I'm a Hawkeye Guy

  Napier was the cradle of rugby in Hawkes Bay and the game was known to have been first played in the little settlement in 1874.

  The first game of rugby reported on was on 26 June 1875, with a match played at Clive Square between “the Banks” and the Napier Football Club (formed on 11 June 1875). It is unsure who “the Banks” were, but one possibility is that they were a team made up of employees from various banks. Enthusiastic spectators, including women, suitably attired against the cold, surrounded the edges of the roughly formed rugby ground cheering players on. To provide a sense of occasion the Napier ladies offered a handsome smoking cap to the player who got the first touchdown.

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“The football match, England v. the Colonies, was announced for last Saturday, but before the game could be commenced a number of gas pipes had to be removed and deposited on the south side of Emerson Street. A few enthusiastic members having indulged in this light amusement, proceeded to erect the goal posts when it was discovered that one cross bar was broken and the other, owing no doubt to the present scarcity of firewood, had disappeared and it was not until 2:30pm that Girdlestone kicked off for the Britishers. Burke had an opportunity of indulging his touching down proclivities, which render him exceedingly useful to his side; twice he punted out, but no advantage was obtained.”

Hawkes Bay Herald, Tuesday, July 13th, 1875

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“The last football match of the season was played on Clive Square on Saturday afternoon, sides previously arranged in order to obtain as equal a game as possible. Both sides were playing hard when a prominent member of the club, whilst endeavouring to run through, had his nether garments taken from him and thus ended, amidst much laughter, the last and perhaps the best game of the season.”

Hawkes Bay Herald, Tuesday, September 14th, 1875

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  The province of Hawkes Bay is a vast one geographically. At its northernmost point you will find the township of Nuhaka, steeped in a long and proud rugby tradition, believed to have begun around 1878.

  During the 1830’s, Nuhaka was a relatively thriving region of the North Islands eastern coast. People belonging to the Rakaipaaka branch of Ngati Kahungunu lived in small villages along the coast and river banks of Nuhaka. The first European settlers were whalers, who had operated off Mahia, forced ashore by a downturn in that vocation and to in turn face the hardships of developing the land. 

  Among the early whalers to settle at Nuhaka was Johann Hacken-Schmidt, who married Tuarai Kurekure, the daughter of the Ngati Kauaha Tohunga, Pita Kotorewai. John's name was later converted to John Smith or ‘Haki Mete’ and included among those who carried his name onto the rugby field were Haki, Jimmy, Johnny, Riki, Stan, Cleo, and also Charlie, the only Maori All Black of the family who later played League in England

  During the 1860’s, local Maori had sold a good percentage of land at Mahia and Nuhaka to the continental folk and eventually more and more white settlers arrived to take over the farms. By 1878, at the inception of the Wairoa County Council, the local population was registered as 826.

  The earliest evidence of ‘organised’ Rugby in Nuhaka did not come until some years after this, but with population and communications, it would be little wonder that the game was played where and when it was possible to arrange a fixture.

  In 1878, fifteen players representing Hawkes Bay played Poverty Bay in Gisborne and defeated them by four points to two.

A return match was played the same year at Farndon Park, Clive, where Hawkes Bay again won, this time by four points to nil.

In 1883, Te Aute College’s first XV won the Hawke’s Bay club championship for the first time and competed in the senior grade for the next half-century. In 1904, Te Aute College made a tour of New South Wales.

  In 1884, those interested in the sport bandied together to bring a measure of organization to the administrative side of the game. On April 7th, the Union and Napier clubs were formed in that district, followed almost immediately by the clubs of Hastings and Petane.

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  “A largely attended meeting of footballers was held at the Criterion Hotel on Saturday evening, when a rugby union for Hawkes Bay was formed. The following rules were agreed to: That the union shall be called the Hawkes Bay Rugby Union. That the Union will uphold the Rugby Union rules and adopt all alterations and amendments of the same as that the English Rugby Union may make. Members of the Napier, Napier Union, Petane Fern Crushers and Hastings clubs present at the meeting announced that it was the intention of these clubs to join the Union.”

Daily Telegraph, May 5th, 1884

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  The HBRU was the first Provincial Rugby Union formed outside the four main centres.

  The first official Hawkes Bay representative side was selected in 1885. The occasion was a match with Poverty Bay at Napier, which Hawkes Bay won by nine points to nil.

