The New Zealand national rugby league side represent New Zealand at rugby league, and are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. They are administered by the New Zealand Rugby League. The Kiwis were considered world champions, until the 25th of November,2006, when they were narrowly defeated by the Kangaroos.
The Kiwis have never won the Rugby League World Cup, although they reached the final in 1988 and 2000. They contest the Baskerville Shield against Great Britain, and play an annual ANZAC Test against Australia.
The introduction of rugby into New Zealand was by Charles John Monro, son of Sir David Monro, who was then speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. The younger Monro had been sent to Christ's College, East Finchley in north London, England. That school had adopted rugby rules and Monro became an enthusiatic convert. He brought the game back to his native Nelson, and arranged the first rugby match between Nelson College and Nelson Football Club on May 14, 1870.
When New Zealand's rugby union team (the All Blacks) toured Britain in 1905 they witnessed the growing popularity of the Northern Union games. On his return in 1906 All Black George William Smith met Australian entrepreneur, James J. Giltinan to discuss the potential of professional rugby in Australasia. The first New Zealand team to play professional rugby was known as the All Blacks. To avoid confusion, the terms professional All Blacks or All Golds are used.
In the meantime, a lesser known New Zealand rugby union player, Albert Henry Baskerville (or Baskiville) was ready to recruit a group of players for a professional tour of Great Britain. It is believed that Baskerville became aware of the profits to be made from such a venture while he was working at the Wellington Post Office in 1906. A colleague had a coughing fit and dropped a British newspaper. Baskerville picked it up and noticed a report about a Northern Union match that over 40,000 people had attended.
Baskerville wrote to the NRFU asking if they would host a New Zealand touring party. The 1905 All Blacks tour were still fresh in English minds, thus the NU saw a competitive New Zealand tour as exceptional opportunity to raise the profile and finances of the NU game. The NU agreed to the tour provided that some of those original All Blacks were included in the New Zealand team. George Smith arrived back in New Zealand and after learning of Baskerville's plans, the two teamed up and began signing players.
The NZRU became aware of the tour and promptly applied pressure to any All Black or New Zealand representative player it suspected of involvement. They had the New Zealand Government's Agent General in London deliver a statement to the British press in an effort to undermine the tour's credibility. This had little effect and by that time the professional All Blacks were already sailing across the Tasman to give Australia its first taste of professional rugby.
It was during this time that references to the professional All Blacks as the "All Golds" first appeared.
Clearly, "All Golds" was a play on the amateur "All Blacks" name but it was also an insult to the players, criticising the arrangement where they would each share in the wealth of the tour. The name "All Golds" is now thought to have originated in a New Zealand newspaper in May/June of 1907 (see panel below), amidst editorial arguments over whether it was honourable for the proposed "professional All Blacks" team to be paid.
The first documented use in Australia was in a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald (August 7), just before Baskerville's team arrived. Interestingly, those same Herald articles also had a tag for those who supported the amateur rugby union calling them the "Lily Whites" (who were clean, pure, and repelled the evils of professionalism).
Professional rugby in the southern hemisphere kicked off with the professional All Blacks playing a professional rebel NSW team organised by Smith's contact, James Giltinan. The games drew little interest to start with, but were a major success for the rugby rebels of Australia, as they finally had the money to start the first professional rugby league and hence change the face of rugby in Australia.
New Zealand finally made it to Great Britain in 1907. At this time professional rugby, under the banner of the Northern Union, was not played by the RFU rules which was all the All Golds knew. The All Golds took on a week of intensive training after which they started the tour. From a New Zealander's point of view, the tour may not have been successful, but to the All Gold's credit they performed well considering they only had a week to learn the rules. However, from the NU's point of view the tour would have been a godsend, because professional rugby was left in a better state than when they arrived. The tour's results were seen the following year when the NRFU clubs more than doubled their membership numbers. The tour had obviously excited the public, raised the profile of their game and the game's finances.
On return from England, the All Golds made a stop-over in Australia where they discovered professional rugby being played by Northern Union rules, under the banner of the New South Wales Rugby League. The All Golds played another 10 games in Australia, boosting the finances of the fledging NSWRL competition; making the All Golds tour the most significant contributions to Australian rugby league.
The NZRU was able to control a lot of what the NZRL was able to get its hands on. In 1926, the NZRU took legal action, trying to stop the NZRL from using the name, the "All Blacks" as their touring name. The league felt that they had equal ownership to the name and were not ready to relinquish it. However by this time the press had already nicknamed the team the Kiwis, because of the badge included on their jerseys. Despite the league discouraging its usage, the name has stuck ever since.
The Kiwis were unbeaten in any test series from 1948 to 1951.
During the 1961–63 era, New Zealand won seven out of ten test matches, including a 2–0 series win over Great Britain, then considered the top rugby league nation in the world. The most outstanding performance by the New Zealanders was their record-breaking 19–0 win over Britain in 1962. It was only the second time a British team had been held scoreless.
The Kiwis have a proud World Cup history and although they have yet to win the competition, they have appeared in the final twice. In 1988, New Zealand just pipped Great Britain for a place in the final against Australia. Played at Eden Park in Auckland, it was the most hyped game in the history of rugby league in New Zealand, and the crowd of 47,363 was the biggest ever for a game in New Zealand. Sadly for the Kiwis, the final proved to be a huge anti-climax and they were outplayed by the Aussies.
New Zealand almost got their revenge on Australia in the 1995 World Cup semi-final, when with the scores level at 20-20 - a last minute drop-goal attempt by skipper Matthew Ridge brushed the wrong side of the post, allowing the game to go into extra-time. From there, Australia went on to win.
The Kiwis again made the final in the 2000 cup, again going down to the Kangaroos 40-12.
Since 2002, a New Zealand A team has been selected from players in the domestic New Zealand competition. New Zealand A toured France and the United States in 2002, and the United Kingdom in 2003. In 2004 they hosted New South Wales Country.
2005 would be considered one of the Kiwis greatest years, as they captured the 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations title, effectively becoming "de facto" World Champions as the three best countries compete in that competition. In the course of winning the Tri-Nations the Kiwis defeated Australia in Sydney for the first time in half a century. In London the Kiwis posted their highest score ever against Great Britain, and in winning the final posted the first shut out of Australia in 20 years. The 24-0 result at Elland Road, Leeds equalled the Kiwis biggest ever win against Australia - a 49-25 win in Brisbane almost 50 years ago. The repercussions for the Australian rugby league team were huge, as long-time coach Wayne Bennett quit his post to be replaced by Sydney Roosters coach, Ricky Stuart. However, in New Zealand, Brian McClennan earned praise from the press and signed an extension to be coach of the Kiwis.
New Zealand has been granted automatic qualification to the 2008 World Cup.
The 2006 Tri nations brought controversy when New Zealand fielded an inelligible player, Nathan Fien, against Great Britain and were later stripped of the two points earned from their 18-14 win.[1]
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