New Zealand Rugby Register

The Players, Referees and Administrators in

First-Class Rugby 1870-2015

The most extensive career record on players and

referees in first-class rugby over the past 145

years.

For the first time, the Rugby Register provides an

alphabetical list of every provincial representative

(men and women) since the game was introduced

to New Zealanders in 1870.

820 pages containing approximately 40,000 names

including NZ Sevens, NZ Age Grade, and NZ

Schools representatives as well as prominent

coaches, administrators, and rugby media.

A reference book for provincial union staff, journal-

ists, media, rugby enthusiasts and genealogists.

A 35-year project compiled by Rugby Almanack co-

editor Clive Akers.

Available only from NZ Rugby Museum, PO Box 36,

Palmerston North 4440. info@rugbymuseum.co.nz

Price: $195.00 including postage within New Zealand.

(ORDER FORM ON BACK)

RUGBY REGISTER

Review by LINDSAY KNIGHT

In all of New Zealand rugby there has never been a book quite like that which has been produced by long-serving Rugby Alma-

nack co-editor and Rugby Museum chairman, Clive Akers. In his New Zealand Rugby Register Akers has recorded the names

and biographical details of every player and referee and some of the administrators and coaches who have been involved from

1870 up until 2015 in New Zealand first-class games. He hasn’t stopped there and has also covered national sevens, age-group

and secondary school representatives and prominent members of the media. It all amounts to more than 800 A4 pages, bound in

a hard cover, which is a reflection of the staggering amount of research which Akers has devoted over many years to the project.

Clearly while it is the most phenomenal reference book this writer has encountered in any sport, let alone rugby, the Register is

not bed-time reading and is not going to be a best-seller. That obviously was not Akers’ intention. But it will be of immeasura-

ble benefit to any family proud of a relative’s deeds, historians, statisticians and any media hack who has been assigned the task

of compiling an obituary on any old All Black or rugby personality when they have passed away. Because it has inevitably in-

volved mind-boggling research and covers such a comprehensive subject, one cannot vouch for the Register being 100% accu-

rate. And if there have been mistakes or omissions then they would have to be regarded as understandable. But from a reasona-

bly good knowledge of New Zealand rugby at many levels over the past 50 years or more I can find precious few and have found

confirmation of one or two claims which have been made to me personally.

I now know that a fellow bowls club member, one Andrew Tait, had a first-class game for Golden Bay-Motueka in 1965

and a couple of media people of recent years, The Dominion-Post’s Toby Robson and Sky Television’s Grant Nisbett, appeared

briefly in first-class rugby. Robson twice played for a Wellington XV in 2002 and Nisbett for a Wellington colts side against

Horowhenua in a Queen’s Birthday match in 1969 when on the same day the A team played Manawatu and the Bs played Marl-

borough. The historically and politically minded will be equally fascinated to learn two Prime Ministers played first-class rugby,

Keith Holyoake with Golden-Bay Motueka in the 1920s and before the turn of the 20th century George Forbes, the country’s

hapless leader in the 1930s, for Canterbury. Another celebrated politician, from the Richard Seddon era, to have also played rep-

resentative rugby was William Pember Reeves. You will also find that the famous soldier and former Governor-General, Ber-

nard Freyberg, was a useful player with three games for Horowhenua, that Tem, the father of the entertainer Howard Morrison,

played for Waikato and New Zealand Maori and that John Devoy, father of the squash champion Susan, in the 1940s was a mid-

field back for Wanganui and Hawke’s Bay. Or that the great lawn bowler Peter Belliss, before winning his world titles, was a

Wanganui representative forward, continuing a family tradition which started with his grand-dad, Moke, a dynamic All Black

wing forward in the early 1920s. Many of us no doubt have been assured, either by the person himself or his relatives, that so

and so represented Auckland, Canterbury or Otago. That can be confirmed by the Register. Or it can be disproved for there are

many who confuse playing for a province at schoolboy and junior levels with the elite few who were representatives at the ap-

proved first-class level.

One might have to be a history or statistical buff to fully enjoy Akers’ monumental work. But it’s an important contribu-

tion to the archiving of New Zealand rugby and it’s something for which Akers deserves both gratitude and unqualified congrat-

ulations.

ORDER FORM—NZ RUGBY REGISTER

Contact New Zealand Rugby Museum PO Box 36, Palmerston North 4440

info@rugbymuseum.co.nz Ph: (06) 358 6947

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