  Hawkes Bay then ventured to Wellington, where Wellington defeated them by two points to nil.

While in the capital, Hawkes Bay met a side called West Coast (the district surrounding Hawera in the Taranaki) and were again defeated, this time by eight to nil.

  The players who took part in the three games of 1885 were; H F Gibbons (captain), R Percy, J Warbwick, J Hape, Wallace, Ihimaira (‘Smiler’), A F Kennedy, A A Kennedy, Farman, G Stubbs, Kahia, Fletcher, Te Urupu (‘Lemuel’), Gregory, H Sander, J I Cato, John Ross, G Walker, D Couper, J T Harrop, J B Kells, R H Trotter, J Fleming and J Le Quesne.

  Napier Pirates origins date back to 1886, when the Club was formed and joined six other Clubs as an affiliate of the fledgling HBRU. The Club played on Clive Square and held its meetings and social gatherings in the Terminus Hotel. Club colours adopted were an all black strip along with the widely respected insignia, skull and crossbones.

  The original junior team lost its opening match, but went on to win the ‘junior championship’ in their inaugural season. In 1887 the first senior team was formed and after losing in the play-off for the 1888 title by the barest of margins 0-3, went one better in 1889 to become champions. The juniors also won their title that year, losing just two matches in the process.

  One of the very early Hawke's Bay Representatives Charles Edward Stewart, moved to Nuhaka in 1888 where he farmed about 450 acres, retaining an involvement in the game by refereeing matches in the district. His son, Kahu, would later lead the Nuhaka team for ten years.

  On May 24th, 1888, Norman Alexander McKenzie O.B.E (1888-1960) was born in Carterton, in the Wairarapa.

  In 1888 an unofficial British Isles side toured New Zealand and Australia, the first major tour of the Southern Hemisphere by a European team. In match twenty-eight of the tour in Napier, they defeated Hawkes Bay by 3 – 2.

  The Bay captain was the legendary Maori half-back, Teone Wiwi (aka John “Jack” Grey) Taiaroa.

  Taiaroa Head, at the entrance to the Otago peninsula, was named after Jack’s grandfather, Te Matenga Taiaroa, a 19th century Ngai Tahu chief. It was in this location that Jack was born in 1864, in a Maori ‘kaik’, or undefended village.  

  Jack’s father, Hori Kerei Taiaroa, was a prominent member of Parliament, elected to the House of Representatives as the member for Southern Maori, where he continually pushed to ensure that earlier promises made in the purchasing of Ngai Tahu lands were honoured.

  Jack attended Otago Boys’ High School achieving a ‘fair scholastic record that hinted at his promising intellectual aptitude’. After leaving school in 1883, he trained as a solicitor and by the end of the decade was practicing that trade in Hastings.

  Academia aside, his exploits in the relatively new game of rugby had not gone un-noticed either. The approximately 5ft 8in, twelve and a half stone, Taiaroa, was a difficult prospect to tackle, by 1880’s size and allegedly opted to run through opponents, rather than what was considered normal at the time, to run around them. His prodigious kicking talents, being able to punt or drop kick the ball long distances with either foot, had one contemporary describe him as ‘an India rubber man, nuggety, strong, fast.’ 

  By the time he arrived in Hastings in 1887, Taiaroa had already enjoyed a stellar rugby career for Otago (rumoured to have started for him at the tender age of 15) and as a member of the first New Zealand side that toured New South Wales in 1884. 

It is said that his career had become rather ‘haphazard’, his form affected by repeatedly moving back and forth between Otago, Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay, dropping in and out of club and representative teams along the way – the latter often brought about because “he failed to attend practices, and has been very uncertain in his movements.”

  Another reporter noted at the time, “Jack’s fame has preceded him, and consequently made him the mark of all opponents.”

It made little difference to Hawkes Bay, who were only too pleased to have the popular, good natured and most famous footballer, ‘Jack’ Taiaroa amongst their ranks.

  By September of 1888, when Blackheath FC’s Andrew Ernest Stoddart led the touring British Isles onto the field to play Hawkes Bay in Napier, Jack was about to be embroiled in one of the first examples of New Zealand sporting apocryphally.

