Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 100: Ron Jarden

Wellington’s ‘Ace of Matchwinners’.

There have been many outstanding wings to have played for Wellington, and in recent years the Hurricanes, but it would be a hard-pressed decision to dislodge Ron Jarden from a fictious all-time playing XV.

At the least, Jarden would be amongst the first selections in an ‘Excitement XV’, such was his impact on Wellington club and represeantive and All Blacks rugby in the first half of the 1950s that he will be long remembered.

In the words of his club, Wellington and All Blacks teammate Bill Clark “Ron was a matchwinner without peer, certainly from the time he first played, and very likely up until that time. From the time he played his first test match for New Zealand no selection panel would ever risk leaving him out even if he had been playing below form. He had this incredible, explosive ability to win matches whether it was by scoring tries himself, making them for others or by kicking goals.”

Jarden’s star burned brightly for several seasons, before his early retirement. As he described in his own words in his book Rugby on Attack:

“Before the fourth test against South Africa in 1956 I announced my retirement from rugby at the age of 26. I had played 134 first-class games since 1949, scored 145 tries and 945 points. I had weathered three tours and thousands of miles of travel both overseas and in New Zealand.  I had been fortunate [with injuries]. Joan and I were married in 1953 and I had been with Shell since 1952. I retired because of two responsibilities – marriage and career.”

Ronald Alexander Jarden was born at Lower Hutt on 14 December 1929 and died there on 18 February 1977.

A wing, he played for the All Blacks between 1951-56, playing 37 matches and 16 tests and scoring 213 points. He played for Wellington 1949-56 and for North Island 1950 and 1952-56.

He played 61 games for Wellington between 1949-56, scoring 70 tries and 469 points.

He spent some of his formative years in Canterbury before returning to the Hutt Valley. His father was a horse trainer and won the New Zealand Trotting Cup in 1918 and his mother was a mutiple New Zealand singles and doubles croquet champion and won the World Women’s Championship in 1972. Jarden and his younger brother Lester – himself a promising player who had to retire early because of injuries – attended Hutt Valley High School, then a hotbed of sporting talent featuring future rugby players, track athletes and cricket players.

He wasn’t a pre-ordained star growing up, instead he showed focus and drive from a young age to succeed and worked hard to achieve his goals.

Again, in his own words from his book:

“In 1947 I scrambled into the First XV – weight: 10 stone 4lbs [about 65kg]; age: 17. It is rather remarkable to think that the threequarter line was probably the fastest in which I have played. On the other wing was Don Jowett, later to be Empire Games 220 yards champion, and at centre-threequarter, Lionel Smith, Empire Games hurdler in 1948. The three of us could better 10.2 seconds for 100 yards, and under the firm and guiding hand of F.S. Ransom, himself a Wellington representative in his day, we were moulded into a somewhat better than average team by secondary school standards.

Jarden was also a track athlete at school, breaking the HVHS 440 and 880 yard records. He went on to become New Zealand Junior 440 yard champion in 1949.

Leaving school in 1948, he didn’t rush into club rugby. He spent his first season as a part-time student and working in a timber mill and playing a season in the fourth grade High School Old Boys team (a predecessor of today’s HOBM club). He put on some weight, practiced hard in his own time and made the fourth grade representative team that season.

As well as pursuing his history degree, Jarden wrote that “for an hour and a half every morning, five mornings a week, I cycled to the park nearby and learnt to play rugby by myself. For hours I ran up the sideline attempting to centre-kick the ball on to a jersey placed in the centre of the field… Tomato stakes provides imaginary opponents one could sidestep, beat by swerving and generally run rings round, and the goalposts provided convenient ‘opposition’ for the strategically placed short kick and collect on the full. In those two years I must have spent all my leisure time in a spare of football boots.”

Jarden continued to write that acquiring any reasonable standard of skill” is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration – he was a walking example of hard work paying off.

In 1949, he joined the University Rugby club and that’s when his career took off.

He played a season for the then struggling University team, but made the Wellington team for the first time, aged 19.

He played nine matches for Wellington in 1949 and another nine in 1950, making the North Island team, then in October of that year he played a breakout match for the Barbarians against Auckland at Eden Park, scoring three tries.

He first made the All Blacks on the 1951 tour to Australia. Jarden scored 38 points in one match against Central West, breaking Billy Wallace’s record of 28 against Devon in 1905.

