McEvedy Shield stars and future rugby players

• By Adam Julian & Steven White

The 101^st McEvedy Shield athletics meeting is being held at Newtown tomorrow.

In modern times, the event is a four-school competition between Wellington College, St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie, St Patrick’s College Silverstream and Rongotai College.

As such, a roll call of future well known club and representative rugby players have also left their marks on the McEvedy Shield – whose founder attended St Pat’s Town between 1895-98 and played international rugby for Great Britain teams against the All Blacks in 1904 and 1908.

In celebration of the McEvedy Shield we have selected eight athletes (two from each school) who went on to distinguish themselves on the rugby field.

Lane 1: Thomas Waldrom (St Patrick’s College, Silverstream). After winning the U14 discus as a third former, Waldrom swept to four consecutive shot put and discus titles between 1997-2000 whilst years 10-13 at Silverstream. He also won the Open Javelin title in 1999, and would have likely cleaned up the hammer throw if that was a McEvedy event. Waldrom also competed nationally and won the Senior Boys shot put title at the NZSS athletics championships.

He

Silverstream went 29 years without McEvedy success before back-to-back triumphs in 2002 and 2003. Interestingly in 2003 First XV players Sam Williamson and Geoff ‘Horse’ Brown finished first and second in the open 100, 200 and 400 meters. Williamson played senior rugby for Upper Hutt.

Waldrom playing for Avalon in 2008. 

Lane 2: Kelly Rolleston (St Patrick’s College, Kilbirnie)

Kelly Rolleston hurled the spear high and far into the Newtown sky for a throw of 56.46m to break the Senior Boys Javelin record in the 1989 event (a record now owned since 2018 by Cam Robinson brother of explosive Wellington Firebirds cricketer Tim. Robinson*) and was also third in the Senior Boys discus that same year. The previous year, Rolleston had won the U17 Shot Put and Hurdles and was second in the Javelin in a winning St Pat’s Town team.

Rolleston went on to play fullback for the Wellington Lions between 1992-96 and won three Jubilee Cup titles with Marist St Pat’s in 1994, 1995 and 1997. Rolleston then moved to Italy and played a decade of professional rugby in Padova.

St Pats Town enjoyed a golden period in both rugby and athletics in the 80s and early 90s. Between 1980 and 1991 the First XV won 214 out of 257 matches, including a 22-game unbeaten season in 1986 and a Grand Slam of traditional wins in 1989.

From 1982 to 1992 Town won the McEvedy Shield nine times. They have won it 20 times in their entire history.

* Cam and Tim Robinson were New Zealand Secondary Schools javelin champions while Tim was part of the Wellington College First XI cricket team that won Nationals in 2018.

Lane 3: Richard Parkinson (Rongotai College) capped off a stellar personal McEvedy Shield career in 1987 by winning his third consecutive and second Senior Boys Triple Jump title and breaking the record. His hop, skip and jump effort of 14.00m that year remains a McEvedy record to this day. Parkinson also won the Senior Boys long jump events two years in a row, and had several other McEvedy placegetter finishes in these two events as well as in high jump and on the track in the 100m and relays.

Rongotai didn’t win McEvedy while Parkinson was at school, but they were far more competitive than what they have been in the last three decades where they’ve only finished higher than fourth twice since 1993. In McEvedy 1987 Rongotai was only 25 points behind St Pats Town. Rongotai won McEvedy in 1979, 80, and by a record 110.5 points in 1989 with a staggering total of 272.5 points.

A fullback or first-five, Parkinson left school and joined the nearby Oriental-Rongotai club’s U21 side, before being called up to the Premiers during his first season. He went on to play over 100 Premier matches for Ories in two stints, 1988-1993 and 1997-99. In between he moved across to Marist St Pat’s and made over 30 appearances for them. Parkinson’s career apex was playing four games at fullback for the Wellington Lions in 1991. His last game was also one of the last games played on Athletic Park, the 1999 Hardham Cup final.

Lane 4: Julian Savea (Rongotai College): 

An article in 2011 by Toby Robson in the Dominion Post had this to say about Julian Savea: “In the sporting sense Savea’s rapid acceleration at every level – he made the Wellington senior sevens at 16 – may be behind his placid disposition.

He was in year 10 (fourth form in old-speak) when he made the Rongotai College first XV and his coach Phil Jones remembers less about what his young wing said than what he did.

“He played every game, but he hardly said boo.

“He scored about 25 tries as a fourth former and it was in the traditionals, Nelson College, Wellington College … we took him to the national sevens and he made the tournament team and that was against all the big boys from Auckland.”

It wasn’t just rugby either. Savea’s under-14 Rongotai shot put record of 12.92m still stands, so too his 2005 under-15 leap of 5.86m in long jump and his 43.92m discus throw.

He collected 24 points at that year’s McEvedy Shield athletics competition winning the 100m, 200m, long jump, triple jump and 4x100m relay.”

Rongotai got 95 points in 2005 so Savea got a quarter of their points. Whole team got 29 points in 2018.

Savea’s brother Ardie would also pick up plenty of points as an all-round athlete in his years at the Rongotai College.