  The fact that two such incredible sporting legends were involved, makes for a wonderful and warm story. Stoddart (at the forefront of organizing this first, ground breaking British rugby tour) had also played test cricket for England and would later captain England in eight of his sixteen test matches. He was a flamboyant right-handed batsman and a medium fast bowler.

  In 1886, he posted the then highest ever score recorded in a game of cricket, with an innings of 485 for Hampstead against Stoics. A man with a great zest for life, he had apparently ‘danced then played cards till dawn before the Stoics game, batted almost through Hampstead's innings of 813, then played tennis, went to the theatre and turned in at 3 a.m.’

  In 1890, Stoddart became a founder member of the ‘Barbarians’ invitational rugby club and on the 27th of December, was given the captaincy of the very first Barbarian team, in a game against Hartlepool Rovers.

  Like many wholehearted sportsmen, he found life difficult after leaving the arena. In failing health and burdened by debt he committed suicide, by firearm, in London in 1915. 

  The tale of the British Isles – Hawkes Bay match of 1888, goes along the lines of; “The game was remarkable for proving the aptitude of the Maori at picking up the points of the game. One of the Englishmen successfully did what so many players try to do and fail— correctly bounced the ball back into play, after being run into touch, and scored. 

  Taiaroa’s ancestors had not put him up to the dodge. Snorting with indignation, he came up the field, yelling, “Here, you English; what game this?” Stoddart, the great cricketer, who captained the Britishers, always an obliging gentleman explained to Jack what game it was. Taiaroa said nothing, and the game went on. 

  Presently the big Maori got a chance, and he bounced the ball in, jumped into the field, took the ball, and slid over the line. “Is that all right?” he nervously inquired. It was all right…and the referee allowed the score. 

  There was a smile on Taiaroa’s face that lit up the whole ground, he rolled the whites of his great eyes and observed, “My word, that’s a great game. I play it some more.”” The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 1901. 

  The unsubstantiated fable conflicts with the report from the ‘Hawkes Bay Herald’; “Taiaroa, too, showed quite his old form, and his diving runs down the touch line deserved a score.” 

  Another wrote of Taiaroa picking the ball up at half-back and deciding to bore his way back through the scrum – after Taiaroa reputedly came ‘crashing into a scrummage’ there were ‘pieces of the pride of Yorkshire and Lancashire scattered all over the turf.’

Taiaroa represented Hawke’s Bay again in 1889, but his playing days soon faded away, although he was instrumental in helping his cousin, Joe Warbrick, establish the first New Zealand Native team (which included Jacks brother, Riki) in 1888.

  He was often found later as referee in local rugby games, and turned to competing in athletic carnivals. At the 1893 Colony Championships, he was runner-up in the long jump contest and for a time held the national record at 20 ft eleven and a half inches. Jack was also a more than competent club cricketer and represented Hawkes Bay between 1892 and 1899.

  Tragically, aged only 45, Jack Taiaroa drowned after a boating mishap on New Year’s Eve 1907, on the way to his daughter’s birthday. Returning in a motor launch with friends to the “Kaik” around 11pm, in attempting to step from the boat onto, what was always known as a treacherous landing platform, he slipped and fell into the Otago Harbour’s raging flood tide and current. Despite being a strong swimmer, he was quickly swept away. His body was recovered fifteen days later at Karitane Beach.

  In 1889, the following clubs with colours in brackets, became officially affiliated with the HBRU; Clive (yellow and black), Meeanee (red) and Taradale (red, white and blue).

  A poor financial return in 1890 indicated that the HBRU had ‘unusually heavy expenditure’ the preceding season, when a ‘pioneer’ side had travelled to Wellington and other principal towns of the South Island, winning two of their four encounters.

  Hawke's Bay administrators, Ernest Hoben and Francis Logan, were instrumental in the formation of the New Zealand Rugby Union in 1891. Hoben, a Napier journalist who had moved to Wellington, became the first secretary and Logan, a Napier lawyer, became a member of the inaugural three-man appeal committee who also served as the first New Zealand selectors.

  The same season a team from Te Aute College (senior champions) made a six match tour of the South Island, winning four and losing two of the games. As the rep team from the Bay played only three fixtures against Wairarapa, Wellington and Poverty Bay, there was much interest in two matches played between Pakeha and Maori.

  The series as such was drawn one all, but the Maori had won three to two in previous matches between the two sides since 1890.

