Here - Get This! keithquinnrugby.com selects a 'Pom' All Black team!

6 November 2014

ALL BLACK'S "ENGLISH" TEAM

The experience of motoring around Britain certainly is fun. Our two coach loads on the Williment Sport supporter’s tour are 80 or so friendly Kiwis who are having a great time. But Keith Quinn and Dave Loveridge, in their roles as tour leaders, have been putting the travelers to the test. As we sit around chattering or motor along we ask the supporters with their deep and abiding knowledge of All Black history to come up with an All Black team which might, in a funny way, confirm our country’s strong links back to England.

In other weeks I will publish here the 'All Black's Scottish' team and the 'All Blacks Welsh XV' all chosen from surnames which refer to those places.

Perhaps!

With regard to the 'English All Blacks' we did insists on a selection criterion; The most common All Black surname is Wilson, right? The most common English surnames in their society are Smith and Taylor - and Jeremy Thrush's surname sounds English! So we have chosen our 'Pommy' All Blacks team thus;

Backs: Ben Smith, Bruce Smith, Conrad Smith, George Smith, JB 'Johnny' Smith, Wayne Smith, Aaron Smith (A complete 'Smith's' backline.)

Forwards; Glenn Taylor, A.J 'Ranji' Wilson, Murray Wills, Alan Smith, Jeremy Thrush, Hec Wilson, Norm Wilson and Brett Wilson

A good NZ team I hope you'll agree - perhaps you have other 'English' All Blacks to send to kqrugby@hotmail.co.nz for us to consider.

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Every day there is Rugby History 5 August 1961

Click to show All Blacks and the Wellington wind wins!

The ABs win in the Wellington wind v France!

Ships couldn't berth on this fierce stormy day but the test went ahead anyway. NZ won 5-3 and hundreds of hats and scarves disappeared forever!

A-Z of Rugby

Click to show VAN VOLLENHOVEN, TOM

VAN VOLLENHOVEN, TOM
Northern Transvaal and South Africa
7 internationals for Sth Africa 1955–56

Acclaimed as a man who might have become South Africa’s finest wing, van Vollenhoven indeed fashioned a reputation as a great try-scoring wing – but it was for St Helen’s at rugby league.

His international rugby career was cruelly brief. After his debut as a centre against the 1955 Lions, van Vollenhoven moved to the wing and promptly became the first player to score three tries in a test in South Africa. In the second test in Australia the next year, he kicked a dropped goal – it was only the second time he had ever attempted one – but his form fell away in New Zealand and while he played eight of the first nine matches, he played only the third test.

The crew-cutted van Vollenhoven was reckoned to be inconsistent, but there was nothing unreliable about him in the matter of scoring tries. In his 19 matches on that long tour, van Vollenhoven scored 16 tries, but was such a natural and instinctive player that selectors found him difficult to fit into a team pattern.

He certainly proved them wrong, or misguided, with St Helen’s.