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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 050: Joey Sadler

Bernard “Joey” Sadler was a supernova who burst on to the scene after leaving Wellington College in 1932 and rose to be the number one halfback in the land less than three years later on the 1935/36 tour of Britain, before he was cut down with injury the following year forcing his premature retirement aged just 22.

By all accounts, and one of these being fellow British tourist Eric Tindill’s, such was Sadler’s dynamic play at halfback where he played 16 games on tour including three of the four Tests, Sadler was clearly the number one scrumhalf and in line to play against Danie Craven and the Springboks at home in 1937.

With the Springboks in Australia and soon on their way to New Zealand, Sadler was in top form for his Wellington College Old Boys side in the Wellington Club Rugby Championship competition. WCOB were tracking in second place just behind Athletic.

One example of several mentions in the local press is below in the Evening Post after his side’s win over Poneke on 24 April 1937:

Fulltime was approaching on a dark and grim winter’s afternoon at Lyall Bay Park in the match between Sadler’s WCOB side and University. WCOB were up 14-8 and another win was in the bag.

At this point, Sadler went down with an ‘injured leg’ (as per the Monday newspaper report) and had to be stretchered off and taken to hospital. Subsequent reports that week said Sadler was still hospital with a ‘strained muscle’ and there were hopes he would recover and play again later in the season.

But it was worse. As in career ending worse. The injury was to his knee, and it involved damaged ‘nerves’ and he was operated on.

A fortnight after his injury on the eve of the first All Blacks trial match at Athletic Park, a group of his recent All Blacks teammates visited him in hospital, and he attended the first trial to pick the team for the South Africa series in the stand. But there was to be no comeback that year or the following season. Sadler had played his last game; his career was over.

How far could he have gone? The All Blacks played another series against Australia in 1938. But they didn’t play again for another seven years. Wellington had another unsuccessful crack at the Ranfurly Shield against Southland that year. Would Sadler have played on after the war, like his subsequent replacement Charlie Saxton?

Sadler was born in Wellington on 28 July 1914 – the same date as the first war started –  and he attended Berhampore Primary School and then Wellington College for five years of secondary schooling and he was in the First XV in 1930-32.

In 1931 Wellington College won the Quadrangular Tournament and achieved the double of beating both St Patrick’s Colleges, the new school Silverstream having just opened.

Sadler was vice-captain that year, with outside back, head prefect and future All Blacks teammate Jim Watt the captain.

Sadler was captain of the First XV in 1932, and although Nelson College won the Quad, Wellington College enjoyed continued success of their local rivals.

He joined WCOB in club rugby in 1933 and was soon playing in the Senior Championship. Under the captaincy of Jack Lamason, the White Tigers won their first and only Jubilee Cup title that year and Sadler was in his way.

WCOB 1933.

In 1934 he played the first of eight games for the Wellington representative team, making his debut still aged 19 in a 13-11 win over Taranaki. He scored the first of six tries for Wellington in the 11-5 return win over the same province and scored a brace in a 16-13 win over Auckland in early September. Sadler, Tindill and veteran Frank Kilby were Wellington’s three halfbacks that year.

In 1935 he played in the All Blacks trials and was selected for the All Blacks and he made his All Blacks debut on 19 September that year against Midland Counties at Coventry, subsequently playing in the test wins over Ireland and Scotland and defeat to Wales.

Returning to New Zealand in 1936, Sadler played a season for WCOB and he was in the team defeated 0-3 by Athletic in the final match of the season that saw them finish second equal to Athletic.

Sadler played three more matches for the All Blacks in 1936, and featured in two home tests against Australia. He got to play on his home ground Athletic Park against them, the All Blacks winning 11-6 that day.

The 1936 All Blacks contained four ex-Wellington College players in the backline, from left to right (with another former Old Boy Mark Nicholls centre): Jim Watt, Jack Griffiths, Joey Sadler, Brian Killeen.

Sadler passed away on 24 June 2007 in Wellington, aged 92, and at the time the second oldest living All Black after Tindill who died in 2010.

References:

  • Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
  • All Blacks A-Z profile. BS Sadler, by Box Luxford
  • Beasley A.W. The Light Accepted. 125 Years of Wellington College. BOT of Wellington College, Wellington 1992.
  • Chester, Rod, Palenski, Ron, McMillan, Neville. Men in Black 2000 Edition. Hodder Moa Beckett, Auckland 2000.
  • Dominion/Evening Post reports, July/August 1935 and April-July 1937
  • Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
  • Wellington College Old Boys Football Club. Golden Jubilee 1898-1948 Souvenir Booklet

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