Napier Old Boys Marist R.F.C.

Rugby Stuff

HB Rugby Records

HB First Class Records

Rugby World Cup Winner
1987 - New Zealand
1991 - Australia
1995 - South Africa
1999 - Australia
2003 - England
2007 - South Africa

Australia 2, South Africa 2, New Zealand 1, England 1.

Olympic Medal Winners:
Paris 1900
- Gold     - France
- Silver    - Germany
- Bronze - Great Britain
London 1908
- Gold     - Australia
- Silver    - Great Britain
Antwerp 1920
- Gold     - USA
- Silver    - France
Paris 1924
- Gold     - USA
- Silver    - France
- Bronze - Romania

The oldest rugby club in the world is claimed to be D.U.F.C. ...Otherwise known as Trinity College Rugby Club, of the University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland...Est. 1834.
Official sources though say that was actually 1854 and that Cambridge University club has a claim from 1839.
The first official club was Guy`s Hospital Rugby Club (London, England), formed in 1843.

The first International Rugby Union match was played in 1871 between England and Scotland. It took place in Scotland at Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Links to stuff:

HB Challenge Trophy
The HB Challenge Trophy is the oldest shield in NZ Rugby. It was presented by the Napier Reclamation Company to the HBRU in 1888 for competition between the champion senior clubs in the sub-unions. Pirates, from Napier, were the first winners in 1889 and they retained it in 1890.
The last Holder of the shield was MAC in 1990.
The shield was first discovered in 1999 in the Chapman Pavilion but was misplaced again until 2008. It has been restored and cleaned by Grieves Jewellers in Hastings and played for again since 2009.

The HB Challenge Shield format is club rugby's Ranfurly Shield.
The Shield is defended by the holder only at home, in the round robin games of the competition.

HB Challenge Trophy - as it was in 1889

Some HB Club History

From 1901-1907 the district system operated in Napier (but not in Hastings). Napier township, for rugby purposes, in 1901, was divided into four districts and the clubs formed for those districts were Ahuriri District, Scinde District, West End District, and City District. Players had to play for the district they resided in.

The Napier township clubs of 1900 - Napier, Kia Ora, Pirates, Caledonian - were forced to dissolve, while West End and Ahururi clubs survived as district clubs. Literally, the new Scinde District and City District clubs replaced the Napier, Kia Ora, Pirates and Caledonian clubs.

With the disbanding of the district system (and district clubs) Napier FC was reformed at a meeting at the Masonic Hotel on Monday February 24, 1908. As a result of lack of player numbers culminating in its unfortunate suspension in June 1910 the club did not reappear in 1911.

Napier FC functioned 1874-1900, 1908-1910, 1913.

The Marist club was formed at a meeting on Thursday, January 30, 1908. In the newspapers and HBRFU Minute Book and published draws, was always referred to as "Old Boys".

The Napier HSOB club was formed at a meeting at the Masonic Hotel on Friday March 18, 1910. It was always referred to as "High School Old Boys" in the newspapers, HBRFU Minute Books and published draws.

It also might be of interest to you that Napier HSOB did not field a team in the senior competition in the first two years of their existence - 1910 and 1911, but had teams in the 2nd & 3rd grades

Courtesy: Adrian Hill - HB Rugby Historian

Rugby Trivia

Team Numbers Not Always So...

Did you know that there was a time when numbering players was frowned upon as it smacked of tawdry professionalism. Thanks to South African Rugby writer Paul Dobson and Planet Rugby we are able to reprint the fascinating history of team numbers.

These days nobody bothers about professionalism - nobody, that is, except those who have to pay the players and the coaches and the fitness trainers and the first aid people and the PR people and the media liaison officers and so on and on, as rugby becomes the gigantic employment opportunity it never was.

Numbers have taken the place of names in referee speak. ?
Off-side, Number 6.?
Get onside, 8.?

Numbers have replaced the jargon of position. Who is the best 9 in the country? I’m not sure whether to play him at 6 or at 7.? (Note the origin of being at sixes and sevens!)

When England first wore numbers at Twickenham, on 18 March 1922, King George V, a keen rugby supporter, turned to the secretary of the Scottish Rugby Union, the conservative J Aikman Smith, and said, "I see England have numbers. What a good idea. When are Scotland going to get numbers?” In indignation, Aikman Smith replied: "Sire, my players are men, not cattle." And the story has it that he refused to speak to His Majesty for the rest of the afternoon.

Numbers, it is believed, were first used in 1897 in Brisbane when the New Zealanders played Queensland. "As an experiment to assist spectators, a number will be placed on each player's back."

When they were brought to Sydney in 1904 players objected because it was too convenient a way for referees to identify miscreants.

