The All Golds in Britain: New Zealand’s rugby league pioneers, 1907–08

New Zealand’s first rugby league tourists went to Britain before their new game had established a competition at home. They arrived as rugby union players, learned the Northern Union code and spent the winter meeting clubs and representative sides on unfamiliar grounds. By February 1908, they had won its inaugural international Test series.

The side remembered as the All Golds did more than introduce another New Zealand jersey to British football. Their visit connected the Northern Union with the southern hemisphere and gave New Zealand players a route into a sport in which payment was permitted. It also produced a sporting story with plenty of reversals: an unbeaten opening, a difficult winter and two victories when the Test series appeared to be slipping away.

A tour outside the rugby establishment

The venture’s organiser was Albert Henry Baskiville, the Wellington postal worker, rugby player and author better known in rugby league history as Albert Baskerville. He recognised an opportunity in the Northern Union’s clubs and crowds, and set about taking a New Zealand team to Britain.

The Northern Union had broken from England’s Rugby Football Union in 1895. Compensation for wages lost while playing rugby — known as broken-time payments — lay at the centre of the dispute. For men who depended on their weekly earnings, time away from work carried a cost.

By 1907, the breakaway organisation had also changed the game itself. It had abolished lineouts, reduced teams to 13 players and introduced an early form of play-the-ball. The tourists would therefore need to learn more than a different attitude towards payment.

Baskiville found an important ally in George Smith, an accomplished athlete and a member of the 1905 All Blacks. Smith brought playing ability, contacts and a reputation that helped give the project credibility.

Joining nevertheless carried consequences. New Zealand rugby union’s amateur rules threatened participants with life bans. These men were committing their footballing futures to a privately organised venture, rather than travelling under the authority of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.

The financial arrangement was equally personal. Te Ara records that players were required to contribute £50 towards costs and were promised a share of the profits. The tour’s crowds and receipts mattered to those taking part.

The men behind the name

The touring party included eight men who had already represented New Zealand at rugby union. Four — Smith, Duncan McGregor, William “Massa” Johnston and Bill Mackrell — had been members of the 1905 Originals.

That experience gave the team substance, but it did not make them experienced Northern Union players. Their rugby careers had been built around another set of laws.

They also gained an Australian recruit. Herbert Henry “Dally” Messenger played against the New Zealanders for New South Wales during their outward stop in Sydney, then accepted an invitation to join the tour of Britain.

Messenger had already represented Australia at rugby union. His attacking ability and goalkicking made him a valuable addition to the New Zealand side. The arrangements belonged to the pioneering era of international league: an Australian could tour with New Zealand, then face his former teammates for Australia on their return journey.

The All Golds name reflected the controversy over payment. It played on the All Blacks identity and initially carried a sneer at the tourists’ professional status. In Britain they were commonly described as the All Blacks or New Zealanders; “professional All Blacks” also distinguishes them from the union side.

The name that became a proud part of league history should not obscure what they were at the time: a New Zealand touring team attempting to make a sporting and commercial venture succeed.

Learning quickly at Bramley

The preliminary matches in Sydney and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, were played under rugby union laws. Britain was where the tourists began their Northern Union programme.

On 9 October 1907 they defeated Bramley 25–6 at the Barley Mow ground in Leeds. Bramley’s club history preserves the opening match as an important part of its own story, and the result provided a useful answer to doubts about the visitors’ ability to adapt.

They remained unbeaten through their first nine British fixtures, winning eight and drawing with Wakefield Trinity. Against established clubs, their rugby skills were translating into results.

The first defeat came against Wigan, who won 12–8 at Central Park on 9 November. A local historical account reproducing the Wigan Observer’s coverage describes the interest surrounding the match and the pressure created by a large crowd. Wigan had ended the visitors’ unbeaten run, while the tour had brought a major overseas attraction into the Northern Union’s club programme.

