1912 Auckland Rugby League season

George Harrison and George Seagar

The 1912 Auckland Rugby League season was the 4th official year of the Auckland Rugby League. The season commenced on 11 May, with the start of the First Grade competition.

It saw six teams competing for the First Grade title after the addition of the Manukau Rovers who were formed after a meeting in Onehunga in March. The season commenced on 11 May with the start of the first grade competition.

Newton Rangers secured their first Auckland first grade club title after they defeated Ponsonby United in the penultimate round at Eden Park on 13 July.

Manukau at Eden Park in May.

Manukau held a meeting in Onehunga in March. They decided to field a senior team and two junior teams. James Rukutai was their captain and after his death in 1940 the trophy for the minor premiers was named after him. Teams still play for it today.

A club was formed in Hobsonville, West Auckland at the start of the season. They decided on the name of Hobsonville Pirates. They fielded a team in the second grade. They had the use of a paddock on Midgeley's farm for games and teams had to make their way there by launch from the city centre on Saturday mornings. They failed to field a side in 1913 and then in 1914 they fielded a side in the 3rd grade before folding at the end of the season.

Thirty regular season matches were played with nearly all fixtures being played at Eden Park (25 in total). With the Devonport Domain being used for four North Shore Albions home matches, and one match at Ellerslie.

There were 30 first grade games played with 189 tries, 74 conversions, and 27 penalties. The average number of points per game was 25.8, with 6.3 tries per game. With 74 conversions from 189 attempts the successful percentage was 39.2. These were decreases on the previous season where 28.4 points had been scored per game and the conversion percentage was 45.5 versus the current season of 39.2. A notable difference was the number of penalty goals kicked which increased from 11 from 19 games to 27 from 30 games.

Action from Manukau v Ponsonby game.

Eden Ramblers.

City v North Shore

City 1912 team

Images were published in the New Zealand Graphic of the City Rovers v North Shore Albions match. The very young Walter Jack Perry, better known as Jack Perry, debuted for Newton on the wing in their comfortable win over Eden. He played 18 games for Newton over the next 3 seasons before enlisting in the war effort. He died from wounds in France on July 10, 1916 aged 20.

In the match between North Shore and Newton, Joe Bennett broke his leg and missed the rest of the season. He returned to captain the side at the start of the 1913 season.

Arthur Hardgrave

Charles Webb debuted for Ponsonby after switching from the Ponsonby rugby union club. He scored a try in their 45-9 win over Eden. In the same game three other players scored multiple tries (Charles Savory 3, Sid Riley 2, and Arthur Carlaw 2) in addition to their other 4 try scorers. Both of the senior matches were played at Eden Park with 600 in attendance. The other match was played at the Devonport Domain with the home side, North Shore winning 5-3. For the defeated Manukau side their first ever New Zealand representative, Arthur Hardgrave scored their only points.

Eden only had nine players for their match with North Shore and after trailing by 33 points to 0 they threw in the proverbial towel and the match ended at that point. No point scorers or match description was published in the NZ Herald or Auckland Star. In the match between Ponsonby and Newton Charles Savory was ordered from the field for “rough and tumble” play just before fulltime and a match his side won by 16 to 6. He had earlier scored 2 tries and kicked a conversion. The fullback for Newton was J. Perry who had debuted weeks earlier and was said to be playing well despite being in his early teens.

After a scuffle between C Clark (North Shore), and Charles Webb (Ponsonby) resulted in referee Matt Hooper sending Clark off. Eden upset City with a 10-6 win to register their first win of the year. City had taken the lead towards the end of the game and from the kickoff with one minute remaining A Innes "took the ball up the field on his own" to score the winning try which Don Kenealy converted. Billy Curran switched from rugby (Marist Old Boys) and debuted for Newton. Following the game he was chosen in the New Zealand team to meet Auckland. He went on to play 6 matches for New Zealand on their Australia tour and 6 times for Auckland before signing with Wigan. He ultimately only played the one club league match in New Zealand. During the following week the Auckland Rugby League passed a resolution that no player be selected for representative fixtures unless they had played at least 4 matches in the rugby league code.

The rugby league code showed that it was still struggling in its infancy to always organise itself properly with City only managing to field 12 players and the Auckland Star noted in its match report that several players “wore wrongly coloured uniforms”, and that the match was scheduled for 3:15 but kicked off 30 minutes late. The field was in a very muddy state and played in heavy rain, and after halftime some of the players did not return to the field. Also noticeable was the Newton and Eden result where Newton ran in 12 tries but only managed to convert one of them. Goal kicking in general was relatively poor and was shared amongst the teams with it not uncommon to see 3 or 4 players used.

Archie Ferguson

Archie Ferguson refereed his first ever first grade game. He would go on to referee 50 first grade games and 8 representative games before becoming a prominent administrator in both refereeing and managing, including the New Zealand team. George Hunt who scored a try for City would also go on to become an administrator for the Auckland Rugby League in the 1920s.

