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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 070: Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor was the established All Blacks fullback when he landed in Wellington and at the Wellington Axemen club at the start of 1939 – and he immediately helped them win their maiden Jubilee Cup title and first Senior A Championship for a quarter of a century.

His topflight playing career in Wellington was brief as it was stopped in its tracks by the outbreak of WW2, but he remained in Wellington to become a Jubilee Cup winning coach and leading administrator for the Axemen club and in the Wellington province up to the end of his life some 40 years later.

Taylor made an immediate impact on the club competition and was a leading player in Wellington’s first Jubilee Cup win. A 1939 season summary courtesy of Evening Post reports is below:

  • In the feature match of the opening round, Taylor’s kicking in general play and off the tee gives Wellington a 32-10 win over Poneke.
  • In just his second match, Taylor converts a crucial try and then lands a dropped goal from ‘near touch and 40 yards out’ to break a deadlock and give his team a 12-8 win over Oriental.
  • Taylor’s ‘faultless goal-kicking’ is to the fore in consecutive wins over WCOB and University, as Wellington go unbeaten throughout the opening month of the competition.
  • Wellington goes outright top on King’s Birthday with Taylor kicking a dropped goal (worth 4 points), a ‘drop-kick from a penalty’ and a late conversion in Wellington’s 12-3 win over Marist.
  • The then suffer their first loss of the season on 11 June, going down 12-14 to Athletic.
  • Bouncing back, Taylor plays in and scores points in four consecutive wins, including a decisive 13-8 victory over Petone, to give Wellington the Championship lead at the end of the first round. Wellington prepare to join five other teams to contest the Jubilee Cup.
  • Wellington starts the second round with a 6-6 draw in slippery conditions against a highly competitive Johnsonville. In a forwards battle, Taylor is largely a passenger.
  • In converting Wellington’s winning try in an 11-6 win over Poneke, Taylor surpasses 100 points for the season.
  • Wellington then loses 12-8 to Athletic, but they still have a 3-point lead at the top of the standings to second placed Athletic with two rounds to play. Win next week and they win the Jubilee Cup.
  • Wellington beats Petone 18-17 to win the Jubilee Cup with a week to spare. With Taylor again kicking a couple of crucial goals, Wellington race to a 18-5 lead before having to hold off a fast-finishing Petone.
  • Wellington seal their maiden Jubilee Cup win with a 35-20 win over Marist in the final match. Wellington’s 1939 record is played 13, drawn one, lost two, points for 259, points against 145.

Wellington Axemen with the Jubilee Cup 1939. Evening Post. 

In representative rugby, Taylor’s first big match for his new province was none other than against his former team, Otago. In a 7-3 win at Athletic Park, Taylor won the match with a try and a dropped goal. He played a further six matches for Wellington in 1939 and then another two in 1940 as first-class rugby took a backseat due to the gathering war clouds.

The 1940 Wellington club rugby season went ahead and was completed in full, albeit increasingly depleted with young players taking leave to join the armed services. Defending champions Wellington and Athletic were neck and neck throughout the winter and it came down to their meeting on 26 August which was a ‘virtual’ final. In front of a 9,000-strong crowd, Athletic reversed Wellington’s 9-8 first round win to prevail 12-7 and hand the Axemen a runners-up accolade.

However, Taylor didn’t play in the final. Three weeks earlier he had left the field injured in the second half during Wellington’s 23-17 win over Petone.

Having earlier played for Wellington in wins over an Army team and Taranaki, Taylor was absent with presumably the same injury – but unable to be confirmed – for Wellington’s curtailed campaign in which they played four ‘A’ represeantive matches against Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki (the return match), Canterbury and Auckland.

Taylor was born in Mataura in Southland on 12 January 1913. He moved to Otago after leaving school and joined the Pirates club and made his Otago debut in 1933. He would play 35 matches for Otago, almost half of them in Ranfurly Shield matches as Otago held the Shield in two stints between 1935-38.

There was much anticipation ahead of the second Springboks visit to New Zealand in 1937. Comprehensive trials were undertaken, and Taylor was a front-runner for the fullback’s berth. He also helped the South Island to a 30-21 win over the North Island in their annual match in Wellington.

Taylor was duly chosen for the series, ahead of Petone’s Bunk Pollock who had played two tests against Australia in 1936. Taylor played in all three tests, which the All Blacks lost 2-1.

Taylor also toured Australia in 1938, and played fullback in all three tests, and would likely have been a South African tourist in 1940 if the war hadn’t curtailed that tour.

He continued playing throughout the 1940s and was involved in Centurions and Barbarians and army teams, and he moved into coaching.

Following the war, he was coach of the Wellington Axemen Senior A team that won its second Jubilee Cup title in 1947.

He moved on to coaching the Wellington representative team and then from 1954 to 1962 he was on the WRFU representative selection panel.

He was on the WRFU management committee between 1950-73 and was the union’s chairman between 1969-73.

Taylor’s immense contribution to his adopted union was recognised by him winning Life Membership from both the Wellington Football Club and the WRFU.

Taylor died in Lower Hutt on 5 May 1979.

Taylor’s name is commemorated in contemporary Wellington club rugby with the Wellington Axemen and Petone contesting the Bill Francis/Jack Taylor Trophies annually in their Swindale Shield meeting.

References:

  • Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
  • All Blacks A-Z profile Jack Taylor, by Lindsay Knight
  • Evening Post – various rugby reports throughout 1939
  • Quinn, Keith. Give ‘Em the Axe. 150 years of the Wellington Football Club. Wakefields Digital, Wellington 2020.
  • Swan, A.C. History of New Zealand Rugby Football 1870-1945. A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1948.
  • Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Ree

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