Rugby: A New Zealand History

Ron Palenski

ago 2015 · Auckland University Press

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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.

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Ron Palenski ONZM is a noted and prolific author, journalist and historian. Palenski has collaborated on biographies of significant All Blacks, from Brian Lochore through to Dan Carter, and his many other books include The Making of New Zealanders, How We Saw the War; On This Day in New Zealand; Kiwi Battlefield; The Games; Our National Game: The Centennial History of the NZRFU; Key Moments in 20th Century: Sport; Profiles of Fame; The Jersey; Century In Black and Kiwi Milestones. He has won numerous awards for his sports writing and academic awards for history writing in 2005 and 2006.