The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand rugby union team that toured Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889. It mostly comprised players of Māori ancestry, but also included some Pākehā (white New Zealanders). A wholly private endeavour, the tour was not under the auspices of any official rugby authority; it was organised by New Zealand international player Joe Warbrick, promoted by public servant Thomas Eyton, and managed by James Scott, a publican. The Natives were the first New Zealand team to perform a haka, and also the first to wear all black. They played 107 rugby matches during the tour, as well as a small number of Victorian Rules football matches in Australia. Having made a significant impact on the development of New Zealand rugby, the Natives were inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2008.
After a preliminary tour of New Zealand in 1888, the side travelled to England via Melbourne and Suez. The Māori players initially provoked curiosity due to their race, but the British press subsequently expressed some surprise that the side was not as "Māori" as they had expected. Playing their first match, on 3 October against Surrey, the team was subjected to a taxing match schedule, and frequently played three matches per week. Their early matches included a 9–0 loss to Middlesex, but their form improved in November, when they won 10 of their 13 matches. The team played its first match against a national team on 1 December, against Ireland, and won 13–4. This was followed by a win over one of the strongest English county teams, Yorkshire, and a 5–0 defeat against the Wales national team. By January 1889 the Natives had played 36 matches in less than three months, winning 22 of them; they had spent most of their time in the north of England, where the playing strength was strongest and the crowds largest and most profitable.
In a return match on 19 January, Yorkshire fielded a stronger side than in the first match and inflicted one of the Natives' heaviest losses, a 16–4 defeat. The team then went undefeated until 16 February, when they faced England. Officials of the strictly amateur Rugby Football Union (RFU) had become increasingly concerned at the behaviour of the New Zealanders, regarding them as unsportsmanlike, and tensions reached a nadir in the aftermath of the England match, during which the RFU secretary George Rowland Hill, refereeing the game, awarded some controversial tries to England, prompting three of the Natives to temporarily leave the field in protest. England eventually won 7–0. The Natives apologised afterwards for their behaviour, but the damage remained. The New Zealanders left England without an official send-off, and travelled to Australia where they toured Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. They then returned to New Zealand, where they displayed a level of combination not seen in their home country before. They went 31 games undefeated before losing their final match, on 24 August 1889, 7–2 to Auckland.
The Natives' final record in rugby matches was 78 wins, 6 draws and 23 losses. They introduced tactical innovations to New Zealand rugby on their return home, and their tour contributed to the formation of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in 1892. Seventeen of the team's 26 players went on to play provincially in New Zealand, and two, Thomas Ellison and David Gage, subsequently captained the New Zealand national rugby team.
Background
The idea for assembling a team of Māori footballers to tour Britain was conceived by Joseph Warbrick, a rugby player who had toured with the first New Zealand national team in 1884. He initially proposed a team of Māori or part-Māori to play the touring British side in 1888; this developed into a venture to have a Māori team tour Britain if a preliminary tour of New Zealand were successful. Hearing of Warbrick's plans, public servant Thomas Eyton contacted him to offer help managing the tour, which Warbrick accepted. When James Scott, a publican, subsequently joined the partnership, the three men decided that Warbrick would be the team's captain, Scott its manager and Eyton its promoter.
Warbrick started assembling a team for the tour in early 1888. He had difficulties assembling a squad due to player availability, and failed to secure the talented Jack Taiaroa due to his university commitments. Some Māori players who initially agreed to play later pulled out when the eligibility criteria were relaxed to allow squad members who were only part-Māori. Twenty Māori or part-Māori players joined the squad; five Pākehā (white New Zealand) players were added after the team lost to Auckland. Due to the inclusion of these Pākehā players the team was renamed from the "New Zealand Maori" to the "New Zealand Native Football Representatives". The final squad comprised 26 players (including Warbrick); of these at least five were full-blooded Māori, while fourteen had a Māori mother and a Pākehā father. The parentage of some of the players is unknown.
The team toured New Zealand before departing overseas, playing against Hawke's Bay, Auckland, Nelson, Wellington, Canterbury, South Canterbury, and Otago. The first game was contested against Hawke's Bay in Napier on 23 June 1888. They played nine games in their preliminary tour of New Zealand, and won seven of them. Their last New Zealand match before departure, against Otago played in Dunedin on 31 July 1888, was won by one try to nil.
The team sailed for Australia from Dunedin, leaving on 1 August 1888. In Melbourne, Scott recruited Jack Lawlor to train the players in Victorian Rules football in Britain as preparation for possible Victorian Rules matches on their return to Australia. The team played two rugby matches against the Melbourne Rugby Union team, winning the first and drawing the second, before continuing to Britain via Suez. They arrived in London on 27 September 1888.
