New Zealand's Rugby History

NOTE: This site currently shows all data & other information from 1964 to 2023.
60 years of people, stats & other information

Now working on 1962.

As at today there are 18,698 male players, 1,652 female players, 994 referees &
697 coaches recorded .

I need more information about the early 2000's and back in the womens game.

This site is private, in that there is no ownership by any rugby authority.
However funding to keep it going is being sought.

Check the great poem in the endorsements.

If anyone out there could help with suggestions as to how to help with future funding to continue to grow the features on the site (especially getting the team & club photos scanned) it would be much appreciated.

This is the story of the people who make this great game of ours so important in every community throughout New Zealand. Instead of a book, this history is made available for you, on this publicly accessible website, so that it can updated after each year's competitions have concluded.

It is a record of every player, coach & referee (male & female) who has participated in at least one 'first class' game.

You can Search for any player, referee or coach. This function even allows you to search by Province or Super Franchise or even by club (for a player).

What the site covers:

1: A list of all players & their achievements

2: A list of all referees & the games they reffed.

3: A list of all coaches & their achievements

4: The full list of results for every All Black games, every Provincial Union's games & every Super Team's games. This includes statistical results, plus lists of players who played more than 50 games, scored 100 or more points or scored 10 or more tries

5: Check out the Honours.
This is where you can find out who were all the people who won a Rugby Honour from when they started, eg. Player of the Year

5: Check out the New Feature called Items of Interest.
Did you know who scored the most tries or scored the most points, or played the most games?
Did you know scored in all four ways in the same game?
And lots more.

The author of this history is Kerry Geertson who can be contacted at coach [at] internet.co.nz

Acknowledgements: My thanks to the authors of the many NZ Rugby Almanacks which I have been able to use for much of the information, especially to Clive Akers. A special mention for the NZ Rugby Register compiled by Clive.

Please don't hesitate to coach [at] internet.co.nz (tell me) if you have an idea for improvement. If it is possible to incorporate your suggestions then I will do it.
If you happen to know the first name of any player, coach or referee that is not currently shown then please let us know, so that the history is complete.

Endorsement

When the battle scars have faded
And the truth becomes a lie
And the weekend smell of liniment
Could almost make you cry.
When the last rucks well behind you
And the man that ran now walks
It doesn’t matter who you are
The mirror sometimes talks
Have a good hard look old son!
The melons not that great
The snoz that takes a sharp turn sideways
Used to be dead straight
You’re an advert for arthritis
You’re a thoroughbred gone lame
Then you ask yourself the question
Why the hell you played the game?
Was there logic in the head knocks?
In the corks and in the cuts?
Did common sense get pushed aside?
By manliness and guts?
Do you sometimes sit and wonder
Why your time would often pass
In a tangled mess of bodies
With your head up someone’s......?
With a thumb hooked up your nostril
Scratching gently on your brain
And an overgrown Neanderthal
Rejoicing in your pain!
Mate – you must recall the jersey
That was shredded into rags
Then the soothing sting of Dettol
On a back engraved with tags!
It’s almost worth admitting
Though with some degree of shame
That your wife was right in asking
Why the hell you played the game?
Why you’d always rock home legless
Like a cow on roller skates
After drinking at the clubhouse
With your low down drunken mates
Then you’d wake up – check your wallet
Not a solitary coin
Drink Berocca by the bucket
Throw an ice pack on your groin
Copping Sunday morning sermons
About boozers being losers
While you limped like Quasimodo
With a half a thousand bruises!
Yes – an urge to hug the porcelain
And curse Sambuca’s name
Would always pose the question
Why the hell you played the game!
And yet with every wound re-opened
As you grimly reminisce it
Comes the most compelling feeling yet
God, you bloody miss it!
From the first time that you laced a boot
And tightened every stud
That virus known as rugby
Has been living in your blood
When you dreamt it when you played it
All the rest took second fiddle
Now you’re standing on the sideline
But your hearts still in the middle
And no matter where you travel
You can take it as expected
There will always be a breed of people
Hopelessly infected
If there’s a teammate, then you’ll find him
Like a gravitating force
With a common understanding
And a beer or three, of course
And as you stand there telling lies
Like it was yesterday old friend
You’ll know that if you had the chance
You’d do it all again
You see – that’s the thing with rugby
It will always be the same
And that, I guarantee
Is why the hell you played the game!

By Rupert McCall

Credit: Sutton & Epsom Bs

More endorsements...