Wellington against international teams: Great Britain 1888

Representative Rugby | 17 February 2015 | Steven White

Match details:?

Wellington 3 – Great Britain 3

12 May 1888, At the Basin Reserve. Crowd 7,000

Wellington’s first match against touring international opposition. For the first time, a Great Britain team toured New Zealand, playing nine matches throughout April and May and a further 10 in September and October after a visit to Australia in between playing both rugby and Victoria Rules Football.?

Great Britain’s record in New Zealand was played 19, won 13, lost two and drew four. They played no Tests against New Zealand but played and won two matches against a South Island combined team, as well as meeting Otago, Canterbury, Auckland and Taranaki Clubs (the TRFU hadn’t been formed yet) twice each.?

The match:?

In its preview, the Evening Post talked up Wellington’s chances: “The fifteen players chosen to represent our city is probably the best all-round team we have had for years. This is especially so as regards the forwards – as scrimmaging men. They are a fast lot, good in tight or loose play, and especially clever in collaring, which latter quality will be much needed against the Britishers.”?

There was also some discussion about whether Wellington should have selected a ‘wing forward’, a roving position in part invented by Wellington’s Thomas Ellison that effectively hung off the scrum and acted as a blocker for the opposition’s inside backs and a pest who would now be deemed permanently offside as well as running frequent obstruction. The position was eventually outlawed by the IRB following Great Britain’s 1930 tour to New Zealand some four decades later. In the end it was decided to meet the tourists on their own terms with a [modern] 3-2-3 scrum formation.?

The British team only arrived in Wellington by sea from Christchurch on the morning of the match, having beaten Canterbury 14-6 and 4-0 in back-to-back games earlier in the week.

The run of play, in firm, cool conditions, was even throughout the first half, with Britain crossing for a converted try for a 3-0 halftime lead. Wellington replied through a dropped goal to Wellington Football Club centre A.D Thomson to make it 3-3, the final score.

The remainder of the match was hotly contested, with several injuries and Britain holding on to the end a player down and later complaining about the rough nature of the match.

The British team actually played a second game on the Basin Reserve a few days later. Like the Canterbury visit, two games against Wellington were scheduled, but almost half of Wellington’s team including some players from Wairarapa had to pull out with work commitments. So a substitute match was hastily arranged against a H. Roberts’ XV, which Britain won narrowly.

1888 was also a significant year for being the date of the first overseas tour by a New Zealand Native team. Prior to leaving New Zealand, the Native side defeated Wellington at Newtown Park. The Natives won 78 of their 107 matches in New Zealand, Australia and Britain.

Three prominent Wellington players – all representing the Poneke Football Club – were on this Native tour. They were Thomas Ellison, George Williams and Davey Gage.

The most famous of the trio, Ellison, scored 113 points including 43 tries for the Natives tourists. He went on to captain the New Zealand team to Australia in 1893. It was Ellison’s motion that adopted the black jersey with a silver fern leaf, he was widely believed to be the first Maori to enter the legal profession in 1891, refereed and administered the game as well as playing it and wrote a coaching manual called the ‘Art of Rugby Football’ in 1902. Ellison died in 1904, aged 33. His legacy lived on over a century later when his relative Tamati became an All Black.

Davey Gage was also a leading player of the time, eventually playing 131 first-class matches. Gage was a utility back who played fullback in this match against Great Britain. On the Natives tour he played 68 of 74 matches in Britain. He played for the 1893 New Zealand team in Australia and in the 1896 New Zealand team that played Queensland.

George ‘Bully’ Williams was the third member of this Poneke trio, a front rower he was probably hard-nosed and uncompromising going by his nickname.

Two other players of note were wing Joe Warbrick out of the Wellington Football Club who was an 1884 New Zealand representative and Sammy Cockcroft who played for the Union, Athletic and Wellington Football clubs and also played for New Zealand in 1893 and also captained Queensland to New Zealand in 1896.?

Wellington: G.A Williams, L. Storey, H. McIntyre, T.R Ellison, M. Hyland, S.G. Cockroft, R. Malcolm, F. Moore, J.M. King (Captain), M.H. Moorehouse, C. Moore, J.A Warbrick, A.D. Thomson, F. Fairbrother, D.R. Gage

Great Britain: A.J. Stuart, T. Banks, R. Burnett, W.H. Thomas, C. Mathers, A.P. Penkesh, T. Kerr, R.L. Seddon (Captain), H. Eagles, J. Nolan, W. Bamby, J. Anderton, H.C. Speakman, J.T. Hasham, A.G. Paul

The Evening Post newspaper, May 1888

The Visitors - The History of International Rugby Teams in New Zealand

by Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. MOA Publications, Auckland, 1990

The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby

By Ron Palenski, Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland 1998