What happened 100 years ago: Part 1 Club Rugby

The winning Wellington club rugby 1926 Senior Championship side Athletic, featuring All Blacks Cliff Porter and Kenneth Svenson in the front row. 

As we enter a new season of rugby in the Wellington region, a look back at how the season panned out 100 years ago. This year it is 1926.

A recap of the 1926 club season below. Part 2 canvassing representative rugby to come.

The year 1926 wasn’t a vintage one for Wellington representative teams, injuries and a high player turnover contributing to a poor year that was lowlighted by an infamous 8-58 Ranfurly Shield loss to Hawke’s Bay.

But locally the club rugby scene was thriving and that is what took centre stage for the most part from April and throughout the winter months.

For the first time in a decade, the Senior Championship wasn’t won by either Petone or Pōneke.

Petone and Pōneke had dominated the competition since 1916 and in particular in the re-building seasons post-war when these two clubs traded titles and fought out several epic deciding battles.

Athletic would emerge from the pack to win the title in 1926, their first since 1915 after winning a five-peat of titles under captain and All Black Ranji Wilson.

By 1926 Wilson was an All Black selector and the Athletic team was led on the field by the incumbent All Blacks captain Cliff Porter. Another international, Kenneth ‘Snowy’ Svenson was there alongside him in the team photo.

The Athletic team’s record was won 13 and lost two of their 15 championship matches played, while the club’s Junior team also won their championship for the second year in succession.

The signs all pointed to another blockbuster season with pre-season results a fortnight before kick-off. All Black Mark Nicholls had scored 73 not out for Petone on the final day of the club cricket season as he swapped pads for boots to help Petone beat Pōneke 21-6. This was a charity match in aid of former leading player Tom Cross who was ill.

A new boot was being marketed too, the ‘O.B’. Its benefits read: “No more sore feet – the patented feature of the O.B distributes your weight evenly on all studs and completely avoids discomfort. You only have to see the O.B to understand why it is recommended by prominent All Blacks.”

Saturday 19 April saw the annual club 7s tournament at Athletic Park, with Petone beating Oriental 9-3 in the final for the Beale Cup and Wellington College winning the 16-team Fifth Grade tournament.

The 1926 Senior Championship opened on 26 April in dull, misty conditions, and whilst defending champions Pōneke opened their account well with a 23-9 win over Wellington, Athletic beat University convincingly 20-6 before 3,500 spectators at the park bearing their name.

It was noted that rover and captain Cliff Porter, inside five-eighths Kenneth Svenson and forward Jack Shearer all played well.

Fine weather returned in early May as Wellington College Old Boys beat defending champions Pōneke 23-9 and Athletic defeated Berhampore 25-9 and showing fine dash.

Pōneke lost the following week to Oriental and it became obvious to five-eighths of the Dominion newspaper that a new champion would be found in 2026, with Athletic and Petone the leading contenders given their organisation and teamwork shown thus far. With leading All Blacks Porter and Nicholls leading their sides this was perhaps no surprise.

The following week the Dominion reported that the bones of a race of giants “towering more than ten feet in height” had been discovered by a Captain Page in Mexico.

On the field, Petone stood tall with their 24-9 win over Berhampore seeing them maintain their unbeaten record, while Wellington enjoyed their first win of the season with a  10-6 win over University, Marist beat Pōneke 11-8 and Athletic had the bye.

Matches on 22 May were called off at midday Saturday with heavy raining not stopping.

Athletic drew level at the top with Petone, who had the bye, in the last weekend of May, while the talk of the competition was the poor form of Selwyn, who had been winless in 1925 and so far this season following their 3-57 loss to WCOB in this round.

The Wellington representative team played a hard midweek match against Canterbury in early June (to be covered in part 2), with many players backing up on Saturday in wintry conditions. Petone beat Pōneke 11-3 in a grueling forwards battle in the feature game at Athletic Park. Athletic defeated lowly Hutt 31-7 to maintain their front-running position alongside Petone.

In Senior B, Eastbourne defeated Porirua 5-0 at Kelburn Park in a top-of-the-table match.

Club Rugby took a breather the following Saturday for the annual North-South game, returning on 19 June for round six. University tipped over Petone 13-11 and Athletic beat Wellington College Old Boys 9-6 to put Athletic into the outright lead and unbeaten through six rounds.

