Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 098: Billy Francis

Billy Francis was a hooker who came down to Wellington from Taranaki as a teenager and played for the Wellington Axemen club, from where he made the Wellington team and then the All Blacks on the last tour and final tests before the outbreak of the first world war.

Francis achieved most of this before he was 21, and like many young rugby players of his generation he enlisted in the army and served in the Wellington Infantry Battalion on the western front.

William Charles Francis was born in New Plymouth on 4 February 1894. He was educated at the New Plymouth convent and at the West End Primary School. His home club was Tukapa. He became a plumber and moved to Wellington in 1912.

He initially joined the Oriental club, but in 2013 he switched to the Wellington Football Club and his career took off.

Lindsay Knight, in his All Blacks website profile of Francis continues the story of the rise of Billy Francis:

Francis first made the Wellington side in 1913 and when the first-choice players went off to tour North America was chosen for the second and third tests against the Australia side which was still touring the country. He partnered Canterbury’s “Nut” Hasell as the hookers.

Francis was five months short of his 20th birthday and so became the youngest All Black forward to appear in an official test, a distinction he still holds.

After playing for both the North Island and North Island B sides in 1914 Francis was chosen for the All Black tour of Australia where he formed a solid front row-hooking duo with Taranaki’s Mick Cain. Francis appeared in 10 of the 11 matches including all three tests and in the third scored two tries in the 22-7 win.

Francis was in the All Blacks team when the “war is declared” sign was posted on the scoreboard during a midweek match in Sydney on 5 August 1914.

With many players already having enlisted in the first wave of volunteers, the end of the 1914 season was disrupted. The upshot was that the Wellington Axemen were bracketed with Athletic as joint Senior Championship winners.

Francis also played in another notable game in 1914. On 10 September Wellington travelled to Stratford to challenge his home province for the Ranfurly Shield. Wellington was successful, winning 12-6, and they held the Log ‘o Wood for the next five years when matches resumed.

Wellington finished 1914 with a flourish, going on to beat Whanganui 16-12 two days later and then Hawke’s Bay 49-5 (Francis two tries) and then Otago 25-11.

Francis played a further three of four possible matches for Wellington in 1915, including another game against Taranaki in which he scored a try in a 16-6 win. By this stage, the response to the call for active service was such that rugby and sport would be greatly reduced from that point on. Francis soon joined hundreds of other rugby players in the trenches of France and Belgium.

Coming home from the war, Francis re-joined the Wellington Football Club and played in the Senior Championship for the Axemen in 1921 and 1922. In 1921 he was capped for Wellington in one match. This was in an early season 6-12 loss to New Zealand Universities. His Wellington career ended on 20 caps.

His first-class career match tally was 34.

Following this, Francis moved north again. He spent time in Whakatane and then moved to Buckland’s Beach in Auckland.

Francis passed away in Pukekohe on 28 November 1981. He was 87.

REFERENCES

• Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
• AllBlacks.com Bill Francis player profile. By Lindsay Knight. https://stats.allblacks.com/all-players/profile/Bill-Francis-AB-194
• Knight, Lindsay. Shield Fever. The complete Ranfurly Shield story. Rugby Press Ltd, Auckland, 1986.
• Quinn, Keith. Give ‘Em the Axe! 150 years of the Wellington Football Club. Wakefields Digital, Wellington, 2020.
• Swan, Arthur C. Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
• Swan, Arthur C. History of New Zealand Rugby Football V.1 1870-1945. A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1948.