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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 047: Bill Elvy

Bill Elvy had a deadly sidestep off both feet.

He put this to good use on 28 August 1929 at Athletic Park against Southland when he crossed for five of nine tries in the 35-7 win.

In so doing, Elvy became the first player to score five tries for Wellington in a first-class fixture.

All five of Elvy’s tries were scored in the second half – Wellington leading 8-4 at the break and piling on 27 second half points.

Elvy also scored a try against Otago three days later and a week after that scored a hat-trick against Canterbury in a 34-6 win in Wellington – on the day that the WRFU celebrated its 50th Jubilee.

Elvy was born in Canterbury and represented his home province over four seasons in first-class rugby before shifting north to Petone and Wellington, so he must have felt right at home playing against the South Island provinces.

In fact, Elvy was a try-scoring freak. He first represented Canterbury B in 1923, aged 21, as a first-five. He switched to the wing and represented Canterbury in 1924 and gained an All Black trial. In one match for Canterbury that year against ‘His Majesty’s Fleet XV’ he scored six tries.

He made the All Blacks in both 1925 and 1926 on their tours to Australia – and scored 12 tries in as many games for the All Blacks on those trips.

He played in no official tests, because there weren’t any on these tours, but appeared in the ‘big’ matches. He scored two tries in the first match against New South Wales in 1925 but injury hampered the rest of his maiden trip with the national team. He played more games on the 1926 tour and was running in a try a game on average.

His other claim to fame at this time was winning the Canterbury boxing welterweight title in 1925 and the Andrew Fairburn Cup for the most scientific boxer.

New Zealand to Australia 1925 – Elvy front left.

Combining pace, fast footwork and cleverness was no doubt a winning formula for him on the rugby field.

Elvy shifted north to Petone and Wellington with his job as a railwayman and played for Wellington in 1927 and again in 1929, scoring his first two tries for his new province in a 22-3 win over South Canterbury at Athletic Park (note another South Island team to carve up).

He joined Petone’s backline headed by All Black Mark Nicholls, but the team slipped on the last day in 1927 of the season to finish fourth in that year’s Wellington Club Championship.

He didn’t play at all in 1928, our speculation why being his job perhaps taking him elsewhere for the year or maybe owing to illness or injury. He was back playing for Petone in 1929, the year that University won the inaugural Jubilee Cup title. In the penultimate round of the season, Petone went down to Poneke in a [then] high scoring thriller, 32-28, with Elvy kicking a field goal and scoring two tries for his side. Petone finished third in the standings.

Elvy also played for the North Island in 1929 and earned a New Zealand trial in 1930, but never played first-class rugby again. He played for Petone in 1930 – the year the club won its first Jubilee Cup – but he was hampered by injury and reports said he had lost his ‘dash’ , and he made few appearances.

Like so many players of his elk, his flame burnt brightly for a short time only. In 45 first-class matches, Elvy scored 42 tries.

Elvy died in New Plymouth in 1977, aged 76.

As canvassed in our previous profile in this series with H.H. Dawson, a few players had previously scored four tries in a match for Wellington, Dawson being the first to do so in 1910 and also against Southland. Others to do so had included All Blacks George Aitkin in 1920 and Kenneth Svenson in 1922.

The first player to score five tries in a first-class rugby match in New Zealand was Frank Fryer for Canterbury in the early years of last century. Fryer repeated this by scoring five tries for New Zealand against Queensland in 1907.

Marist St Pat’s and Petone play for the Bill Elvy Trophy each year in their first round Premier Swindale Shield meeting.

References:

  • All Blacks A-Z profile Billy Elvy – by Lindsay Knight
  • Dominion and Evening Post various reports 1927-1930.
  • Griffin, Don and Gallagher, Peter. True Blue The First 100 years of Petone RFC. Apex Print. Petone, 1985.
  • Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
  • The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Rugby. By Ron Palenski, Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland 1998

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