  In 1892, the Havelock North club was admitted to the HBRU, on the proposition of established delegate, Mr. Whittington. It was 1894 before they would field their first senior side.

  A year later, the first official New Zealand Rugby Union sanctioned New Zealand team was selected, for an eleven match tour to Australia. The team lost just once, to New South Wales in Sydney.

  Born in Omahu in 1871, Hoeroa Tiopira from the Te Aute club, became Hawkes Bay’s first All Black, playing eight matches on that tour. He was still a pupil at Te Aute College when, as a teenager, he first played for Hawke's Bay in 1889. He continued to play in Bay representative sides until 1895.

  A forward, Tiopira had also been a member of the 1888 Native side (most of whom had assembled at a training camp near Napier in May 1888, playing their first match against Hawke’s Bay on 23 June).

  Tiopira was praised for the vigour of his play while on the 1893 tour, in particular his skill in leading foot rushes. He was hampered by a leg injury and missed three of the matches in the tour's middle stages, including the second of the unofficial ‘tests’ against New South Wales, the game which was lost. 

  In 1894, an official New Zealand team hosted visiting opposition on home soil for the first time, in a match against New South Wales at Christchurch won 8–6 by the visitors. S G (Sammy) Cockroft of the Napier club, a member of that team, played for Hawkes Bay the same season.

  In 1897, the Patangata Club of Waipawa protested when Dannervirke fielded a player who was ‘not on their list’, strictly against the bylaws governing championship matches. Patangata were awarded the game.

  Fred Vaughan had bought and developed ‘Rakaipaka Station’ in Whakaki. Fred was only eighteen when he played for Nuhaka in 1897 and the team travelled up to Muriwai for a win. This is the first known team to play as a Nuhaka Club side.

  The Clive club won the senior championship in 1897 by beating Pirates (and would again in 1898 and ‘99). In 1897 they supplied nine players to the Hawkes Bay representative side.  In 1911 the members decided to convert to rugby league and later, during WWI, went into recess like many other clubs. 

  A resurgence of rugby in Clive occurred during the early 20’s, but in 1926 the ‘Whakatu Freezing Works strike’ caused their temporary disbandment until 1928. 

  Hatuma farmer, George Merriken, saw prospects for a freezing works at Whakatu (a name by which it was more generally known) and formed the ‘Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Company’ The company was incorporated in late 1912 and began operations in 1915. Demand for meat was high at the time, driven by the wartime commandeer by Britain of all New Zealand’s exports and increased access to rail transportation. 

  For many people who worked at the plant, it was known as the ‘University of Life’.

  It became one of the biggest operations of its kind in New Zealand and during its heyday people came from as far as the East Coast to settle and seek employment at the freezing works. The majority were Maori families. 

  A Maori school was opened in Nuhaka in 1898, with a roll of 45, where rugby was popular as well as vigorous.

  This was also the first year that a Hawkes Bay ‘Juniors’ side took to the field and played a game in Napier against the Wairarapa Thursday Rugby Union. The home side were victorious by 3-0. 

  In May of 1899, a dispute broke out between the Union and the Napier Recreation Ground Company over the exorbitant charges the former had to pay to rent the ground for five months over winter. When both organisations books and profit margins had been examined, the argument had gone exactly nowhere. The Union were reluctant to pass onto the public, any added expenditure.

  It still cost the average punter 6d in admission to attend ‘cup’ matches (the equivalent of senior) and one shilling for representative fixtures. This would not admit ladies for free or players, with the exception of juniors. The Napier Borough Council, who took £60 in rent for the five month period off the Recreation Ground Company, seemed to be in the profit making box seat.

  At the turn of the Century, Nuhaka’s first Postmaster, a Mr Fletcher, worked in a small room which contained the village's first telephone. An improvement in communications, but transport was not so pleasant.

  Nuhaka showed signs of becoming a settled village. There were General Stores, Draperies, two Saddleries, a Bakery, two Blacksmith shops and other small business concerns.

  Dairy farming and the supply of cream brought a boost in the opening of the Nuhaka ‘Kahukuranui’ Cheese Factory in 1901.

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

  The West End and Ahururi clubs survived as districts. Literally, the new Scinde and City Districts replaced the Napier township clubs of 1900; Kia Ora, Pirates and Caledonian, who were forced to dissolve.

