By Carey Clements, Wellington Rugby League Historian

For just over a hundred years since it was donated to New Zealand by the 1910 manager of the English touring team, the Rugby League Cup, was the code’s equivalent to the Ranfurly Shield.

The first games for it came the following year in 1911 with Auckland being the inaugural holders after beating Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Taranaki.

At the time, the cup was called the Northern Union Cup to reflect the name of the game, which officially remained in place until it was changed to Rugby League the following decade.

What is interesting is that in 1911, the Wellington Rugby League body had not been born (this came the following year) and therefore, the side that ventured to play Auckland in Auckland on the 6^th of August, had been made up of rugby players from the capital, which essentially only came together for the game.

In doing so, history was made by this being the first ever Rugby League Cup match and with rain falling for an hour before the 3pm kick off, the Victoria Park ground was left muddy. This prevented the spectators seeing a fast game. At halftime, there was time that the visitors could be the inaugural holders by leading 8-6, but in the second half Auckland had the majority of the possession to win 16-8.

The next two decades saw various challenges by Wellington over the years come to nothing, despite South Auckland (now Waikato), West Coast and Canterbury taking home the cup at various stages.

In 1947, Wellington made another challenge for it to the now holders, West Coast, who had been the holders for the past 14 years. Played in September at Wingham Park in Greymouth, it was as good a time as ever for Wellington to secure a long-awaited win in that the weather was kinder, and the West Coast were without seven Kiwis, who were incognito on their way to Great Britain and France.

To further ensure that Wellington could take it, a game against West Coast B was played the day before in Hokitika, before the side travelled back to Greymouth to play the A team the following day.

Led by the brilliant 1938-39 Kiwi fullback Jack Hemi (who is reported to have kicked one of the longest goals by a New Zealand player from 70 yards in Queensland on the 1938 tour of Australia), the Wellington side also featured two forwards that would go on and play for their country in Harvey Kreyl and Ken English.

A big portion of Greymouth numbering around 4000 turned up to witness the Sunday game, which began at 2.45pm.

During the first half, very little separated the two sides with leading 5-nil at halftime at a time when tries were 3 points in league. The home side clawed its way back with two penalties to trail 4-5, before the key moment in the game came when West Coast forward H Tuck was forced to retire with an injury leaving his side a player short, which in those days only allowed for two players to act as substitutes.

The loss was felt immediately by the home side resulting in Wellington continuing to wear down the West Coast, which resulted in two further tries in the last ten minutes and to win with an overall score of 11-4.

Following the game, the local media questioned whether the West Coast was stale following a big club season and for a lack of hard preparation going into the game.   

Wellington captain Hemi noted after the game that he felt Jack Griffin had shown ‘the best exhibition of refereeing he had ever seen”. The President of the West Coast Rugby League, B.F. Connors, later had the honour to hand the Rugby League Cup to Hemi at the after match function.

Wellington continued to hold the Rugby League Cup until 1949, before losing it to the old enemy Auckland. Auckland then secured its hold of the cup until losing it in 1959, 12 years after Wellington first won it.

Wellington picked up the cup on another four occasions, but that story will be told in other future articles. 

Article added: Thursday 20 June 2024