It was reported that Arthur Francis the Newton player was now enroute to England where he was to join the Wigan club and play until 1919 when he would return to New Zealand and coach Newton in 1921. Charles Webb of the Ponsonby side was unable to play in their match with Eden after suffering from rheumatism. Remarkably little more than a month after being thrashed by Ponsonby by nearly 40 points, Eden managed to draw with them 9-9. John Henry Dufty made his debut for City. He had become famous for his remarkable kicking for the Thames rugby side in 1906 where he kicked 49 points in representative games sparking the cry "Give It To Dufty" at football grounds in New Zealand for many years to come. While he had really only had the one standout season he still kicked well at times.

Newton's win over Ponsonby effectively decided the title in their favour. Ponsonby had a weakened side with William Cossey, Sid Riley, and Charles Webb all unavailable but filled their places with Jack Stanaway and George Bater, a Ponsonby rugby player. Newton were without William Tobin but George Gillett was available and led the side to victory.

Newton were one point ahead of Ponsonby in the championship and needed a win to secure the title. Manukau scored first and Newton only had a 5-3 lead at halftime but in the second half they totally dominated, putting on 29 points to 0 for a 34-3 win. It gave them their maiden championship. Eden upset City 25-5 though City fielded a weak team and lost two players to injury during the match.

There were multiple instances of points being unattributed. As such the following try scoring and point scoring lists are incomplete. Games and/or teams with unattributed points are as follows: North Shore try and penalty v Manukau (R3), North Shore 33 points v Eden (R4), Newton 1 try v Manukau (R10), Eden 25 points v City (R10), City 5 points v Eden (R10). This amounts to 82 points unattributed out of 773 points scored in total. With the New Zealand team touring Australia several players only played a handful of matches before departing which limited their scoring opportunities to 4 games.

North Shore 2nd grade team. Edward Vincent Fox is 3rd from the left in the back row. The first grade Fox Memorial Shield was named after him.

The Points table at the end of the first round (which was published) and additional known results. Only 19 scores were reported therefore the points for and against are only tallies from those matches. The table also included the championship final which saw Ponsonby defeat Otahuhu 15-9.

Ponsonby B beat Ponsonby A in the final match 17-5 to win the competition. There were two rounds of matches played prior to the competition beginning. Only 8 rounds were played (7 matches for each team) and only 8 scores were reported, including none from Northcote's games. The standings were published after 7 rounds however which showed the teams wins and losses to that point. As a result the points for and against only includes those reported.

The competition was played over 7 rounds. Only 16 match scores were reported out of 26 matches played. The for and against as a result are incomplete as are the win loss records.

The team to play Thames-Goldfields to begin the season was a considerably weakened one. Several players named originally in the NZ Herald did not actually make the trip and the match day line up as reported in the Thames News was a very different one with many players on debut for Auckland.

The Auckland side.

Sid Riley the former Australian rugby international who was playing club football in Auckland for Ponsonby at the time was listed to play for Auckland in the match. However he played for New Zealand instead. A photo was published of the Auckland team. They are from left to right Ernie Asher, George Seagar, Jim Griffen, ?, ?, Bob Mitchell, ?, ?, ?, ?, Harry Fricker, ?, and ?. Originally the Hayward brothers (Morgan and Harold) were named to play for New Zealand however with their Thames side playing the curtain-raiser they ultimately represented them on the day.

The Auckland team featured Harold Hayward who was from the Thames district which was affiliated to Auckland Rugby League. He had been a member of the combined Thames-Goldfields team which had played Auckland earlier in the season.

Early in the game Skeats for Auckland broke "several ribs" and had to leave the field with a replacement coming on, most likely William Tobin as he was in the reserves and later scored a try. Then near the end of the match another Auckland player sprained a toe and left the field leaving Auckland a player short.

On 3 August Auckland played Rotorua in Rotorua and they also played Lower Waikato at Eden Park. The later match was listed in some quarters as a B team though it was filled with New Zealand internationals.

Due to the Rotorua and Thames leagues being affiliated with the Auckland Rugby League the Auckland team contained two players from each sub league. Namely Riki Papakura and Rukingi Reke from Rotorua and Harold Hayward and his brother Morgan Hayward from Thames.

Auckland and NSW teams.

Auckland won their first victory over an ‘international’ side when they defeated New South Wales by 10 points to 3. The game was marred by several acts of violence with the visiting side said to be at fault repeatedly. Near the end of the match Sid Deane was sent off for punching Billy Curran.

New South Wales reversed their earlier loss with a comprehensive win over a disappointing Auckland effort. Charles Dunning and Bob Mitchell who had both been named to play originally were forced to withdraw due to illness and were replaced by Harry Fricker and Jim Griffin.

• Auckland Rugby League Official Site