Those club fixtures were central to the venture. This was a long tour through the game’s British communities, rather than a brief visit built around internationals.

The winter changes the tour

The early results did not last. As the programme continued, defeats accumulated and the tourists faced the demands of repeated matches, injuries and British winter conditions.

Jo Smith’s study of the tour, drawing extensively on contemporary newspapers, describes a schedule that usually left only a few days between games. Players had limited opportunities to recover, and the representative fixtures came late in the visit.

There were still good performances. New Zealand defeated Yorkshire 23–4 in December. But January brought a much harder sequence, with losses to Wales, Cumberland, England and Lancashire before the opening Test against the full Northern Union side.

Those opponents need to be distinguished. Wales and England fielded separate national sides; the Northern Union selected from its wider playing ranks. The tourists’ three-match series against the latter is now recorded in Great Britain’s international history.

Combining every encounter under the name England would blur both the tour’s programme and the achievement that followed.

A one-point defeat in Wales

On 1 January 1908, Wales defeated New Zealand 9–8 at the Athletic Ground in Aberdare, in the match recognised by Wales Rugby League as the world’s first official rugby league Test.

The contemporary Evening Express report, reproduced by Wales Rugby League, describes a hard, partly frozen ground. Its correspondent questioned whether the surface was suitable, and reported injuries among the visitors.

New Zealand led 8–3 at half-time. Wales recovered through second-half tries, with Dai Jones scoring the try that put the home side a point ahead. The tourists’ late effort could not overturn the result.

Their captain, Hercules “Bumper” Wright, acknowledged the opposition’s performance. “I believe the best team won,” he told the newspaper, while also drawing attention to the hardness of the ground.

It was a close defeat in a match that gave Wales its own place in the international game’s beginnings. For New Zealand, the British programme still had its principal series ahead.

**Headingley leaves New Zealand behind*8

The first Test against the Northern Union took place at Headingley, Leeds, on 25 January 1908.

The home side led 8–0 at half-time and won 14–6. New Zealand’s tries came from Hubert Turtill and Richard Wynyard, but their second-half points were insufficient.

A difficult month had now left the tourists one match down in the series. Their early run of victories was some distance behind them.

The next Test would also take them away from the Northern Union’s usual heartland. Stamford Bridge in London offered an opportunity to present the game to a different audience — and an opportunity for New Zealand to change the direction of its tour.

The recovery at Stamford Bridge

On 8 February, New Zealand won 18–6 at Stamford Bridge.

George Smith captained the side. Johnston scored two tries, Smith and Lance Todd added one apiece, and Messenger kicked three goals. With tries worth three points, those four tries and three goals produced the visitors’ 18 points.

New Zealand led 5–3 at half-time and finished with a convincing margin. Whatever their earlier difficulties, they had beaten the full Northern Union side and brought the series level.

For London spectators, the match supplied an introduction to international Northern Union football. For the tourists, it meant that the British visit could still end with a series victory.

Johnston’s contribution also connected the forward play with the result. The turnaround was not simply a matter of a celebrated backline finding space: a New Zealand forward had supplied half the team’s tries.

Two late tries at Cheltenham

The deciding Test followed on 15 February at the Athletic Ground in Cheltenham.

The Northern Union led 5–0 at the interval. The game was also marred by disciplinary trouble, with Tom Cross sent off during the second half.

New Zealand recovered late. Messenger scored, and Edgar Wrigley’s conversion brought the teams level at 5–5. Johnston then scored the try that secured an 8–5 victory.

In that scoring system, the finish was straightforward: two tries and one goal for New Zealand, against one try and one goal for the Northern Union.

The tourists had won the series 2–1.

Cheltenham’s place in the story comes from that deciding match. International rugby league had already been played in Wales and at Headingley; here, New Zealand completed the first international Test series victory.

