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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 077: Des O’Donnell

In 1939 St Patrick’s College Rugby Football Club (Old Boys Section) finished equal last in the Wellington club rugby Senior A Championship. Ten years and a world war later they were champions.

St Pat’s Old Boys shared the 1949 Jubilee Cup with Petone, a year after the Marist Brothers Old Boys club had won their first title.

Prop Des O’Donnell had played for Marist in 1944, but in 1949 he was a key member of the St Pat’s club that won its one and only Jubilee Cup (shared with Petone).

StPat’ s Old Boys with the  Jubilee Cup in 1949. Des ODonnell circled.

In 1971 when Marist and St Pat’s Old Boys amalgamated, he was Marist St Pat’s’ first Senior B coach.

That same year that St Pat’s Old Boys lifted the Jubilee Cup, O’Donnell played for the All Blacks against Australia, to become that club’s sole All Black representative.

O’Donnell was born on 7 October 1921 and grew up in Levin and was educated at St Pat’s Silverstream. He played for the Silverstream First XV between 1938-40 and was captain of the side in 1940, a year they drew with Wellington College 3-3 and beat St Pat’s Town 12-6 in local traditional matches.

After playing for Marist in 1944, he played Services rugby and in 1945 was an army sergeant and played for the Army services team based in Trentham in the Wellington club competition. It was from this team that he first played for Wellington, making four appearances in 1945. He also represented the NZ Combined Services side that year.

With the war over, O’Donnell attended Teachers Training College in Wellington, to become a primary school teacher. He later became principal of Te Aro School in Wellington.

O’Donnell linked up with the St Pat’s Club and would play six straight seasons for them from 1946 through to 1951, before moving with his wife to Raetihi in the central North Island where he would forge out a distinguished record with that club for over a decade.

The two St Club’s clubs, St Pat’s Old Boys and Marist Brothers Old Boys (subsequently combing to form Marist St Pat’s in 1971) emerged as the dominant forces in Wellington club rugby in the years immediately following the end of the war, coinciding with O’Donnell’s career  for St Pat’s.

Marist won the Jubilee Cup in 1948 and 1950 and St Pat’s Old Boys won it (shared with Petone) in 1949. The two clubs were mostly there and thereabouts in the other years O’Donnell was paying – University won in 1946, Wellington in 1947 and Poneke in 1951. Although by O’Donnell’s last year in 1951, the two clubs fell to the second tier of the competition, with Marist winning the Hardham Cup and St Pat’s finishing last and winning a promotion-relegation match 32-6 against second division winners Eastbourne.

In 1949, St Pat’s Old Boys, Petone and defending champions Marist were three of the teams battling it out at the head of the table throughout the season. A key round was played in atrocious conditions at the start of July when Petone took the lead for the first time by beating Wellington 8-5 and St Pat’s Old Boys lost to WCOB 6-8 with an injury time penalty sinking the St Pat’s team in the mud.

Marist subsequently came through the pack to be the leaders heading into the last round, but both St Pat’s Old Boys and Petone leapfrogged them to finish as joint winners. Petone defeated WCOB 6-3 and St Pat’s Old Boys beat Marist 20-6.

1949 was also the pinnacle season of O’Donnell’s career, making nine of his eventual 42 appearances for the Wellington representative team, playing for the North Island in the annual North-South match and being called up to the All Blacks for the second test of the domestic series against Australia.

Wellington had a mixed season in 1949, but some highlights were beating Canterbury 18-13 in Christchurch, beating Hawke’s Bay 14-9 in Napier and beating Auckland 14-9 in Wellington.

O’Donnell joined Athletic halfback Vince Bevan and Marist fullback Ray O’Callaghan as Wellington players in the North Island team that beat their South Island counterparts 24-3 in Christchurch in the annual fixture.

This match and the All Blacks that hosted Australia in a three-test series was missing the leading players of the day who were touring South Africa. Of the trio, Bevan was denied that trip on racial grounds, while O’Donnell’s All Blacks profile (with no byline as to the author) states that O’Donnell might have made the tour if not for injuries in 1948 when the trials were held and the touring squad selected.

With the main body of All Blacks in South Africa, the Wallabies toured. They beat the All Blacks 11-6 in the first test in Wellington on 3 September, the same day as the other All Blacks lost 3-9 to the Springboks in Durban. The selectors made changes for the second and final test in Auckland on 24 September and O’Donnell (and O’Callaghan) were included. O’Donnell played tighthead prop but couldn’t stop Australia winning the test 16-9, to win the series 2-0 and win the Bledisloe Cup.

The All Blacks team v Australia in Auckland in 1949. Des O’Donnell circled.

The following year the British and Irish Lions toured, and with the full assembly of players to choose from, O’Donnell missed out on selection so that one test was his only international. He did play in the match for Wellington against the Lions on 24 June 1950, Wellington losing 6-12.

In 1952 he moved north to Raetihi to live for over a decade, and was that local club’s player-coach between 1952-58 and treasurer between 1952-56. He played his last match for Raetihi in 1964, aged 43.

Des’s older brother Walter also captained the St Pat’s Silverstream First XV (in 1939) played first-class rugby for Horowhenua and for the North Island Services team during the war, while Walter’s two sons, Kevin and Patrick, later played for Horowhenua.

Des O’Donnell passed away in Wellington on 18 January 1992, aged 70.

References

  • Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
  • All Blacks A-Z profile Desmond Hilary O’Donnell.
  • Chester, Rod, Palenski, Ron, McMillan, Neville. Men in Black Commemorative 20th Century Addition, Moa Beckett, 2000, Auckland.
  • Donoghue, Tim. C’mon Red! A Celebration of Marist St Pat’s Rugby.
  • Swan, A.C. History of New Zealand Rugby Football. Vol. 2 1946-1957. Whitcombe & Tombs, Wellington 1958. Tim Dongohue Publications, Raetihi, 2020.
  • 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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