Rugby Memorabilia Society

Yorkshire v New Zealand
Wednesday 13th December 1905

RMS York vs New Zealand
Yorkshire v New Zealand Match Programme

This match proved that English rugby had not recovered from the upheaval of schism that had seen clubs break from Rugby Union to form the Northern Union in 1895. Yorkshire were a poor side and looked under-prepared.

The home side had won two of their four matches played in the season, including an 11-3 win over Northern Universities a week before the match with New Zealand. They included future international Arthur Pickering, and Joe Auty ‘uncle of 1930s England International Dick Auty’. They were captained by England international Bernard Oughtred.

RMS York vs New Zealand
Yorkshire Team Photo

This was another crushing win, although the New Zealand side made mistakes and lacked togetherness of previous games. Despite this the All Blacks still ran in 10 tries. Fred Roberts took a well-earned rest and his place at half back was taken by Hunter for the first half with Stead, initially at first five-eighth, fulfilling the role in the second half. Yorkshire were on the back foot from kick-off but kept their line intact until the tenth minute when Booth crossed for a try. It was then one-way traffic for the rest of the half with tries coming from, in order, Mynott, Hunter, Deans, Deans again, and Mynott. With three converted, the All Blacks were 24-0 ahead at the break.

Booth and Hunter scored their second tries early in the second half before the pace of McGregor took him clear of the Yorkshire defence for two further scores. Wallace converted two and New Zealand had won their last game in England 40-0

RMS York vs New Zealand
New Zealand Team Photo


Yorkshire: 0

New Zealand: 40

Booth 2 tries, Deans 2 tries, Hunter 2 tries, McGregor 2 tries & 4 conversions, Mynott 2 tries, Tyler 1 conversion.

Referee:
P Coles (RFU)

Venue:
Headingley ‘Leeds’

Yorkshire:
J.S Auty, R.C Dobson, A.S Pickering, W Lynch, B Dalton, T Orton, B Oughtred (Captain), B Moss-Blundell, J Green, R Duckett, W Knox, T Chapman, W Smith, W.H Hutchinson, J Dobson

New Zealand:
W.J Wallace, E.E Booth, R.G Deans, D McGregor, J.W Stead, H.J Mynott, J Hunter, G.A Tyler, W Cunningham, F Newton, J Corbett, G.W Nicholson, A McDonald, W.H.C Mackrell, D Gallaher (Captain)

References:

Book - ‘A Century of the All Blacks in Britain and Ireland’ by Dave Fox, Ken Bogle & Mark Hoskins Permission was kindly given to reproduce the match report from this book.

Peter Douglas-Davies
12/12/2017