Club Rugby Summer Series: Shooting Stars

A look at some of the many players and personalities of the local game who packed in plenty in short careers that were cut short due to such factors as injury, death or transferring to rugby league.

Going back to the start of the game in the latter years of the nineteenth century, There would be a number of players whose rugby union careers flickered briefly in what was still a settler society.

One such person that was lost to the game at a young age was Tom Ellison. Not as a player, as he had already had a long career when he died aged just 36, but as a coach, administrator and rugby innovator. Ellison would have no doubt continued to have a massive influence on the game had he lived.

As a player, Ellison introduced the wing forward position to his Pōneke and then Wellington teammates. He captained and coached the very first New Zealand rugby team, that toured New South Wales in 1893. He wrote one of the first rugby books, The Art of Rugby Football, and in 1893 at the inaugural NZRU meeting he proposed a uniform consisting of a black jersey with a silver fern, white knickerbockers (changed to black shorts in 1901) and black stockings.

He was also a lawyer, becoming one of the first Māori people to be admitted to the bar in 1902, and was an advocate for players to be reimbursed for lost earnings while playing rugby (see more on this subject below).

When he died in October 1904 of Tuberculosis aged just 36 Pōneke, Wellington and New Zealand Rugby lost an early great whose influence could otherwise have been profound in the following years.

At the turn of the last century, a number of players went over to the new rugby league game, signing up for the inaugural All Golds tour of Great Britain in 1907/08, effectively ending their rugby union careers. Most of these players were working class battlers, so who could blame them?

According to online searches, the Original 1905/06 All Blacks featuring local legends such as Billy Wallace and Fred Roberts netted a £12,000 profit, which is approximately $2.6m in today’s money. The players got none of this.

On the 1907-08 tour the All Golds played 35 games across Britain and reportedly pulled crowds of 5,000-20,000 people, charging about 1 shilling per entrance. The players received 70% of the profits from these matches and a guaranteed £3,000 (about $650,000 today) bottom line shared between them.

So, from a rugby union legacy perspective, what if some of these players had stayed in rugby union? More might be household names alongside players like Wallace, Dave Gallaher and Billy Stead who didn’t go.

Players from Wellington involved in this team were:

Albert Baskiville (Oriental, also the tour’s organiser), Hercules ‘Bumper’ Wright (Petone, captain), Duncan McGregor (Petone), Arthur Kelly (Petone), Tom Cross (Petone), Conrad Byrne (Petone), Adam Lile (Oriental), Arthur Callum (Wellington Axemen), Eric Watkins (Wellington College Old Boys).

Of these players above, several were already established rugby union players, such as Cross and McGregor and Watkins, who had been All Blacks two years previously.

A couple of others were still in the ascendancy, such as forward Conrad Byrne. He was 23 and was a farmer from Nelson who had moved to Petone in 1906 and joined the rugby club that defended their Wellington club championship title for a third year. He had been selected for Wellington and scored a try against Canterbury. He also played in matches against Southland, Whanganui and Auckland.

Adam Lile was originally from Taranaki and when he was 17 he had stowed away on a troop ship taking soldiers to the South African War only to find the conflict over when he arrived. So, he clearly had a sense of adventure when the All Golds came calling in 1907.

Lile was 22 when he played for Oriental in 1907. On 3 June 1907 he was selected to play for the North Island team in their annual match against the South without having played provincial rugby.

Lile played flanker in the 11-0 win, packing down alongside Wellington legend Arthur Ranji Wilson, and with other leading Wellington players of the day in the side in Jack and George Spencer, Fred Roberts, Billy Wallace and Frank Mitchinson.

Lile never got to play rugby union for Wellington, as soon after he signed up for the All Golds side with his Oriental club mate Baskiville. Lile later returned Taranaki and was a driving force in establishing the professional game in his home province.

Preceding the Great Britain tour, the All Golds travelled to Australia, earning £600 from three games in Sydney, up to $130,000 in today’s money.

Here they picked up an honourary Australian for their team for Great Britain, one  Herbert ‘Dally’ Messenger.