The following week saw the top-of-the-table Senior A clash between Athletic and Petone. Athletic won 18-10, to remain unbeaten and extend their lead at the top of the standings to 4 points over Petone.

The two frontrunners were without the services of their Australian tourist All Blacks throughout July, with Cliff Porter and Kenneth Svenson (both Athletic) and Nicholls (Petone) away. Any talk of them being weakened because of this was quickly dispelled when Athletic beat Marist 13-0 and Petone defeated WCOB 30-9 in the first weekend of July. Elsewhere, Selwyn beat Hutt 6-0 for their first win in a season and a half.

The second week of July saw stirring results, with Athletic being beaten 14-11 by Pōneke, their first loss, but Petone were unable to make in-roads on them because they were beaten 12-10 by Marist. Selwyn enjoyed their second win, beating Wellington 6-5.

The first round concluded on 17 July, with leaders Athletic beating Selwyn 29-3, Petone 21-6 winning over Wellington and third placed University returning from their bye to beat Pōneke 14-3.

The format of the second round saw the leading six teams playing off for the Premiership title and week one of the second round saw the top three meet the bottom three. All games went to seeding form, with Athletic toppling Marist 14-5, Petone beating Pōneke 21-3 and University accounting for fourth placed Oriental 8-0.

Meanwhile, Eastbourne won their match by default and their grip on the Senior B Championship was firming.

The following week, saw Athletic disposing of Pōneke 11-3, University beating Marist 12-6 and Oriental tipping over Petone 17-6, the latter being without Ginger Nicholls as well as Mark with the All Blacks, meaning Athletic’s title prospects appeared strong. These results saw University overtake Petone into second.

However, their was a  sting in the tail of the season, with Oriental continuing their late season form by knocking over Athletic on the second Saturday of August. Oriental won 12-8. Meanwhile, University beat Petone 23-14. The top six points table was now thus: Athletic 22, University 20, Oriental 17, Petone 16, Marist 14, Pōneke 10.

The competition now took a one-week breather, with Wellington playing Wairarapa the following Wednesday and then challenging Hawke’s Bay for the Ranfurly Shield the next Saturday. Both would be disastrous for Wellington – as part 2 will outline.

With Wellington away in Napier, Wellington College beat St Pat’s Town 13-6 in the feature match on Athletic Park. This was Wellington College’s 21^st win over St Pat’s Town in 42 matches since 1885. Town had won 19 and there had been two draws.

Club Rugby resumed on Saturday 21 August in windy conditions and leaders Athletic were very nearly brought back to the pack by rivals Petone. Athletic won 26-22 with only a late flurry of scoring saving them and with captain Cliff Porter injured and watching from the Petone Rec sideline. University beat Pōneke 19-6, setting up a ‘decider’ between Athletic and University in the final round. If Athletic won or drew the title would be theirs, but if University won then it would be shared.

Once more there was a two-week break before the next and final set of games, because the Wellington representative team was playing Auckland the following Saturday.

During the week the WRFU also declared several grades closed, because the leaders couldn’t be caught. These winners were: Eastbourne (Senior B), Athletic (Junior), Petone (Intermediate), Petone A (Fifth) and Wellington College A (Seventh).

Pōneke and Taita did contest a final for the Third-Grade honours, with Pōneke prevailing 3-0.

In college rugby, visitors St Bede’s College beat St Pat’s Town 19-10 in their annual fixture, whilst Wellington College lost their Quadrangular Tournament final to Whanganui Collegiate 10-8.

The club rugby decider was played in sunny conditions and to a crowd of 12,000. Athletic and University scored two tries apiece, but it was superior goal-kicking that won the day for the champions.

Athletic, missing injured Cliff Porter, lead by 11 points at halftime, but a try to University early in the second half close it up considerably. Athletic held on and won 14-6.

The final Senior A Championship points table for 1926 was:

• Athletic 26
• University 22
• Oriental 20
• Marist 16
• Petone 16
• Pōneke 11
• Berhampore 14
• Wellington College Old Boys 12
• Wellington 9
• Hutt 8
• Selwyn 6

The following week saw Athletic and University do it all again in the National Mutual Life Cup challenge match, with Athletic winning that 11-7.