On 21 January 1922 numbers were used in a Five Nations match for the first time - when England played Wales at Cardiff Arms Park. It rained. Wales won 28-6.

The Springboks wore numbers on the 1906-07 tour, though not against Scotland. Their opponents sometimes wore numbers, e.g. Yorkshire, Middlesex, Newport, East Midlands. The Springboks wore tour numbers. That means that the player always played in the number given him for the tour. 29 could play next to 3. This was common practice till well after World War II.

It would seem that the 1905-06 All Blacks did not wear numbers.

The International Rugby Board first discussed the numbering of players in 1921 when Wales and England let it be known that they intended to number their players. "The Board expressed the view that this was a matter for the several unions to decide on, having regard to the wishes of their players."

Howard Marshall - of Haileybury, Oxford, Harlequins and the Barbarians and for years the rugby correspondent of the Daily Telegraph - wrote in 1936 in an article entitled What Rugger Means to Me: " Here I must make what is probably my last protest against the numbering of players. I remember how I resented this cattle-branding when I was playing myself, and my unholy delight when the numbered jerseys did not correspond with the programmes. Rugby football is not a game for such fripperies as numbering and programmes; it is not a game to be watched by any but those who have played it and understand it."

In 1933 soccer players were numbered at the FA Cup Final for the first time. Everton, who won, played Manchester City. Everton were numbered 1-11, Manchester City 12-22. Celtic still refuse to wear numbers on their backs.

Sometimes teams have worn letters - to confuse pirate programme sellers.
The All Blacks did that in 1921.Confusing pirate programme sellers was not the only reason. There was also the belief that a single letter was less confusing than two numbers. The famous English clubs, Bristol and Leicester Tigers, used letters, from A to O, until the advent of professionalism and TV exposure. Bristol had 'A' at fullback, Leicester 'O' at fullback. When they played it looked as if a whole lot of scrabble tiles had been flung onto the field. In 1999 they changed from letters to numbers.

Some prefer not to use numbers in the pious belief that the game is a team game and no individual is so important that attention should be drawn to him. Schools especially like this as it suggests that rugby is valued as a part of education with value in teamwork and effort, not a means of marketing an individual.

There have been times when teams have not had used a number 13 but a 16 instead, out of superstition. Then you get players like Danie Gerber who insisted on using the number 13! Bath RFC does not have a No. 13, using 16 instead. West Hartlepool no longer have a No. 5 after a lock John Haw died of a heart attack during a match in 1994.

At one stage the fullback was Number 1. The front row wore Nos 8,9,10, the locks were 11 & 12, the loose forwards 13,14,15. Or, more frequently, the front-row went 13, 14, 15, the locks 11 & 12, and the loose forwards 10, 9, 8. The number 8 has, down the years, more frequently worn 8 than any other position has stayed with a number. The loose forwards are lumped together as they were the back row in the old 3-2-3 scrum formation, and are still called the back-row even though scrums seldom have a back row in modern times. The loose-forwards are still 6,7,8 as if they formed a back-row but with the player at the back as the No.8. South Africa invented this scrum formation and developed that player’s modus operandi and call him the eighth man.

Just after World War II in the Five Nations, numbering was from 1 to 15, starting with the fullback at 1. From the beginning of the Sixties the numbering changed to what it is today. From 1966 on it became uniform in Test matches that the numbering be from 15 to 1 or, if you like, 1 to 15 where 15 was the fullback and 1 the loosehead.

The IRB, like most law making bodies, are often reactive. Something happens and then you make a law to cover it/govern it/get rid of it. They decided to order the numbering for matches under their jurisdiction.

The positions should be as follows, the numbers being for teams which wear numbers:

15 fullback
14 wing (right)
13 centre
12 centre, second five-eighth
11 wing (left)
10 flyhalf, first five-eighth
9 scrumhalf, halfback
8 eighth man, number 8, No.8
7 flank
6 flank
5 lock
4 lock
3 prop (tighthead)
2 hooker
1 prop (loosehead)

The names and numbers have been given for the positioning of a team at a scrum, for in olden days the scrum was the most important facet of play. Games in fact were almost one long scrum. Now they are important but far less so.

David Campese wore a Number 11 jersey though he played on the right wing.

In 1998 the All Blacks wore a 2 on their sleeves ? a tribute to Sean Fitzpatrick who had just recently retired.

The use of replacements, first for injury and then as tactical substitutions, has led to a fairly orderly bench. There are as many as seven players on the bench, often but not always split 4-3 between forwards and backs. The bench is numbered from 16 to 22 where, often but not always, 16 is a hooker, 17 a prop, and 20 a scrumhalf. Many consider a team as now consisting of 22 players with a maximum of 15 on the field at any one time.

