KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » All Blacks year by year » RIP » RIP Peter Henderson 1949-50 All Black
28 November 2014
It is always very sad when a man who once thrilled New Zealand with his youthful rugby zeal and became an All Black, then reaches his senior years - and then passes away. This week we say RIP to Peter 'Sammy' Henderson.
Peter was a winger who came originally from Gisborne and attended Gisborne Boys High School for his senior years. He was shortish in stature but very quick and his first reputation in sport came as a track sprinter. He won the New Zealand 100 yards title in 1949, and by then his speed had translated onto the rugby field as well. As a 22 year old he was chosen for the 1949 All Black tour of South Africa. He did very well on the hard grounds there; he led the All Black try-scoring lists.
He was so quick he made the New Zealand athletics squad which competed in the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland. He ran 5th in the 100 yards final and also ran in the 220 yards. He won a bronze medal for his country in the 4 x 110 yards relay.
In his hugely significant year of 1950 Peter appeared for the All Blacks again in three of the four tests against the touring British Lions team. Maybe it was from Lions players themselves but Peter was then the target for English rugby league scouts. He switched to the 13-man code in late 1950 and began a highly successful time with Huddersfield RLC. He played until 1957 notching up 258 games and scoring 214 tries.
Wikipedia tells us "Henderson had lost his job (as a dental technician)while playing for the All Blacks in South Africa, so he announced he was headed to England to play in the professional league at the end of 1950. It was then that the Rugby Union banned him from union, a ban which lasted 38 years. He had signed with Huddersfield where he stayed for seven years.
(The deal netted him £5500 in total fees over seven years for Huddersfield. In addition, he could earn about £1500 a year in bonuses. As an indication of what that would be worth today, Henderson told the New Zealand Herald in 2006 that he and his wife Leonie were then able to buy a two storey, three-bedroom house in England for just £1500.)
Wikipedia continues; "Peter Henderson played right wing in Huddersfield's famous 15-10 victory over St Helens in the 1952-53 Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium (in front of 95,000). He also played for the 'Other Internationals' side which won the 1953 tri-nations test series against England and France."
On allblacks.com New Zealand historian Lindsay Knight adds further to the Henderson story;
"He was both a courageous and pacy player who for most of his life was always known by the nickname, "Sammy". This was bestowed on him by team-mate Des Christian on the 1949 tour of South Africa because of his tendency to to score tries by diving at the line. At the time American Sammy Lee was the world's best known springboard diver.
"Yet if Henderson has a special niche in New Zealand rugby it is not so much for his considerable playing ability but more the battle he had with the game's hierarchy in gaining reinstatement to union from league.
"It sounds petty today, especially with rugby's movement to professionalism and the ready and easy switch now by players from league to rugby. But Henderson despite having the support of his old team-mates and of his club in Wanganui, Kaierau, was given a frustrating time from the game's leading administrators who were determined to ostracise Henderson and other players like him who had gone to league.
"Eventually, with rugby at long last adopting an enlightened view at the highest levels, Henderson was reinstated officially in 1989. He always emphasised in his battles with officialdom that he had no ulterior motives other than to return to the game which for all his years in league had remained his first love."
It was rumoured (strongly?) that the quiet, reserved and dignified Henderson had little time for amateur New Zealand rugby officials. As an aside this writer asks; Who can blame him?
Broadcaster John McBeth has a nice story about Peter 'Sammy' Henderson in his latter years.
"You can use the picture i had taken with Peter in July 2009. It was snapped in Wanganui in July 2009 after Wellington defended the Ranfurly Shield in an away game v Wanganui. The Wanganui union held a reunion at the same time and Peter was there.
Comments 0
On the last game of their UK tour in Cardiff, Wales beat NZ by 3-0. Ted Morgan scored a try for the home team which the All Blacks disputed forever more.
GALLAGHER, JOHN
Wellington and New Zealand
18 internationals for N. Zealand 1987–89
One of the rugby union world's most brilliant attacking fullbacks of the 1980s but who at the peak of his rugby union powers, was lost to rugby league.
John Gallagher was a young fullback living in London who decided to accept an offer of a rugby-playing holiday in Wellington, New Zealand in 1984. By 1986 his life had changed. He had decided to stay in New Zealand, he had embarked on a career with the police force, and late in the year he was included with the New Zealand All Blacks for their tour to France. He was very much a second-stringer on that tour, playing twice at centre.
It was a different matter in 1987. Given the confidence of being chosen as the number one fullback for the first Rugby World Cup, Gallagher’s speed and brilliant intrusions from fullback became a powerful weapon in the All Black armoury.
In his second test match, against Fiji at Christchurch, Gallagher scorched in for four tries (equalling the then New Zealand record for one test match) and helped make many more as the All Blacks raced out to a 74–13 win.
Gallagher played five of the All Blacks’ games at the World Cup, including the final, and was seen as one of the tournament’s most brilliant players. That kind of form followed him through 1988 and 1989, on four other All Black tours.
In May 1990, Gallagher, by then firmly ensconced as one of the country’s most popular sporting heroes, suddenly announced that he was heading for rugby league. The news sent shock waves through New Zealand rugby circles. There was at first disbelief and a little scorn from some, although soon emotions quietened and sensible Kiwis wished him luck in his new career.
The departure of Gallagher to rugby league, along with fellow All Blacks Frano Botica, John Schuster and Matthew Ridge, awakened New Zealanders to the realisation that their national game was not the only one on the sporting horizon. The departure of ‘Kipper’ Gallagher also left an extremely hard-to-fill gap in the All Black backline. No player would be quite like the flying redhead from the Oriental-Rongotai club in Wellington.
Gallagher signed with the Leeds rugby league club after 18 tests for the All Blacks. He scored 13 tries in tests, and in one game, in Japan in 1987, he scored 30 points. His signing fee was reported to be $NZ1.3 million (at the time about £420,000), well in excess of the previous reported world record fee.
On the Teen Rugby Show on TV in New Zealand (on 18 July 2006) which All Black used the words; 'bugger, shit, shits and shithouse' in a five minute item.
What do you think?
Click here to show the answer.
You cannot post comments until you have logged in.
Login Here or Click Here to Register.