  On March 23rd, 1902, James Wattie was born in Hawarden, North Canterbury.

  The Tamatea Rugby club was founded in 1903, but went into recess during WWI. 

  Because of travel difficulties, many of the early inter-provincial matches in New Zealand took the form of an annual fixture between neighbouring unions, or between larger unions with greater resources. An important development in inter-provincial competition on a wider scale came in 1904, when the first Ranfurly Shield match was played.

The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the ‘Log o' Wood’, is the most prestigious trophy in New Zealand rugby, probably more accurately in New Zealand sport.

  In 1901, the Governor of New Zealand, the Earl of Ranfurly, announced that he would present a cup to the NZRFU to be used as the prize in a competition of their choosing. When the cup (which turned out to be a shield) arrived, the NZRFU decided that it would be awarded to the union with the best record in the 1902 season, and thereafter be the subject of a challenge system. 

  Auckland, unbeaten in 1902, were presented with the shield, which incorrectly had been designed as a trophy for football, not rugby. The picture in the centre piece was modified by adding posts on top of the football goal, to create a rugby scene.

Auckland were on tour in 1903 and did not play any home games. Their first defence against Wellington in 1904 was an unsuccessful one, losing by 6 points to 3.

  Hawkes Bay’s first challenge for the new trophy came the following year on August 23rd, 1905, Wellington winning by 11 – 3. The holders scored three tries to one, with M McCarthy dotting down for the Bay. 

  Auckland defeated the Wellingtonian’s in the very next match by 10 – 6 and so began the first great reign with the ‘Log o’ Wood’. Hawkes Bay applied for a special challenge in 1907, which was granted and they were defeated by Auckland, 3 – 12, the Bays points coming courtesy of a try by Thomas McIntyre.

  On March 12th, 1908, Henrietta (Rita) Catherine Angus was born in Hastings.

  In 1908, the senior competitions of the HBRU and the Hastings sub-union were amalgamated with new laws; all matches in Napier were now under control of the HBRU and all Hastings games under their own sub. Train fares of travelling teams were to be charged to the proceeds of the match at the place visited. The Marist club was formed at a meeting on January 30th, 1908, referred to initially as ‘Old Boys’.

  With the disbanding of the district system and subsequently district clubs, Napier FC was reformed at a meeting at the Masonic Hotel on Monday February 24, 1908. A lack of player numbers culminated in its unfortunate suspension in June 1910. Napier FC functioned 1874-1900, 1908-1910, 1913.

  On July 1st, the 11th match on tour, Hawkes Bay played host to the visiting ‘Anglo-Welsh’ and were well beaten by 25 points to 3. The match was played on the Wednesday following the second test in Wellington, which had been drawn three all. 

  At a special meeting called to announce the makeup of the local side (which contained six players from Hastings, five from Napier, three from Waipawa and one from the East Coast), the HBRU also decided to ‘place on record’ their dismay that not one player from Hawkes Bay had made the North Island side to meet the South in Wellington.

  In 1910, the Bay were given another ‘special’ challenge and again the Aucklander’s were successful in defending ‘the log’, by 11 – 3.  If it were not for the fact that Auckland covered the expenses of these ‘special’ challenges (charged against the gate) of these provincial unions, the shield would not have been up for grabs at all. 

  The ground was heavy and the visitors had first use of a fairly strong south west wind and having won the toss, immediately went on to attack.

  Magee scored first for the holders, converted by Cunningham. Hawkes Bay attacked again but their passing was ‘faulty’ and they failed to make the best of any opportunity presented. Heeling quickly from a scrum, Smith sent the ball out ‘on the silly side’ to MacEwan, who scored. Russell missed the kick.

  Wylie scored for Auckland, who took an 8 – 3 lead into the break.

  The second half was rather a dull affair, the ground being so slippery and the leather heavy. The Hawkes bay fullback, Fitzgerald, drew praise from the crowd for his defensive work.

  With ten minutes to play, Morse scored a third try for Auckland, making the game quite safe for the holders in the thirteenth challenge of their tenure.

  The Napier High School Old Boys club was formed at a meeting at the Masonic Hotel, on March 18, 1910. They were always referred to as ‘High School Old Boys’.