In the second test in Syndey, he scored a solo try barely 30 seconds after the opening kick-off.

Describing Jarden on that tour to Australia, famous rugby commentator of the day Winston McCarthy wrote:

“Jarden was a sensation whether scoring tries or kicking goals. Built ‘close to the ground’ he has amazing acceleration, being at least 10 yards on his way before an opponent was in gear. He could swerve, jink, handle, tackle, kick, with either foot and had a quick brains. He was the ideal winger.”

For his feats in 1951 Jarden was made the country’s sportsman of the year, one of just three individual All Blacks to be given that honour.

He played for the All Blacks again in 1952 and 1953 and went on tour to the northern hemisphere in 1953/54 playing in all five tests and, while not scoring any tries in these tests, topped the All Blacks scoring charts on the tour.

In club rugby, Jarden’s feats were numerous. To sum up, his University teams won the Jubilee Cup in 1952, 1953 and 1954 (a three-peat) and would win it again in 1958 after his retirement.

Perhaps the ‘best’ of these teams was the first one, 1952, which featured four current or soon-to-be All Blacks; Jarden, Bill Clark, Jim Fitzgerald and Brian Fitzpatrick. In the days of often turgid 10-man rugby, University’s exciting and positive style of play in this era wouldn’t be out of place today. This team lit up Athletic Park, where they played most of their games, and the crowds came to watch them in their thousands.

The 1952 team’s record was 50 tries scored and 15 tries conceded. Jarden was the competition’s leading points scorer with 14 tries and 96 points.

The 1956 University team. Jarden highlighted. 

Contemporary reports of the day consistently praise Jarden for his impact in winning matches for University, scoring tries, setting up tries and sometimes saving games with his fearless defence.

Similarly, Jarden’s wrap of highlights playing for Wellington are many.

Perhaps the most exciting season was 1953, when Wellington, having already won 6/8, took the Ranfurly Shield off Waikato. Jarden dashed 30 metres to score the winning try. Returning home, Wellington defended the Log o’ Wood against Southland (22-6), East Coast (42-0), Otago (9-3), Taranaki (26-3) and Auckland (23-6).

Against East Coast, Jarden scored six tries.

Canterbury ended it all in late September by beating Wellington 24-3.

In the 1955 season he scored 30 tries, still the record for a New Zealand first-class season.

In 1956, he announced his retirement after the Springboks series, shocking many.

Earlier on that tour, he scored a famous ‘try that wasn’t’ in the New Zealand Universities 22-15 upset win over the Springboks. A spectacular run to the line from halfway past and through several defenders was called back because it was ruled he had put a foot in touch.

He had represented the NZU team each year since 1951, and when he had been first selected for the All Blacks he had just completed a tour with NZU in Australia.

In September 1957, Jarden played one final match on Athletic Park, turning out for the Centurions in a farewell match, as below:

As well as being a keen golfer, Jarden took up sailing post-retirement and represented New Zealand in the Admiral’s Cup in 1975 in his yacht called Barnacle Bill.

He was also involved in the Music Federation of New Zealand, and he was a trustee of the National Art Gallery and National Museum.

Professionally, Jarden had initially been a teacher after graduating in 1953, before joining the Shell company. He later became a successful stock broker, and from mid-1976 he was Chairman of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Jarden was only 47 when he died suddenly on 18 February 1977.

REFERENCES

Akers, Clive. New Ze

aland Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.

Allbacks.com online profile by Lindsay Knight – https://stats.allblacks.com/all-players/profile/Ron-Jarden-AB-531

Anderson, John. Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club : the story of the green and golds, 1902-1987. Wellington. The Club, 1988.

Dominion and Evening Post newspapers 1950-56 – variously incorporated in several previous articles on this website.

Donoghue, Tim. Athletic Park : a lost football ground.? Tim Donoghue Publications in association with the Wellington Rugby Football Union, 1999.

Jarden, Ron. Rugby on Attack. Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington, 1961.

McCarthy, Winston. Haka! The All Blacks Story. Pelham Books Ltd, London, 1968.

Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ron Jarden profile – https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5j4/jarden-ronald-alexander

Wellington’s Rugby History 1951-79. By Bob Fox, with assistance by Paul Elenio and Joseph Romanos (Evening Post) and Alex Veysey and Ian Gault (Dominion), with statistics compiled by Gordon Jackson (1951-68) and Alby Butterworth (1969-78). Tolan Printing Company, Wellington, 1979.