On the other flank

In our all-time All Black team, picked from Wairarapa, Bush and Wairarapa-Bush representatives, we are up to selecting our openside flanker, and we have gone for  the All Black captain and one of the redoubtable Donald brothers from Southern Wairarapa, Jim Donald. Heplayed 22 games for the national team, as well as playing for Wairarapa from 1917 to 1930, including the glory years of the late 1920s when Wairarapa took the Ranfurly Shield from Hawke’s Bay.

After a hiatus ....

Having taken a break from posting, we return to pick up in the back of our forward pack.

There have been many Wairarapa loose forwards to make the All Black team – perhaps a reflection of our rural past.  One who fully deserves his place on the side of the scrum is the Bush Union’s only All Black, Athol Mahoney.  Playing for the Konini club, Mahoney represented New Zealand 26 times between 1929 and 1936, usually playing at the back of the scrum, although here we have him at blindside flanker.

Incomparable....

At the back of the scrum there is surely only one person to choose - the incomparable B.J. Lochore, one of the great All Black players, captains and, at the time of writing at least, the only New Zealand coach to win a Rugby World Cup when his team lifted the inaugural trophy in 1987. With his resolute defence and his attacking flair he became one of New Zealand’s best number eights.  He is also a figure who commands great respect in our community, a truly great leader, and deservedly our captain.

The pivotal role goes to...

The half back spot in our team of Wairarapa All Blacks is taken by Jimmy Mill, a clever and resourceful player with great speed who played for Wairarapa as well as Hawke’s Bay and East Coast.  He played 118 first class games, including 16 for Wairarapa.  In his 33 for the All Blacks, he scored 15 tries.

The greatest ever???

In the pivotal role of first five is one of the most charismatic, and perhaps one of the most flawed, but certainly one of the most talented players to ever pull on the All Black jersey – Bert Cooke.  Cooke was Auckland-born, and came to fame in the 1924 ‘Invincibles’, where he was described as one of the two best players on the tour.  He was very light – reportedly an incredible 54 kg when weighed in for the tour, he convinced the doctor to bump his weight up to 63 kgs – but his pace and his instinctive flair on attack, made him a potent attacking weapon.  He was induced to play for Hawke’s Bay in 1926, when a local mercer promised his a large pay rise to shift south from Auckland.  Wairarapa rugby supporters sought to top that, and they bought him a partnership in a local mercer's firm and he shifted here in 1927 when he helped the local team to lift the Ranfurly Shield.

Business did not suit his temperament and he kept on travelling south after the 1928 season, playing in Wellington.  His All Black career came to a halt after he showed up to training the worse for drink and he switched allegiance to the New Zealand Rugby League.  His life ended in tragic fashion, being confined to an asylum after found wandering the streets suffering from dementia.

He had been disowned by rugby administrators, but for a period in the late 1920s the imperious Bert Cooke carved out a name as one of the country’s finest players.  

Yesterday we had an elderly man call in to see us in the Archive, saying his father played with Bert Cooks, and his father always said Cooke was the best player ever - without fail.  So today we salute the frail genius that was Bert Cooke.

Believe it or not - we go for a Wrigley

We are down to choosing our second five today, and we call on a five eighths who eventually disgraced himself and switched his allegiance to league – Edgar Wrigley, one of three Wrigley brothers to play for the province at the start of the 20^th century.  Wrigley played for the New Zealand XV who played against Australia while the 1905 ‘Originals’were in the United Kingdom.  Wrigley switched codes and played in the professional All Blacks tour of Australia and Great Britain in 1907-8, then travelled north, earning a great reputation playing for Huddersfield, and later coaching Hull and Bradford Northern.  He died in the U.K. 

Centre of attention

One of Wairarapa’s strongest players of the post-war period makes our team at centre.  Manuera Ben Couch is best remembered today for his political activities, and support for the 1981 South African tour of New Zealand, but he was a 20 game veteran of the New Zealand Maori side and also played tests against Australia in 1947 and 1949 -  after missing selection for the South African tour because of his Maori ancestry.

And on the other wing...

Rawi Tama Cundy claims the other wing spot, although he could play a variety of spots in the back line and was also an excellent goal kicker, being the first New Zealand player to reach a century of points in one season and the first to kick four penalty goals in a Ranfurly Shield game, achieved in the remarkable ‘Battle of Solway’ in 1927. Cundy was in the All Blacks in Australia in 1929, including one game where he played as wing-forward!

Our wing man - Clinton Stringfellow

Over the next week or two we will be slowly unveiling our all time Wairarapa-Bush All Black team, selected from players who have been national representative and have also played for Wairarapa, Bush, or Wairarapa-Bush. 


Our first player to be selected was fullback Archie D'Arcy - this time it is the winger J.C. Clinton Stringfellow, who played most of his 113 games for Wairarapa, Wairarapa-Bush and Bush at centre, where he was described as a ‘grand player, speedy and certain in his movements’.   The first player to play over 100 games for any representative side in New Zealand, he was one of four Wairarapa players in the 1929 side to Australia, playing in two tests.

Wairarapa's All Black team

Over the next few days we are going to post our all-time Wairarapa All Blacks team, composed of those who have achieved national honours and have also represented Wairarapa, Bush or Wairarapa-Bush unions.
We kick off with out pick for full back, Archibald D'Arcy.

Archibald D’Arcy was a sporting polymath – as well as being the All Black fullback in 1893 and 1894, he was also a New Zealand champion sprinter and heavily involved in other sports in Masterton – he was a representative cricketer and played tennis as well.  After his retirement he was an able administrator and referee.