CREDIT: South African Rugby writer Paul Dobson and Planet Rugby

The History of Points Scoring

Date   Try   Conversion   Penalty   Drop Goal   Goal from Mark
1888     1             2                   2                3
1891       2             3                   3              4                    4
1893     3         2                   3                4                    4
1905    3          2                   3              4                    3
1948    3           2                   3                3                  3
1971     4            2                   3              3
1992    5         2                   3                3

CREDIT: RugbyFootballHistory.com

NOBM Stuff

Note:
Stats still to be verified.
Any queries/updates/trivia
Click here and: Have Your Say

Spillanes Won - 2007, 2006, 2002, 1987, 1974, 1970 1965.

Club Championships Won
(Maddison.Trophy.from.1930)
- 2002, 2001, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1981, 1977, 1974, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1966, 1965, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1955, 1951, 1950, 1948, 1937, 1936, 1933, 1932, 1930, 1915, 1912.

Oldest Member - 100 - T.W.D. (Chum) Ireland

Oldest Player - 54 - Brent Clements

Most Spillanes - 22 - Alan Gardiner

Most NOBM Prem Games - 385 - Alan Gardiner

Number of All Blacks - 9

Most All Black Games -
86 (38 tests) - Kelvin Tremain,
45 (17 tests) - Ian MacRae,
11 (1 test) - Blair Furlong.

Most All Black Points - 224 - Matthew Cooper

Most HB Games -
158 - Neil Thimbleby,
113 - Michael Johnson,
96 - Kel Tremain,
85 - Ian MacRae,
84 - Tom Johnson,
82 - John Bird,
77 - Blair Furlong,
72 - Hilton Meech,
70 - Gus Meech
68 - Peter O'Shaughnessy

Most Awarded Sportsman of the Year - 3 - Pat Benson, Michael Johnson

MARIST numberplate - Joe Kelly

MAR1ST numberplate - Sid McCann

Longest Shower - 47 mins - Mick Dennehy (and another 58 mins to get dressed)

Highest Jug Tower - 23 - Richard Gilhooly (not to be encouraged)

Quickest Pint - Maurice King - 1.5 sec (encouragement allowed)

Biggest Saturday night munchies - Irwin Wirepa - Popeyes, 1990. Various burgers & seafood poducts & a substantial amount of chips.

Any additional Trivia or changes to current ones, please click here & fill in details

Clubs Biggest Coke Sniffer
Clubs Biggest Bar Snorer
Clubs Biggest Bus Womaniser
Clubs Best Airport Beggar
Clubs Grumpiest Old Man
Clubs Oldest Tagger
Clubs Biggest Bikie
Clubs Best Haka-ers

Saturday 5 October 1965 - McLean Park - Which forward kicked the winning drop goal from a mark in the Magpies 6-5 win over Wellington?
Answer - Kel Tremain.

Who were the semi-finalists in the 2006 Air New Zealand Cup?
Wellington 30 Auckland 15 & Waikato 44 Otago 15. And the Final - Waikato 37 Wellington 31.

How many Spillane Cups has Napier Marist / Napier OB Marist won?
The club(s) have won the Spillane Cup on 7 occasions - 1965, 1970, 1974, 1987, 2002, 2006, 2007 (jointly with Marist North Harbour).

When was the last three occasions that Napier Marist RFC won the Maddison Trophy?
Answer - 1985 a three way tie between Celtic, Taradale and Napier Marist. 1986 Marist. 1987 Marist, who also won the Spillane Cup and the Nash Cup.

When was the first ever 'full status' Test between the All Blacks and Western Samoa played, where and what was the score?
Answer - 31 July 1993 at Eden Park. New Zealand 35 Western Samoa 13.

Who were the members of the same club that featured amongst the scoring in their respective All Black teams WRC opening round games against Italy in 1987 and 2007?
Answer - 1987 John Kirwan, 2 tries in the AB's 70-6 win. 2007 - Doug Howlett, 3 tries in the AB's 76-14. Both players were members of the Auckland Marist club who have been a prolific producer of All Blacks over the many years. Howlett who equalled Christian Cullen's all time AB test try (46) scoring record in the match with Italy was the New Zealand Marist Player of the Year in 2006.

In the 2000 season who were coach and captain of the Vodafone Hawkes Bay Magpies ?
The coach of the 2000 Hawkes Bay Magpies was Mark 'Cowboy' Shaw and the captain was former Napier OB Marist's lock Reece Robinson. (In case you were unaware Reece is now playing pro rugby in Japan and regularly calls into the clubrooms whenever he is back in Napier.)