  The same season Hawkes Bay had their third All Black, David Alexander Evans. Born in 1886, Evans made the All Blacks for the tour of Australia in 1910, as one of the replacements for a number of original selections who withdrew on the eve of departure. He played in four matches, his first three appearances being as a wing forward but for the second test he was included as a lock.

  Evans had been a regular member of the Hawkes Bay side since 1906, playing for the Napier club. A strong powerful forward, he represented the Bay in 19 matches as a wing forward or lock (in the old 2-3-3 scrum formation). Evans was said to be a forerunner for the legendary Hawke's Bay player of the 1920s, Maurice Brownlie.

  Ironically, he became a symbolic figure in the enormous struggle which took place in the years leading up to World War I, between rugby and the challenging code of league.

  Evans was one of the many high profile players of the time who switched codes, an indication of some of the deep resentment in New Zealand at the time, over the way rugby was then run by the autocratic Rugby Football Union of England. There was resentment not only with the way amateur regulations were enforced, which discriminated against working class players, but also with some of the pedantic adherence to the playing laws of rugby.

  In Australia, he had been impressed by the new league code and the following year he was instrumental in helping persuade three Hawke's Bay clubs, Ahuriri, Clive and Kia Toa to switch en masse to league.

  With the backing of Napier local body leader, and later mayor, James Vigor Brown, league, was on a roll and making inroads into the dominant position of rugby. Vigor Brown campaigned for league to have first use of the ground, which eventually developed into the headquarters of Hawkes Bay rugby, Napier's McLean Park.

  In league, Evans also gained national honours in 1911 and ’12. As his career indicated, league may well have gained an even stronger foothold in New Zealand, but for the outbreak of the war in 1914 halting its progress.

Although he first made the All Blacks in 1913 from the Auckland Marist club, Albert Joseph ‘Doolan’ Downing was another Hawkes Bay product to find fame in the annuls of the provinces rugby history.

  For ‘Doolan’ Downing carries with him, the ignominious fate of being the first All Black killed in action during World War I. 

A J Downing was born in 1886, in bustling Port Ahuriri, Napier’s old industrial sea port, which had also earned the nickname of 'The Iron Pot' or 'The Spit'.

  In the early days, Napier consisted of an oblong mass of hills (Scinde Island) almost entirely surrounded by water, from which ran out two single spits, one to the North and one to the South. Napier soon flourished and became a well established commercial centre with a growing port, servicing a wide area. 

  Ahuriri is steeped in history. It was one of the earliest settled areas of Napier, and its shallow but sheltered waters offered safe mooring for sailing ships in the 19th and 20th centuries. Albert Downing worked as a Storeman for the famous Ellison & Duncan Company, on the docks.

  ‘Doolan’ played first for the Napier Old Boys Rugby Club and then Marist, representing Hawkes Bay from 1909-12. In 1911, he played in every game on a five match tour by a team representing North Island Country. Selection for the full North Island team followed at the end of that season and again the following year. 

  North Island Country toured again, to the South Island, in 1912 with 'Doolan' Downing appearing in all four tour matches. The last tour game, against South Island Country in Wellington, had to be abandoned at half time owing to the state of the ground.

  During the early morning of 8 August, 1915, 'A' Company occupied the Turkish trench on the crest of Chunuk Bair and dug a supporting hole behind it. The Turks' dawn counter-attack saw the British battalions, with the Wellingtons, break and run, but according to Lance Corporal Hill, it was after a Sergeant from the Wellington Battalion, A J Downing had distinguished himself in a bloody bayonet charge.

  By nightfall Downing was dead, reportedly witnessed to have been 'blown to pieces'.

  On the Chunuk Bair NZ Memorial, on panel number 17, is Albert Downing's name. However back in his home town of Napier, an unfortunate event has seen his name erased from memory as a combatant of the First World War. The original Great War Memorial and the role books were destroyed in the Napier earthquake of 1931, just a few years after the memorial was erected. 

  The names were transferred to a new plaque on the former WWII memorial but somehow A. J. Downing has been omitted. Instead, engraved on the new plaque is a mystery figure; a character by the name of 'C. Downing' of whom both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the NZ Cenotaph war records do not hold any reference to having existed. It is believed that the ‘C’ should read ‘A’. 

  Downing was described by Hawkes Bay and North Island Country team mate, Norman McKenzie, as "an outstanding lineout forward with a wonderful pair of hands".