24-year-old Messenger was a rugby union fan favourite in Sydney for his skills and tricks in running the game as a utility back, and as a goal-kicker, and his loss was a blow to rugby union in his country. The following year the competition known today as the NRL was formed. So if this tour hadn’t happened and Messenger and many of his mates had continued playing amateur rugby union the game in Australia could have taken a very different turn.

It goes without saying that World War One and the influenza epidemic that followed it was a significant disruptor and hundreds, if not more, both known and unrealised, future greats of sport and rugby were lost.

One example of a player that had it all before him, on and off the field, was Hami Grace He was a wing three-quarter who played for Wellington and the North Island, and he was a Māori All Black.

He played club rugby for Wellington College Old Boys and later for the Wellington Axemen.

He also played Senior club cricket in Wellington and briefly first-class cricket for the province, so was a well-known Wellington sportsman across both codes prior to the start of the first world war.

When war broke out, Grace enlisted with the Wellington Infantry Battalion and was subsequently killed at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli, on 8 August 1915. He was 25.

In all, seven All Blacks lost their lives in the first world war.

Charles Rushbrook was a player whose career echoed his surname.

He represented Wellington on the three-quarter line over five seasons in the second half of the 1920s decade and was an All Black tourist to South Africa in 1928, before his career flickered away and was effectively over as he reached his mid-20s.

Rushbrook played in nine of the 12 tour games (none of the Tests) and scored 10 tries.

His other claim to fame from the tour occurred on the way home when the All Blacks berthed in Melbourne and he scored a then All Blacks record of seven tries in the match, also kicking a conversion in the 58-9 fixture.

Rushbrook had a track sprinting background that complemented his rugby. He won Wellington College’s Senior Athletic Cup in 1924.

He left school and joined the Wellington College Old Boys club, following in the wake of his father C.W. Rushbrook who represented Wellington 1899-1901.

In 1929 he played for both club and province, but it appears that Rushbrook made just one further appearance for Wellington in 1930 and that was the end of his top end career. His flame burnt briefly and he finished with 29 tries from 33 first-class appearances. He retired from club rugby in 1931, aged 25.

About this time, midfielder Jackie Ruru joined the University club in Wellington and played for the New Zealand University side as well as New Zealand Māori.

Ruru would die in tragic circumstances whilst playing for the Tairawhiti (East Coast) Māori regional team against their Taihauauru (West Coast) counterparts in a Prince of Wales Cup match at Rotorua on 1 September 1934. Ruru was playing second-five and captain and scored his team’s only try of the match. Late in the game, Ruru left the field injured and later that night he died of a brain haemorrhage at Rotorua Hospital.

Ruru had toured with the 1927 New Zealand Māori team on its 12-match internal New Zealand tour as a teenager out of  Moascar Cup holders Te Aute College and also played for this team in several big matches, including in a 9-8 win over New South Wales, in a 18-37 loss to the New Zealand XV in 1929, in a 13-19 loss to Great Britain in 1930 and in a 3-14 loss to Australia in 1931.

Ruru also played for the New Zealand Universities side in 1931, making six appearances on their month-long tour of Australia.

Ruru was 22 when he died.

Old Boys University’s social teams play for the Jackie Ruru Shield each year:

Bernard ‘Joey’ Sadler had the rugby world at his feet when he suffered a cruel knee injury in a club rugby match in mid-1937 and he was forced to hang up his boots aged 22.

Sadler burst on to the scene after leaving Wellington College in 1932 and rose to be the number one halfback in New Zealand less than three years later on the 1935/36 tour of Britain.

Fulltime was approaching on a dark and grim winter’s afternoon at Lyall Bay Park in the match between Sadler’s WCOB side and University. WCOB were up 14-8 and another win was in the bag.

At this point, Sadler went down with an ‘injured leg’ (as per the Monday newspaper report) and had to be stretchered off and taken to hospital. Subsequent reports that week said Sadler was still hospital with a ‘strained muscle’ and there were hopes he would recover and play again later in the season.

But it was worse. As in career ending worse. The injury was to his knee, and it involved damaged ‘nerves’ and he was operated on and he was out of the South African series that was just starting.