Arrival in England and early matches
The team were met in Britain by local rugby administrators, including an official of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU). The first match of the tour was against Surrey, where the team became the first New Zealand side to perform a haka, and also the first to wear an all black uniform. That the team was predominantly Māori provoked curiosity from the British press – at the time, most Britons had not seen non-white people – but there was some surprise that the team were not as "Māori" as had been expected. "They are not unlike Europeans," a Scottish reporter wrote in November 1888; "that is their resemblance is great when one remembers that they were a savage tribe no further back than a generation". The Surrey match, which was refereed by the RFU secretary George Rowland Hill, was won 4–1 by the Natives after they scored two tries.
The Natives next defeated both Northamptonshire and Kent, before defeats by Moseley and Burton-on-Trent. Both defeats were unexpected, and in the Moseley match, injuries played a part – the tourists played most of the match at least two men down, as replacements were then not allowed. The team recovered to win their next game, against Midlands Counties in Birmingham. Their next fixture was against Middlesex in a match not open to the public, and hosted by the Earl of Sheffield at Sheffield Park, Uckfield. The Middlesex side contained a number of international players, including Arthur Gould. Middlesex won easily, with the Natives play characterised by poor tackling. The final score was 9–0, with three tries conceded by the New Zealanders. Prior to the match both sides had enjoyed lunch with wine – an indulgence the Natives were not used to. A report in the Auckland Star had this to say of the game:
Following the match against Middlesex, the team travelled to the north, where the strongest English rugby teams were based. Yorkshire and Lancashire dominated the county championship until many of their respective member clubs split from the RFU in 1895 over the issue of "broken time" payments. The New Zealanders lost to Hull F.C. 1–0, defeated Dewsbury, then lost to Wakefield Trinity. After their first draw of the tour (against Northumberland County) they defeated Stockton-on-Tees and Tynemouth. Joe Warbrick appeared in the match against Tynemouth, but aggravated the foot injury that had kept him out of the side until that point. These victories were followed by a 13–4 defeat to Halifax on 10 November. The team then won seven matches in a row, including one against Hawick RFC, their only Scottish opposition of the tour. The last two matches that month were a loss to Swinton and a 9–0 victory over Liverpool and District. The team had played thirteen fixtures during November and won ten of them. By this point, the team was beset by injuries – of the 15 players that played against Westmorland County on 24 November, five had injuries. The squad comprised only 26 players, and the tourists were often struggling to field a side. Nevertheless, their heavy schedule continued; on 30 November 1888 they left for Dublin, where a match had been organised against the Ireland national team.
Ireland, further English matches, and Wales The Ireland fixture was played at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, on 1 December 1888. Both teams had a number of leading players out injured – the Irish were forced to make four changes to their original selection. Ireland led 3–0 at half-time after scoring a converted try, but the Natives improved considerably in the second-half, scoring four tries. Patrick Keogh scored the first two tries, and his play was praised by the local press. The third try scored was by Thomas Ellison after a counter-attack by George Williams. The try was not converted, but the strong finish from the New Zealanders gave the visitors a 13–4 victory. The Irish press were surprised by the loss and strongly criticised their team, but Ireland did go on to defeat Wales two tries to nil in the 1889 Home Nations Championship. Following their defeat of Ireland, the Natives played Trinity College and then North of Ireland. The match against Trinity College was drawn 4–4, and despite Keogh not playing, the Native side played much better than their previous fixture. The team then travelled to Belfast, where they defeated North of Ireland 2–0 on 5 December; scoring two tries to nil.
After returning to England, the Natives faced Lancashire in Manchester, where they lost 1–0. Two days later they drew with Batley, despite their opposition scoring five tries. Their next match was against Yorkshire, who were one of the strongest counties in the country, and went on to win the inaugural County Championship that season. Yorkshire fielded a weakened team, and were subsequently defeated 10–6 by the Natives, who scored six tries. After a further two victories, the team travelled to Wales, where they lost 3–0 to Llanelli, before facing Wales on 22 December.
At the start of the match the home crowd were fairly hostile towards the Welsh team due to fans of both Swansea and Llanelli feeling slighted by the lack of selection of their players. Four teams dominated Welsh national selection at the time, and out of the 15-man team only William Towers and William Bowen of Swansea and Dan Griffiths of Llanelli had been selected. The match was played in Swansea, and the lack of local players may have contributed to a poor crowd, with gate receipts of only £120 recorded. The crowd's hostility impacted on the players, and debutant Norman Biggs was "palpably nervous" at the start of the match. Biggs, aged 18 years and 49 days, became the youngest Welsh international player – a record he held until the debut of Tom Prydie in 2010. Despite the heckles aimed primarily at Biggs, Charlie Arthur and George Thomas, the Welsh team produced an excellent effort, especially from the forwards.