Rogers Jones & Co.
Lot 1a
A New Zealand All Blacks rugby jersey worn by the great George Nepia (1905-1986) in the first ever All Blacks defeat of Wales at Swansea in 1924.
The All Blacks won the match 19-0 with the Maori full back in superb form, a remarkable display considering he was only nineteen at the time.
The jersey is in the traditional black with white collar, it is complete with draw-string, embroidered New Zealand fern, which points vertically, to a stitched felt panel to the breast and with white felt number '1' to a square stitched panel to the back. There is ‘diamond’ cross-stitch to the shoulders and upper-chest. It bears an internal label inscribed D.HIDDLESTONE. The jersey is in an excellent complete state without any damage of note.
Provenance: As per the internal label, the jersey was in the ownership of David ‘Dai’ Hiddlestone. Dai Hiddlestone (1890-1973) was a Welsh international rugby union player who was capped five times for Wales including against New Zealand in the aforementioned 1924 test - he only played against the All Blacks this once for either club or country. The 1924 test was played on the 29th November at St Helen’s rugby ground in Swansea. Apart from the outcome being Wales first defeat against the All Blacks, the match was notable for Dai Hiddlestone’s impromptu and ill-advised war-dance, a response to the New Zealander’s pre-match Haka. It is thought that George Nepia, unlike other witnesses, wasn’t offended by Hiddlestone’s antics and actually sought the player out to swap jerseys.
What is absolutely clear is that both jerseys must have been swapped as Hiddlestone only played against the All Blacks once. Dai Hiddlestone’s family confirm these circumstances. This type of jersey with the ‘vertical fern’ is supported by a pre-match photograph, included in our on-line cataloguing.
In the years after the match, Hiddlestone intermittently displayed the jersey at his home rugby-club Hendy RFC and in the 1960s the jersey was donated to the club on a ‘permanent loan’. The jersey has been viewed by many tourers including a Maori Youth touring team whilst visiting Llanelli, the team included the late great Jerry Collins. After Dai Hiddlestone’s death in 1973, the jersey was passed on to his daughter and then to her children by descent. One of the children being the Welsh capped and British Lions player Terry Price (1945-1993). Joint ownership has been agreed between the Price family and Hendy RFC.
It was reported that during the match Nepia and fly-half Jack Wetter, the Welsh captain were in a collision. The Welshman temporary retiring from the field of play but returned early in the second half to play out the game with a pronounced limp. Consequently, Hiddlestone who was employed as flanker was pushed out of the forwards in to the back-line as extra cover. Thus in a more opposing role to George Nepia’s position and so providing further reasoning as to why Nepia and Hiddlestone swapped jerseys.
It is explained in his autobiography 'I, George Nepia' (A H & A W Reed, 1963) that the Wales victory was regarded as retribution for the 1905 loss for 'The Originals' in Cardiff which was regarded by many as '…..a miscarriage of justice attributable to incompetent refereeing. We had been brought up to believe that Bob Deans, the centre who scored the try which was disallowed, had exclaimed on his death-bed, only three years later ''It was a try'', and every New Zealand witness of the game was prepared to swear his life away to the same effect. All this had convinced us that whatever we did, we must beat the Welsh'.
During the tour he won lavish praise for his faultless displays of kicking, tackling and fielding. The test match against Wales was the twenty-first match of their 1924-25 tour of UK, Ireland, France and Canada. The tour gained them the nickname 'The Invincibles' due to their record of playing 32 games and winning all 32, including four test matches. In the process they scored a formidable 838 points with only 116 points having been scored against them. Nepia was the only player out of the 29-strong squad to play every match, he was the scorer of 77 points. Nepia's performances prompted one leading British journalist to write, 'it is not for me to question whether Nepia was the best fullback in history. It is a question of, which others are fit to loosen the laces of his Cotton Oxford boots'
George Nepia is regarded as one of rugby's finest ever full-backs and the most famous Maori of his generation. He was the third inductee to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and one of the first fifteen players to be inducted to the International Rugby Hall of Fame during its inaugural year. In 2004 he was selected as number 65 in 'New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers' television show. George Nepia's portrait was featured in a set of New Zealand postage stamps in 1990 and in 'A Concise History of New Zealand' by Philippa Mein Smith, George Nepia is described as New Zealand's 'first rugby superstar'.
George Nepia is also an important figure in terms of Maori racial history; the player was stopped from touring South Africa at the ‘eleventh hour’ as described in his biography ‘…it would be impolitic for us, as non-caucasians, to attempt to travel in a country whose policies toward non-Whites were even then severely restrictive’.
