1888 Natives join 2008 IRB Hall of Fame...

Breaking news referred by Sean Fagan @ rl1908.com !

Two years ago, the International Rugby Board initiated a "Hall of Fame" to welcome "individuals, clubs or teams who have left an indelible mark on the world Game, its development and history", Lapasset said.

This "Hall of Fame" will welcome every year 5 inductees -  2 from the XIXth century, 2 from the XXth century and 1 from the XXIth century - after a public voting process (next year I'll be there with suggestions and contributions... new ambition : being invited by IRB to their Awards Ceremony in the future !)

This year, two XIXth century players or teams are honoured :

First, Scotland's Melrose Club celebrating 125 years of its famous Sevens tournament, as well as Melrose 7s pioneer Ned Haig (I will discuss that later... I have nice documents to share re: 7s rugby !)

Second, the 1888 Natives team of New Zealand, i.e. as IRB describe explains, "the pioneers of the famous all black jersey, the silver fern emblem and the Haka. The forefathers of New Zealand’s rich international history, the 1888 Natives were the first team from New Zealand to tour the Northern Hemisphere.

The inspiration behind the Natives, as team selector, coach and captain was ‘Joe’ Warbrick, one of the finest players of his generation, who had toured Australia in 1884 with the first New Zealand team. Born in 1862 he played seven times for New Zealand, although he did not win any caps. He was one of five brothers, on the 1888-89 tour, occasionally called the Warbricks tour."

Here are three of the five Warbricks brothers in the center of this great picture that I shared last spring. Standing is A.Warbrick (what a fern !), left is Frederick Warbrick and right is Joe Warbrick, captain and coach of the team.



Here is a larger picture with all the players' names and don't forget to also check this old post about the 1888-89 tour, full of illustrations like this one... (maybe I should make better scans...)



You could also find a detailed story about the Natives in this article by Brendan Gallagher in The Telegraph.

rugby, IRB, natives, new zealand, warbrick

Comments

[Cath]

Je vais te faire une belle remarque de blondasse : comme c'est triste, tous ces beaux mecs qui mangent le pissenlit par la racine depuis le temps....

;)

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Ma chère, n'ayez point honte, je me fais la même remarque à chaque fois...
avec une mention particulière pour ceux qui participèrent à la boucherie de
14-18...