Rugby League In New Zealand

This is the story of a sport told through its communities. Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History unveils the compelling journey of a game flourishing against the odds. Beginning with the game’s introduction to the country in 1907, Ryan Bodman reveals the deep-rooted connections between rugby league’s development and the evolving cultural fabric of New Zealand. By questioning the mythic status of rugby union in the nation’s identity, this history highlights how power, politics and people have collectively shaped the country’s sporting scene. Drawing on first-hand interviews and a wide range of illustrations and archival material, Bodman locates rugby league history in working-class suburbs, and among Kiingitanga Māori, Pasifika migrants, and clubs and communities across the country. The people behind the game share accounts of change, triumph and resilience, while emphasising rugby league’s lasting influence on New Zealanders’ lives.

100 Years: Maori Rugby League 1908-2008 tells the story of the New Zealand Maori Rugby League Team from its origins in 1908 to the present day. The book covers major matches, along with biographies of prominent players and administrators. A rich collection of stories and interviews with former players tells the reader what really happened off and on the field. The book has been thoroughly researched with information coming from England, France, Australia and throughout New Zealand, and it is illustrated with over 200 images. There have been no books specifically written on Maori involvement with rugby league, until now. 100 Years: Maori Rugby League 1908-2008 is about players, administrators and whanau. It's about the fabulous moments, the glories of victory and the agonies of defeat, and it gives a comprehensive story of Maori participation in rugby league.

In 1995, the Warriors invaded the Australian Rugby League premiership ¿ the first overseas club to be admitted ¿ in a blaze of publicity and hype the likes of which New Zealand sport had never seen. The Warriors have taken their fans on a wild rollercoaster ride ever since, from the brink of collapse to within touching distance of ultimate glory and everywhere in between. They have played to the beat of their own drum for 25 seasons. The NRL trophy has remained agonisingly elusive, but the club has won a minor premiership, reached two grand finals, produced some of the modern era¿s finest players and countless memories. Few New Zealand teams in any code generate more passion, debate, exasperation and excitement than the Warriors. Warriors 25 covers the triumphs, heartbreaks, controversies and revivals that have kept supporters coming back for more for a quarter of a century. Sportswriter Will Evans tells the story of all 25 seasons ¿ featuring interviews with some of the Warriors¿ most prominent players, coaches and administrators ¿ in this exhaustively researched and officially club-endorsed book. Through the exhilarating highs and gut-wrenching lows of the past 25 years, this book covers the on- and off-field events of every season, the club¿s memorable matches and important figures, a wealth of trivia, including comprehensive records and stats for every game and player. Featuring full-colour photography throughout and a Warriors 25-year Team voted on by a panel of experts, this is a must-have tome for every rugby league fan!

Since it’s first publication, Rugby’s Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England’s northern working class. Tony Collins’ analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history – about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league’s failure to establish itself in Wales. Rugby’s Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues – issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain’s social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.

A history of New Zealanders and the sports that we have made our own, from the Maori world to today’s professional athletes.‘. . . those two mighty products of the land, the Canterbury lamb and the All Blacks, have made New Zealand what she is in spite of politicians’ claims to the contrary’, wrote Dick Brittenden in 1954. ‘For many in New Zealand, prowess at sport replaces the social graces; in the pubs, during the furious session between 5pm and closing time an hour later, the friend of a relative of a horse trainer is a veritable patriarch. No matador in Madrid, no tenor in Turin could be sure of such flattering attention.’ As Brittenden suggested, sport has played a central part in the social and cultural history of Aotearoa New Zealand throughout its history. This book tells the story of sport in New Zealand for the first time, from the Maori world to today’s professional athletes. Through rugby and netball, bodybuilding and surf lifesaving, the book introduces readers to the history of the codes, the organisations and the players. It takes us into the stands and on to the sidelines to examine the meaning of sport to its participants, its followers, and to the communities to which they belonged. Why did rugby become much more important than soccer in New Zealand? What role have Maori played in our sporting life? Do we really ‘punch above our weight’ in international sport? Does sport still define our national identity? Viewing New Zealand sport as activity and as imagination, Sport and the New Zealanders is a major history of a central strand of New Zealand life.

Rugby is New Zealand's national sport. From the grand tour by the 1888 Natives to the upcoming 2015 World Cup, from games in the North African desert in the Second World War to matches behind barbed wire during the 1981 Springbok tour, from grassroots club rugby to heaving crowds outside Eden Park, Lancaster Park, Athletic Park or Carisbrook, New Zealanders have made rugby their game. In this book, historian and former journalist Ron Palenski tells the full story of rugby in New Zealand for the first time. It is a story of how the game travelled from England and settled in the colony, how Maori and later Pacific players made rugby their own, how battles over amateurism and apartheid threatened the sport, how national teams, provinces and local clubs shaped it. The story of rugby is New Zealand's story. Rooted in extensive research in public and private archives and newspapers, and highly illustrated with many rare photographs and ephemera, this book is the defining history of rugby in a land that has made the game its own.