Rugby History

Richard ‘Dick’ Burke is one of several prominent players whose careers were curtailed by World War II, but whose playing days finished with a flourish before moving on to a meritorious coaching career. One of the leading players in a middling University team in Wellington club rugby throughout the latter half

Flanker Roy Maxwell White was Wellington’s first post second world war captain, an All Black and later a Wellington selector and leading administrator at his Petone club. White was Wellington’s captain between 1945-48 and he played 10 games and four tests for the All Blacks in 1946-47. He played 67 first

In 1939 St Patrick’s College Rugby Football Club (Old Boys Section) finished equal last in the Wellington club rugby Senior A Championship. Ten years and a world war later they were champions. St Pat’s Old Boys shared the 1949 Jubilee Cup with Petone, a year after the Marist Brothers Old Boys

David Frank Mason’s rugby career shone brightly but fleetingly in the two years immediately after the second war. He quickly rose to prominence, all the way to the All Blacks for one tour and one test match (as a replacement), before his work in insurance transferred him to South Africa later