There were hopes he would recover and be fit for WCOB and Wellington and for the All Blacks for their 1938 Australian tour, but he wasn’t and he had to retire.

A modern-day comparison to Sadler could be Cam Roigard (update – and Dylan Pledger). Both burst on to the scene as halfbacks and both were seen as leading All Blacks prospects for the future but were cut down at inopportune moments with knee injuries.

But the 75-year gap in medical advancements and rehabilitation facilities and methods likely proved the telling factor.

Sadler remained in the game as a coach and administrator at Wellington College Old Boys, but it will always be a question what if he had stayed fit? He would have been a leading player in the series against the Springboks that the visitors won 2-1.

Although, three years later war broke out and his career might have been over then.

Fast-forwarding to mid-century, another player that had shown huge promise in Wellington in rugby union but transferred to rugby league was George Martin.

Lifelong Lower Hutt stalwart George Martin excelled in athletics, rugby and rugby league from a young age, and later played softball and golf to a high level.

He was sixth in the in pole vault at the Empire Games in Auckland in early 1950.  He was also Wellington shot put, discus and javelin champion.

As a rugby player, he will forever be known for his performance for Wellington against the touring British and Irish Lions in 1950, aged 19.

A specialist centre, he was a hard tackler who stood out marking their star midfielders Bledynn Willams and Jack Matthews in the 6-12 loss. Martin was Wellington’s Player of the Day, in just his second match for Wellington. He played 11 games for Wellington that season.

He returned in 1951 for his second and final season of Senior rugby at the Hutt club, mid-table battlers and McBain Shield winners over Petone that year. He played twice more for Wellington before crossing to Sydney to play rugby league.

He spent four years playing rugby league for the North Sydney Bears, and in 1952 he was named one of the top five league players in Australia and the following year he played for the Rest of Australia against the Kangaroos.

Returning home, he played for Randwick in Lower Hutt and played softball for the Cardinals cub and went on to represent the Hutt Valley and be chosen for New Zealand.

In 1958 he played league for Wellington at the Basin Reserve against Great Britain.

Martin also took up another sport and excelled in it – golf. An outstanding sportsman, but a case of ‘what if’ had he pursued rugby union.

Brian Steele is Wellington’s oldest living All Black, out of the former Onslow club.

Good fortune in the form of injury to All Black incumbent and Wellington’s first choice halfback Vince Bevan and his own good form in the third and final All Blacks trial on 26 May 1951 saw 22-year-old Steele selected for the All Blacks for their Australian tour of June and July that year.

Steele played in eight matches, including in all three Tests which the All Blacks won 3-0.

He returned to play for Wellington in 1951, but Bevan’s fitness was on the improve so Steele only made a couple of appearances in domestic rugby. He played another 10 matches for Wellington in 1952, but didn’t play any games for the Wellington A team in 1953 as Bevan (8 games) and former Canterbury All Blacks and by now University club halfback Larry Savage (6) were Wellington’s halfbacks that year.

Steele transferred to Horowhenua in 1954 and played for the Shannon club, making six appearances in his fifth and final year of first-class rugby, aged 25.

Steele worked as a carpenter. He moved to the Hawke’s Bay in the late 1960s, settling in Hastings.

Another sporting pursuit of Steele’s was marathon running and he completed over 25 marathons. He was also involved in numerous fundraising events, mostly around his running and walking.

Steele is also the great uncle of one Christian Cullen.

Bruce Allen was a brilliant first-five and also a good cricketer. His father Barry Allen had played on the wing for Wellington a generation previously.

Bruce was a star player in the Porirua College First XV, as then coach at the time Denys Latham told Club Rugby last year:

“Bruce played at 10 for us and in 1974 the Centurions club established an invitation team with players such as Joe Karam and Grant Batty in the backs. Bruce was in the New Zealand Schools U18s at that stage. They played an evening game at the Hutt Rec against Colin Meads’ Goldfields team and he played well.

“Wellington coach Ray Dellabarca put him in the Wellington team the following year and he played in a Ranfurly Shield at Eden Park against Auckland. We were winning and Bruce was playing well, then he was injured and he went off and we lost [19-14].”