Lane 5: Matt Proctor (St Patrick’s College, Kilbirnie)

The second great era of St Pat’s Town success in McEvedy started in 2008 when they captured the Shield for the first time since 1998. Town would win a further four Shields until 2014.

Perhaps the most stirring of those victories was in 2010 when they celebrated their 125th anniversary as a school. Prefect Matt Proctor was a massive part of the success repeating his 2008 feat of winning the hurdles, high jump, and 4×100 relay. Procter established a record in the open hurdles of 14.74 which still stands – beating Wellington College’s Andrew Wells by 1/100th of a second in that final.

Town had a stellar First XV winning 18 of 21 games which included two victories over St Pats Silverstream, the traditional win a first since 1997. Procter scored 17 tries and was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools that beat Australia 30-21 in Dunedin. TJ Perenara kicked 15 points that day at Otago Boys’ High School.

Proctor went on to play 52 games for Wellington and 66 games winning a Super Rugby title in 2016. His solitary All Blacks Test was in a 69-31 win against Japan in Tokyo in 2018.

Matt’s brother Billy Proctor, a Maori All Black, achieved similar distinction. When Town won McEvedy in 2013 and 2014 he emulated his brother in winning the hurdles and high jump, setting a McEvedy record 11.89 in the U14 hurdles. In 2015 Billy was part of the St Pats Town First XV that upset National Champions Scot College to win their first Wellington Premiership since 2015.

In 2019, Billy inked a five-year deal with the Hurricanes, the longest deal in Hurricanes history. He has made 51 appearances and scored 14 tries. He’s played 59 times for Wellington and scored 11 tries, winning an NPC title in 2022.

Matt Proctor wins the 2007 U15 Hurdles. 

Lane 6: Seminar Manu (Wellington College). Seminar Manu put in an impressive shift at McEvedy as a junior athlete, in his first year in 1999 and second in 2000, as Wellington College won both years. In 1999 the third former was third in the U14 100m dash and joined other future rugby players and McEvedy high achievers such as William Helu and Tama Makamaka (New Zealand Under 20’s rugby) in the winning U14 4x100m relay team. In 2000, Manu won three McEvedy titles, the U14 100m, U14 Javelin and U14 Shot Put, and was also second in the U14 Discus.

Manu subsequently spent three years in the first XV 2001-03, famously helping his side beat Silverstream 18-13 in his first year. He made the NZ Secondary Schools side in 2003 that won all four matches. He made the New Zealand U19s in both 2004 and 2005, beating France in the final in Durban in 2004 and losing to South Africa the second time around. The first or second five-eighth went on to play over 100 Premier matches for Old Boys University as one of the Billygoats’ favourite sons – playing his 100^th match in the 2013 Jubilee Cup semi-final, and he represented Southland in the NPC in 2012.

Lane 7: Joe Karam (St Patrick’s College, Silverstream) – Silverstream won six consecutive titles between 1968 and 1973. Karam was the captain of the first team in the dynasty. At McEvedy 1968 he won four events, including the 100m, and set records in the shot put and discus. His Under 17 discus school record stood for 32 years until it was passed by Thomas Waldrom.

In the First XV Karam scored 138 of the schools’ 239 points during the 1967 season. Silverstream won 15 of 17 games that year completing a Grand Slam for winning all six traditional fixtures. It was the first time since 1955 and would be the last time until 1985 they achieved that feat.

He spent the 1971 season with Horowhenua. He was selected for Wellington’s South Island tour in 1972, becoming one the youngest players picked to represent the Lions. Karam was named as an All Black for the 1972–73 tour of the British Isles and France. He played 10 test matches for the All Blacks between 1972 and 1975 famously scoring 15 of the 19 points in the four-point win over Wales in Cardiff. Prop Keith Murdoch scored the winning try and was late sent home for allegedly assaulting a staff member at the Angel Hotel.

Karam played professional rugby league but is perhaps best known for his advocacy of David Bain.

Murray Tocker, First XV record holder for most games (78) and points (601) and Gavin Foster record holder for most tries (63) and tries in a season (31,1972) were rugby stars who contributed track points in Silverstream’s six-peat of titles.

Tocker went on to play for Wellington and Hawke’s Bay. He won eight Jubilee Cups as a player and coach of Marist St Pat’s.

Lane 8: Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Wellington College) Current Kiwis and Melbourne Storm rugby league prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona took out ownership of the shot put and discus events in each of his four McEvedys between 2010-2013 (also winning the U15 Javelin in 2010). In 2012 he broke the record that stands today in the U16 Shot Put when he tossed the weighted ball 15.39m. 2011 was his only shield win though.

On the rugby field, he was a man amongst boys in the First XV, capping off a memorable career with a try in his team’s 25-22 Premiership final in 2013 against Silverstream, and he was named at lock in a Wellington First XV team of the decade 2006-16.

He left school to pursue a successful NRL career, soon landing at the Storm where he has played 184 NRL matches heading into the 2024 season and is a two-time Premiership winner in 2017 and 2020. He has also played 14 internationals for New Zealand since his debut in 2017.