The three results show how sharply the tour changed in its closing weeks. Date Venue Result 25 January 1908 Headingley, Leeds Northern Union 14–6 New Zealand 8 February 1908 Stamford Bridge, London New Zealand 18–6 Northern Union 15 February 1908 Athletic Ground, Cheltenham New Zealand 8–5 Northern Union

What the British tour left behind

New Zealand completed its British programme against St Helens on 22 February, winning 21–10. Baskiville, whose management responsibilities had largely kept him off the field, played and scored a try.

Across England and Wales, the tourists had played 35 matches: 19 wins, 14 defeats and two draws. Those figures describe a competitive tour, with substantial setbacks as well as the series success.

Britain also became the next stage of some players’ careers. Smith joined Oldham, while Todd signed for Wigan. Todd later became an influential manager and broadcaster, and his name survives in the trophy awarded to the Challenge Cup final’s player of the match.

The homeward journey brought further international success, with New Zealand winning its series against Australia 2–1. It also brought the loss of the tour’s organiser. Baskiville died of pneumonia in Brisbane in May 1908, aged 25.

On 13 June, a match at Wellington’s Athletic Park raised money for his widowed mother. Recognised as the first rugby league match played on New Zealand soil, it brought the game the tourists had learned overseas before a home audience.

Domestic league then developed through provincial fixtures and new organisations. It took work to turn an overseas venture into a sport played regularly in New Zealand.

The All Golds’ British winter supplied both a beginning and evidence that the new game could sustain international competition. They had learned the Northern Union code through a demanding programme, lost the opening Test and recovered to win the series. The rugby league story that followed in New Zealand began with men prepared to make that journey.

Sources & Further Reading

All online sources below were accessed on 5 October 2026. Publication dates are supplied where the consulted pages state them.

Historical research

• Smith, Jo. “All that glitters”: the All Golds and the advent of Rugby League in Australasia. MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 1998. Relevant tour discussion, especially pp. 72–85; results appendix, pp. 146–147. The PDF was downloaded and those passages inspected during this research. Repository record and full thesis.
• Coffey, John. “Rugby league — Origins of rugby league.” Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 2 September 2013. Article.
• Coffey, John. “Rugby league — Arrival in New Zealand.” Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 2 September 2013. Article.
• Coffey, John. “All Golds, 1907.” Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 30 November 2012. Team photograph record and financial context. Record. Contemporary reporting accessed through a later reproduction
• Pen Dragon. “N.U. International: New Zealand Beaten by a Point.” Evening Express, 1 January 1908, Pink Edition. Text reproduced on Wales Rugby League’s historical match page; the original newspaper image was not inspected. Match report and reproduced text.
• Wigan Observer, 12 November 1907. Match coverage reproduced in Ancient & Loyal, “New Zealand 1907”. The retrospective page and its reproduced text were consulted; the original newspaper issue was not independently inspected. Reproduction.

Governing-body and club histories

• New Zealand Rugby League. “Albert Baskerville biography.” Profile.
• New Zealand Rugby League. “George Smith biography.” Profile.
• New Zealand Rugby League. “Dally Messenger biography.” Profile.
• New Zealand Rugby League. “Lance Todd biography.” Profile.
• New Zealand Rugby League. “Tom Cross biography.” Profile. Consulted in assessing the Cheltenham account; contains a series-description error noted below.
• Wales Rugby League. “History.” Page.
• Bramley Buffaloes. “History & Aims.” Club history.
• All Golds Rugby League Football Club. “History.” Cheltenham retrospective. Page.

Statistical cross-checks

• Rugby League Project. “New Zealand — Results — Tour Matches.” British fixture sequence and results. Results.
• Rugby League Project. “1908 England vs New Zealand Series — Game 1.” Northern Union 14–6 New Zealand. Record.
• Rugby League Project. “1908 England vs New Zealand Series — Game 2.” Northern Union 6–18 New Zealand. Record.
• Rugby League Project. “1908 England vs New Zealand Series — Game 3.” Northern Union 5–8 New Zealand. Record.