Allen played 10 games for a Wellington that year as a teenager and Latham thought he could have been Porirua College’s first All Black.

“But he walked away from it after that one season. He said to me, you know Denys, no-one ever asked me what I wanted to do.”

Following that early taste of top-flight rugby, Allen hung up his boots as a serious player

Then there is the seemingly extraordinary story of Craig Wickes, who made the All Blacks in 1980 as a then current student at Palmerston North Boys’ High School.

How did this selection come about? Wickes was a sprinter who was selected to play on the wing for Manawatu as a 17-year-old the previous year. He also made the New Zealand Colts.

As per Wickes’ Wikepedia page: “In 1980 he was selected as a reserve for the All Black team to play a non-test match against Fiji at Auckland on 13 September 1980 (making him 18 years 200 days). The selection policy for this match excluded all players who had played against Australia and France earlier in the season. He replaced injured winger Ken Taylor with 14 minutes remaining in the game.”

In 1981 he sustained a series of knee injuries which prevented him from going further. He returned to the Manawatu squad for four games in 1986, but a recurrence of the knee injuries ended his career.

Jasin Goldsmith was an outside back who burst on to the provincial scene to first play for Waikato aged 17 in 1987 whilst still at school at Forest View High School in Tokoroa. He was a regular Waikato squad member that season and played 12 matches for the Mooloo.

Goldsmith returned for a second full season playing for Waikato in 1988 and was selected for the All Blacks on their 1988 tour of Australia. The teenaged All Black played eight matches but no Tests. He also played for New Zealand Māori that year and again in 1991, and played for the New Zealand Colts in 1990.

In 1989 Goldsmith moved to Auckland and a big future was ahead of him, as an All Black and playing with the then provincial powerhouse. But just two games into his career he cruelly broke his leg. This kept him sideline for a year but he couldn’t recapture the form on his return. He returned for one final season in provincial rugby in 1993, making 11 appearances before retiring aged 24.

During a game for the Wellington Football Club’s Colts side in May 2017, Daniel Baldwin suffered a head knock, displayed concussion symptoms, and collapsed later, requiring emergency brain surgery at Wellington Hospital. He passed away a few days later in an induced coma, with his family by his side.

Baldwin’s death prompted broader discussions within New Zealand rugby about player safety, concussion protocols, and the risks inherent in the sport.

The Daniel Baldwin Memorial Trophy is played annually between the Wellington Axemen and Paremata-Plimmerton Colts or U85kgs sides.

Hard-luck stories continue into contemporary times and will so into the future given the nature of the game. A recent player who was super talented that had to recently retire was Josh Southall.

Southall was a hard working openside flanker out of St Pat’s Silverstream who was hampered by knee injuries in his short career and was forced to retire in 2024. When he could actually get on the field, Southall was a strongly-built dynamic openside flanker-turned hooker.

His last year at school in 2018 was severely restricted by a knee injury, returning after being in the NZSS team that toured Australia in 2017.

His ability to give was best illustrated in 2017, when promoted to the Hurricanes U18 team for the match against the Crusaders at the Westpac Stadium. Southall played a blinder and scored two tries in a performance that promoted him to national attention (see video below).

Further acclaim was achieved in the Silverstream First XV. In 18 games Silverstream crossed the chalk 157 times while recording 17 wins in a groundbreaking season.

His brief senior career was blighted by injuries, but when he played he was good. Playing for Petone, he had a blinder off the bench at hooker in the 2022 Jubilee Cup final.  He was subsequently selected to make his Wellington Lions debut in a semi-final against Auckland.

Southall hung up his boots and headed to Christchurch. He was forwards coach of Lincoln in Canterbury in 2025 and started a business with a rugby app aimed at elited rugby players.

Iona Apineru is another recent St Pat’ Silverstream school leaver and teammate of Southall who has had to cut his career short due to ongoing concussions.

Like Southall, Apineru switched positions from loose forward to the front row, following his four appearances for the Wellington Lions in 2021. The now tighthead prop was increasingly sidelined and in 2023 he hung up his boots.