Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 132: Paul Russo (Marist)

Above: Paul Russo highlighted in the back row, winning the Jubilee Cup with Marist in 1960, in his second year out of school at St Pat’s Silverstream.

Paul Russo was a feature No. 8 of Wellington club rugby competitions and representative rugby throughout the 1960s.

Russo was a four-time Jubilee Cup winner with Marist in the first half of the decade and he continued to be a mainstay of Marist teams over the next few seasons culminating in him becoming the third loose forward in the first four years of the Best & Fairest competition to win the prestigious Billy Wallace award.

Russo was also the first captain of a team to win this competition. Marist skipper Russo led his side in a series of strong performances. the Dominion said that he “roamed effectively” and that he “provided a strong link between his forwards and his backs.”

He was a runaway Billy Wallace competition winner in 1969, finishing seven points clear of second placed Andy Leslie (runner-up two years running) on 20 and with Graham Williams (Wellington) on 18.

Russo played 36 matches for Wellington between 1960-63 and 50 first-class games overall including others for Wellington B and the Evergreens Club, scoring 22 first-class tries.

Paul Antonio Russo was born on 20 November 1940 and was educated at St Pat’s Silverstream where he was in the First XV in 1958 and was noted in Silverstream’s magazine review as being one of the key performing forwards in the team.

The match against Wellington College on 16 July 1958 was played at Athletic Park as a curtain-raiser to the Wellington-Wairarapa first-class game and proved a thriller. Wellington College made a fast start and raced to a 13-0 lead, before Silverstream pulled this back and won 14-13. No. 8 Russo was singled out as a player who “showed up well.”

Leaving school, he joined the Marist Brothers Old Boys club and a year later was a Jubilee Cup winner for the first time.

After finishing behind winners Petone in 1959, Marist won the Jubilee Cup in 1960 in another closely fought season characteristic of the competition at that time. A key match was on 16 July when Marist edged Onslow 8-3 courtesy of a late try to wing Mick Dennehy who reeled in a high kick by first five Cam Stewart.

Petone won again in 1961, but in 1962 Marist were back on top, although they shared the title with Onslow. The two clubs met in a decider in the last round of the season, but Onslow won 14-0 giving them a share of the spoils with Marist.

Russo and Marist also had a tremendous rivalry with University over season seasons. On 27 July 1963 University beat leaders Marist 20-11 in icy conditions. Despite this, Marist had enough points in the bank to win the Jubilee Cup outright in 1963. They beat Athletic 28-13 on the final afternoon.

Their fourth title of the decade in 1964 was also shared. Russo was a standout according to the Dominion in the opening game of the season which saw them beat Athletic 27-9 in a replay of the key game the previous year.  This set the scene for a strong first round. When Marist beat University 16-11 on Queen’s Birthday Monday the two teams were level pegging.

University subsequently pulled ahead of Marist by beating them 16-6 in front of a huge crowd at Athletic Park. But the following week, University lost to lowly WCOB and Marist thus got to share the title.

Russo was one of seven players to play in all four of Marist’s 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964 Jubilee Cup winning teams, alongside Mick Horan (captain in final three of them), Mick Dennehy, JA Groves, Pat O’Donnell, AJH Redwood and Cam Stewart.

Despite not winning again, Marist remained in contention throughout the remainder of Russo’s career, and they often played the spoiler role. For instance, their 12-12 draw with University in 1966 helped deny the students the title and Athletic came through to win.

Russo made four appearances for Wellington A in 1960, and for the next three years he was a mainstay of the team, making 9 appearances in 1961, 10 in 1962 and 13 in 1963, before never featuring again despite continuing to be a leading club player culminating in winning the Billy Wallace award at the end of the decade (as noted above).

On 31 August 1963, Wellington defeated Auckland 8-3 to end Auckland’s then record 25 defences with the Ranfurly Shield. No. 8 Russo scored the only try of the game on a heavy field. Wellington then lost the Shield on September 7 to Taranaki, 3-17

Earlier that same winter he played for Wellington in their 14-9 loss to England.

On 6 July Wellington lost 6-0 to Canterbury. The Rugby Weekly subsequently wrote that “Russo turned in a truly splendid performance, especially in the second spell. He participated, almost inevitably, in Wellington’s rushes, and one effort we remember especially. This was when he bolted through on the Canterbury to gather in John Graham, ball and all, and dump him in the black Christchurch mud.”

Marist finished fourth in the 1969 Jubilee Cup behind winners Petone – the year Russo won the Best & Fairest competition. At the end of the season, the Dominion questioned how it was that Russo couldn’t make that year’s Wellington A or B squads.

Two years later Marist and St Old Boys amalgamated to form Marist St Pat’s and more glory days lay ahead for the new club with players such as Paul Russo.

References

• Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
• Donoghue, Tim. C’mon Red! A Celebration of Marist St Pat’s Rugby. Tim Dongohue Publications, Raetihi, 2020.
• Dominion newspaper – various clippings throughout the 1960s.
• Rugby Weekly publication – various editions 1960s
• St Pat’s Silverstream Blue & White school magazine 1958.
• Veysey, Alex and Fox, Bob. Wellington’s Rugby History 1951-1979, Part 2. Tolan Printing Co, 1979.