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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 049: Kenneth Svenson

Australian born and raised Kenneth ‘Snowy’ Svenson eventually played for four provinces but made his biggest mark playing for Wellington as a midfield back or wing.

From Toowoomba, about an hour’s drive inland from Brisbane, Svenson started his career at the end of World War One at Whanganui before playing for Buller, Wellington and later Marlborough.

Svenson was a well-known All Black of the time, representing the national team on 34 occasions including in four tests between 1922-26.

He moved to Whanganui in his formative years, where he went to school and started his career as an inside back and played 16 representative matches for that province before moving to Westport in 1921 and playing for Buller and being selected for the All Blacks for the first time for their 1922 trip to his native Australia. But after playing in the pre-tour match against Wairarapa at centre he was struck with illness and didn’t play again on this trip.

Svenson was only a slight individual at 1,70m and weighing 69kg.

Svenson’s Wellington and All Black teammate Mark Nicholls description of Svenson follows:

“….the perfect footballer. Really a five-eighth and not fast for a win, Snowy was the most dependable player I have known. He never dropped the ball, never gave a bad pass, never put a teammate in a bad position. An ideal player, all heart.”

The All Blacks that toured Australia in 1922. Kenneth Svenson front right seated,

Following his stint at Buller he moved to Wellington and joined the pre-war multi-year champion club Athletic and played 21 games for Wellington in 1923, 1925, 1926 and 1927.

Highlights for Svenson for Wellington in 1923 included scoring a run of eight tries in four consecutive matches in September. He scored two in a 26-6 win over Otago at home and then four days later tormented his former Whanganui teammates with four tries in a 22-9 win at Whanganui. This included a first half hat-trick in slippery conditions. He was quiet in Wellington’s next match, a loss to Auckland, while he scored again in another defeat, 11-13 to Waikato.

In 1924, All Black commitments meant Svenson didn’t play Wellington at all, but he played in the North Island’s 39-8 win over the South Island at Wellington at the end of May. He was then a late withdrawal from the Probables team in the All Blacks trial a few days later but got selected in the All Blacks regardless.

He was back playing for Wellington in 1925, where he scored a try for Wellington in their 10-6 win over the All Blacks in early June, and scored a try and kicked a goal from a mark in an unsuccessful 11-20 Ranfurly Shield challenge to Hawke’s Bay in September.

For Wellington in 1926, he was part of the side that lost 8-58 to Hawke’s Bay and a fortnight later scored all Wellington’s points, including a hat-trick of tries in a 12-16 loss to Auckland.

His final year for Wellington in 1927 saw him feature on the scoresheet in wins over Manawhenua and Otago, ending his time with Wellington with 19 tries for the province.

He seemingly retired after that, but curiously his trail picks up in 1932 and 1933, playing three matches for Marlborough out of the Moutere club.

For Athletic, Svenson was a Wellington Senior Championship winner in 1926. The team won 13 and lost two of the games they played. Here he is in the team photo below seated in the middle row next to All Blacks captain Cliff Porter:

The Athletic Senior As in 1926.

Athletic were runners-up in 1927 to Wellington College Old Boys.

Svenson (on ground) and Porter lining up a kick for goal, for Athletic. [Ref: Cliff Porter and Kenneth Svenson, playing rugby. New Zealand Free Lance : Photographic prints and negatives. Ref: PAColl-6388-27. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23169222 ]
Picking up Svenson’s All Blacks career, he didn’t play for New Zealand in 1923, but his international stocks increased considerably when he was named in the 1924/25 All Blacks that toured the Northern Hemisphere and became known as the Invincibles.

Prior to that, he played against Australia in 1924 and scored five tries in three internationals.

He scored 23 tries in 25 appearances on tour in North America and Europe and a claim to fame for Svenson was scoring a try on the wing in each of the four internationals.

Svenson played in the All Blacks’ only match in 1925, against New South Wales in Australia, and again in 1926 on an eight-match tour to Australia where he appeared variously at second-five, wing and fullback.

His career first-class record was 53 tries scored in 88 games.

He had a rugby playing brother, Neil, who played five games for Canterbury in 1938-39, before joining the air forces as a Pilot Officer in RAF 77 Squadron and losing his life in a crash in the North Sea in December 1940.

A T.S. Svenson also played for Wellington out of the Wellington College Old Boys Club in 1945-46.

Kenneth Svenson died in Raglan in 1955, a day after his 57th birthday.

Svenson’s legacy in Wellington club rugby continues today with three of his relations playing for the Upper Hutt Rams in the 2020s, Todd, Josh and Scott.

References:

  • Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
  • All Blacks A-Z profile Kenneth Svenson, by Lindsay Knight
  • Athletic Football Club Diamond Jubilee 1877-1937 Souvenir Programme.
  • Chester, R.H. and McMillan, N.A.C., Palenski Ron. Men in Black Commemorative 20th Century Edition. Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland 2000.
  • Chester, R.H. and McMillan, N.A.C. Centenary. 100 Years of All Black Rugby. Moa Publications. Auckland 1984.
  • Evening Post and Dominion various news reports 1922-1928
  • Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed

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