All Blacks

There have been 2 players selected for the All Blacks whilst playing their club rugby in the East Coast.

  • A.C.R Jefferd

  • G. Nepia

George Nepia (25 April 1905 – 27 June 1986) was a Māori rugby union and rugby league player. He is remembered as an exceptional full-back and one of the most famous Māori rugby players. He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2004 he was selected as number 65 by the panel of the New Zealand’s Top 100 History Makers television show. Nepia was featured in a set of postage stamps from the New Zealand post office in 1990. Historian Philippa Mein Smith described him as “New Zealand rugby’s first superstar”.
Nepia was born in Wairoa in Hawkes Bay. While his birth certificate stated that Nepia was born 1905 he later claimed he had been born in 1908. After finishing primary school in Nuhaka, Nepia was to attend Te Aute College but went to the nearby Māori Agricultural College instead. In 1926 Nepia married Huinga Kohere. They had four children, three sons and a daughter. Nepia and his family settled on a dairy farm on the East Coast.

Rugby football career

Nepia was selected for the Hawkes Bay provincial rugby team in 1922. At that time Hawkes Bay had one of the strongest teams in New Zealand and held the Ranfurly Shield. Nepia initially played on the wing but was later shifted to second-five eighth.

 

In 1924 Nepia was selected as a full-back for the All Blacks tour to the United Kingdom. Nepia was one of the stars of the tour. He played in all 32 games – being the only player to do so, and scored 77 points. As the team did not lose any matches, they came to be known as The Invincibles. Nepia was a fine full-back, with a safe pair of hands, a strong kicking game and a fierce tackle. Before games on the tour, he led the team’s performance of a haka which had been composed for the tour.

 

Nepia was omitted from the 1928 All Blacks tour of South Africa, probably on racial grounds. Nepia returned to the All Blacks for tours to Australia in 1929 and against the British Lions in New Zealand in 1930. These were his last games for the All Blacks.

 

In 1935 Nepia went to England to play rugby league professionally being signed initially by Streatham and Mitcham Rugby League Club in London for £500. His family remained in New Zealand. Because rugby union was a strictly amateur game at the time, Nepia was cast out from rugby union. Nepia later transferred to Halifax. In 1937 he returned to New Zealand and played league for Manukau and played for the New Zealand Māori and New Zealand rugby league team. During July and August 1937 Nepia traveled to the South Island, representing both Hornby and Canterbury.

 

In 1947 the New Zealand rugby union held an amnesty allowing former league players to return to rugby union. Nepia played a first-class match in 1950 against a Poverty Bay side captained by his eldest son (also called George). This made Nepia the oldest New Zealander to play in a first-class game, and was the only time a father has played against his son in a first-class game.

Andy Jefferd  #815

Andy Jefferd
Birth name Andrew Charles Reeves Jefferd
Date of birth 13 June 1953 (age 70)
Place of birth Gisborne, New Zealand
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 83 kg (183 lb)
School Wanganui Collegiate School
University Lincoln College
Occupation(s) Farmer
Rugby union career
Position(s) Second five-eighth
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
1974–78
1978–81		 Canterbury
East Coast		 36
32		 (67)
(16)
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
1980–81 New Zealand 3 (0)

A raw boned midfield back, Andy Jefferd shares a distinction with the legendary fullback of the 1920s and early 30s, George Nepia. They are the only two players chosen for the All Blacks from the tiny East Coast union.

Jefferd hailed from farming stock near Tokomaru Bay and after making his early mark as a Canterbury representative returned home and was playing for East Coast when sent as a replacement for the injured Tim Twigden for the Fiji section of the 1980 tour to Australia and Fiji.

Jefferd, a hard runner and reliable tackler who stood 1.79m and weighed nearly 80kg, made the most of his chances and appeared in the two tests against Scotland in 1981 and then the first test against the Springboks in the same year.

But playing in a minor union was a handicap and at 28 Jefferd soon dropped out of the national reckoning.

After attending Whanganui Collegiate Jefferd moved to Canterbury to study agriculture at that renowned rugby nursery, Lincoln College. Between 1974 and 1978 Jefferd gave Canterbury excellent service and among his 36 games were appearances against Ireland in 1976 and the Lions in 1977, scoring tries in both those matches. In his early years Jefferd occasionally was used on the wing but soon settled into his midfield niche where he was effective either at centre or at second five.

From Canterbury in 1976 he also won selection for the New Zealand Juniors and for New Zealand Universities on a tour of North America and Japan.

Midway through 1978 Jefferd was back in the East Coast and went on to play 32 matches for the union. He ended up captaining the side and his experience was also used by the Coasters closer to the scrum at first five eighths.

The impression Jefferd had made with Canterbury meant he was not too much in obscurity on the Coast, and he was given All Black trials in each of the 1979, 1980 and 1981 seasons and in his final year, 1981, he made the North Island side.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

ALL BLACK GAMES THAT JEFFERD PLAYED

(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced
1980
19 Jul vs Suva at Suva 33-4
23 Jul vs Fiji at Suva 30-6
1981
13 Jun vs Scotland at Dunedin 11-4
20 Jun vs Scotland at Auckland 40-15
15 Aug vs South Africa at Christchurch 14-9

Jefferd did not score any points for the All Blacks.