores how Halifax rugby league legend Arthur Bassett helped create sporting history

The GB team won the three-match Ashes series 2-0, and the unbeaten team’s performance has never been repeated.

Winger Bassett joined Halifax in January 1939 after switching from rugby union and played in the 1939 Challenge Cup final victory against Salford at Wembley.

He was inducted into the Halifax Panthers Hall of Fame for his exceptional try-scoring record.

The 1946 Indomitables were the most revered touring team in British rugby league history, and the definitive story of their remarkable achievements in the face of unprecedented challenges has been published to mark the tour’s 80th anniversary.

The book features more than 320 photographs, many of which have never been previously published.

The Indomitables – named after the aircraft carrier that transported the 26 rugby players to Australia – is the most comprehensive and authoritative account of the 1946 tour ever written.

The squad of 15 Englishmen and 11 Welshmen – playing as England, before the team’s name was changed to Great Britain for the subsequent Ashes series – sailed around the world just months after the end of the Second World War, in which many had fought, to play a gruelling itinerary of incredibly physical matches in-front of sell-out crowds, won the Ashes series 2-0, and in doing so became sporting legends who won the respect of both Australia and New Zealand.

Sports journalist and rugby historian, Huw Richards, who jointly-authored The Indomitables with Martin Whitcombe, said: “In addition to the retelling of the matches played, we searched extensively for and discovered many fascinating contemporary sources and previously unpublished documents and photographs which helped us to paint a picture of rugby league and wider society in Britain, Australia and New Zealand in 1946, and thus provide the context within which this remarkable tour occurred.

“We also explain the significance of the Ashes tradition, provide a measured analysis of the selection procedure, including those players who were not chosen for the tour, and discuss how the prevailing racial attitudes in rugby at that time may have impacted the selection.

"The final chapters follow the post-tour lives of the players of all three Test teams, and how, for many, their lives became intertwined with the history of rugby league in the following decades.

“The Indomitables are rightly revered for being unbeaten in the Ashes Test series they won 2-0, but the single Test loss to New Zealand and the final seven-match leg of the tour has too often been overlooked.

"To us, the 1946 tour matches in New Zealand and the development of rugby league across the country deserved the same detailed approach that we had undertaken with Australia, and we hope the rugby league fraternity there acknowledge our commitment to also telling their story.”