
Athletic Football Club stalwart Cliff Porter saved perhaps his most memorable two games of his career to last.
After a decade of top rugby at club, representative and international level, he bowed out on top at in 1930 against the touring Great Britain side, with wins at home at Athletic Park against them for both Wellington and the All Blacks.
Porter, who was born in Scotland and then attended South Wellington School and Wellington College, had captained the Invincibles All Blacks on their legendary 1924-25 tour to Europe and North America and played in 17 of the 30 matches.
He was in and out of the All Blacks over the next few years but was an inspired choice as All Blacks captain for the much-anticipated 1930 series against Great Britain.
Arriving in New Zealand in May, Great Britain confidently defeated Wanganui (19-3), Taranaki (23-7), Mana-whenua (34-8) and Wairarapa-Bush (19-6), before turning to face their first tough assignment in Wellington on 4 June. They named their best team for their first run of the tour on Athletic Park. Both the tourists and all of New Zealand were anxious about this game – this was a gauge on the strength of the visitors.
Great Britain silenced the 30,000-strong crowd with an early try, but Wellington came back to lead 12-5 at halftime – turning into a stiff southerly. Inspired by Porter and others, Wellington held on to win 12-8.
For Wellington, this match was their first representative game of a memorable 1930 season. Wellington ‘A’ teams played nine games this year, for eight wins and a draw – the first time since 1919 that the ‘A’ team had gone through the season without a loss.
For All Black Porter, a busy winter ensued. He led the side in winning the opening Test in Dunedin 6-3 but the All Blacks (playing in white as the Lions wore dark blue jerseys) prevailed 13-10 in Christchurch and 15-10 in Auckland for a 2-1 series lead heading into the decider in Wellington on 9 August.
Porter scored the game’s first try under a pile of bodies from a forwards rush and the All Blacks led narrowly at halftime. He later latched on to a long pass by halfback Merv Corner to score a decisive second try and the All Blacks won 22-8. After leading the All Blacks to a 3-1 series lead and scoring two tries in the decider he retired a winner.
Porter started rugby life as a back, a first-five or three-quarter, joining the 1911-15 Wellington club rugby winners Athletic as war raged and sport took a back seat for the next couple of years. Rugby flourished post-war and Poneke and Petone emerged as the leading teams and shared the title between them every season up to 1925.
It was Porter’s Athletic side that ended their grips on the title, winning the senior championship title in 1926.

Athletic’s only loss in the first round in 1926 was to Poneke and they led the standings by 4 points on 18 to second placed Petone and University on 14 as the second round got underway on the last weekend of July.
Athletic started the second round by beating Marist (14-5) and then beating Poneke (11-3), but then lost to Oriental (12-8), beat Petone (26-22) and then University (14-6) in the final at Athletic Park in front of 12,000 spectators. Porter was ‘nursing an injury’ in this big decider and could only support his Athletic team from the stand.
Athletic were there and there abouts throughout the remainder of Porter’s career, finishing second in 1927 and third in 1928 and 1929.

In representative rugby, Porter first represented Wellington in 1917 and 1918, and then played for Horowhenua in 1921 and 1922.
It was about this time that made the fulltime switch from the backs to the wing forward position where he thrived. He returned to Athletic and to Wellington and must have had a barnstorming 1923 season as after playing for a combined Wellington-Manawatu side made his All Black debut in the third international against the touring New South Wales side.
The following year he was selected as captain of the All Blacks for their northern tour, but curiously played only one of the internationals, against then minnows France. Reasons why he didn’t appear in the internationals against the home unions have been speculated upon previously and personality clash with manager Stan Dean or others have been suggested as to why.
But Winston McCarthy in his book ‘Rugby in My Time Including A Gallery of Rugby Greats’ (referenced below) posits another reason. This was because he was a wing forward and the British detested that position and wanted to ban it (which they succeeded in doing after the 1930 home series in which Porter was also All Black captain). Much of the angst against the position went back to 1905/06 ‘Originals’ captain Dave Gallagher also being a wing forward. Being one of the selectors on tour, Porter in fact unselfishly dropped himself for these internationals so as to minimise the ire of referees or cause a distraction from any controversy his style of play stirred up. The other wing forward on tour was Jim Parker and he was a different kind of player, a rover in what appears to be closer to the modern openside flanker role, whereas Porter was more of a spoiler, an in-your-face ferret and pest. Officially, Porter was still picked to start the Irish test, but withdrew from injury, so at face value that was obviously a reason too why the tour captain sat in the stand for these big internationals.
Porter would also captain the All Blacks again in 1925 and 1926, 1928 (a second-string team) and 1929, as well as 1930 – thus captaining the All Blacks in six different seasons.
Porter finished his career in 1930 having played 41 matches for the All Blacks, including 37 as captain and 7 tests.
Porter’s retirement was also the end of an era in terms of the prominent style of play that he was front and centre of; that being his wing forward position and the 2-3-2 scrum that was retired from rugby permanently to be mandatorily replaced by the modern loose forward trio and 3-4-1 scrum.
For Wellington, Porter played 48 first-class matches, and played 110 overall.
Following his rugby career, he pursued business interests and lived on the Kapiti Coast, in and around Manakau and Waikanae, and died on 12 November 1976 in Wellington, aged 77.
References:
- Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
- All Blacks A-Z profile Cliff Porter, 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.
- Evening Post news reports July-September 1926
- Knight, Lindsay. They led the All Blacks. Rugby Press Ltd, Auckland 1991
- McCarthy, Winston. Rugby in my Time Including a Gallery of Rugby Greats. A.H. and A.W. Reed, Wellington 1958.
- Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed