List of 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team matches

The New Zealand Native football team before playing Queensland in July 1889

The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team played 107 rugby union matches during their 14-month tour of the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand. The tour was the longest in rugby history, and the first by a New Zealand team to Europe.^[1][2] The team was privately organised by Joe Warbrick,^{[lower-alpha 1]} and was originally intended to contain only Māori players. Several non-Māori and a number of non-New Zealand-born players were eventually recruited to strengthen the side.^[4] Of their rugby matches, they won 78, lost 23, and drew 6.^[1] The team played three internationals: a heavy loss to England, a win over Ireland, and a narrow loss to Wales.^[5]

The initial leg of the Native team's journey was a tour of New Zealand, and their first match was a 5–0 victory over Hawke's Bay.^[6] The team departed from New Zealand having won seven of their nine matches, but their losses included a heavy defeat to Auckland.^[7][8] After stopping in Melbourne on their way to London, they played their first match in England against Surrey on 3 October 1888.^[9] The team played 74 matches in the British Isles—with 36 of these in their first three months.^[10] Only one match was played in Scotland, against Hawick RFC, and three in Ireland.^[1] The intense itinerary of matches continued during the second half of their British Isles leg; this contributed to a high injury rate, and the team struggled to field a full side during much of this time.^[11] Despite the injury toll, they won 14 of their last 20 matches in England.^[12] While in the British Isles the Natives averaged a game every 2.3 days.^[13]

Following their departure from Plymouth in March 1889, the Natives travelled to Melbourne, Australia.^[14] There the team played eight Victorian rules football matches^[15] and two rugby games. The team continued their journey to New South Wales and Queensland, where they played mostly rugby. This included playing each state side twice, as well as at least two association football matches. The final leg of the team's trip was another tour of New Zealand—this saw them lose only once, to Auckland in their final game.^[16]

Matches played

Notes on scoring:

• For the rugby matches in the British Isles, Victoria, and New Zealand tries scored one point, conversions two points, and penalties and drop goals three points.
• For the rugby matches in New South Wales tries scored three points, conversions two points, and drop goals four points.
• For the rugby matches in Queensland tries scored two points, conversions three points, and drop goals four points.^[17]
• For Victorian Rules matches the numbers in brackets under points scored states the goals, then behinds (goals/behinds).
• For Victorian Rules matches the number before the brackets is the score calculated with goals worth six points, and behinds one.

Notes on matches:

• The match record for the British Isles is considered complete, however the match record of the Victorian Rules and Association football matches in the Australian leg of the tour is a matter of some debate. The list of Victorian Rules matches was compiled by historian Greg Ryan and relied heavily on coverage of the matches in the Melbourne press. The frequency of matches suggests the list is complete.^[15][18]

Notes on opposition:

• As the tour occurred before the 1895 schism of rugby football—where many northern English rugby clubs left the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Union^{[lower-alpha 2]}—many of the team's opponents in the British Isles later elected to play rugby league rather than rugby union. The links in the tables below link to those clubs regardless of what code they subsequently played.
• At least one club, Manningham F.C., has since converted to association football.^[19]

Summary

The New Zealand Native football team prior to playing Middlesex at Sheffield Park in October 1888

Rugby matches
Played in	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points for	Points against
British Isles[lower-alpha 3]	74	49	20	5	394	188
New Zealand	17	14	3	0	119	51
Australia	16	15	0	1	240	66
Total	107	78	23	6	753	305

Victorian Rules matches
Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Goals	Behinds
9	3	6	0	31	45

Association football matches
Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	For	Against
2	0	2	0	5	12

New Zealand and Victoria

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
23 June 1888	Hawke's Bay	Napier	5	0
30 June 1888	Hawke's Bay	Napier	11	0
7 July 1888	Auckland	Auckland	0	9
11 July 1888	Nelson	Nelson	9	0
14 July 1888	Wellington	Wellington	3	0
21 July 1888	Canterbury	Christchurch	5	4
24 July 1888	South Canterbury	Timaru	9	0
28 July 1888	Otago	Dunedin	0	8
31 July 1888	Otago	Dunedin	1	0
11 August 1888	Melbourne	Melbourne	3	0
15 August 1888	Melbourne	Melbourne	1	1
Total			47	22

Source: "Matches played—New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". nzhistory.net.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

British Isles

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
3 October 1888	Surrey	Richmond	4	1
6 October 1888	Northamptonshire	Northampton	12	0
10 October 1888	Kent	Blackheath	4	1
13 October 1888	Moseley	Moseley	4	6
18 October 1888	Burton-on-Trent	Burton-on-Trent	3	4
20 October 1888	Midland Counties	Birmingham	10	0
22 October 1888	Middlesex	Fletching[lower-alpha 4]	0	9
24 October 1888	Hull	Hull	0	1
27 October 1888	Dewsbury	Dewsbury	6	0
31 October 1888	Wakefield Trinity	Wakefield	0	1
3 November 1888	Northumberland County	Newcastle	3	3
5 November 1888	Stockton-on-Tees	Stockton	6	1
7 November 1888	Tynemouth	North Shields	7	1
10 November 1888	Halifax Free Wanderers	Halifax	4	13
12 November 1888	Newcastle and District	Newcastle	14	0
14 November 1888	Hartlepool Rovers	Hartlepool	1	0
17 November 1888	Cumberland County	Maryport	10	2
20 November 1888	Carlisle	Carlisle	13	0
22 November 1888	Hawick	Hawick	3	1
23 November 1888	East Cumberland	Carlisle	12	0
24 November 1888	Westmorland County	Kendal	3	1
26 November 1888	Swinton	Swinton	0	2
28 November 1888	Liverpool and District	Liverpool	9	0
1 December 1888	Ireland	Dublin	13	4
3 December 1888	Trinity College	Dublin	4	4
5 December 1888	North of Ireland	Belfast	2	0
8 December 1888	Lancashire County	Manchester	0	1
10 December 1888	Batley	Batley	5	5
12 December 1888	Yorkshire County	Manningham	10	6
15 December 1888	Broughton Rangers	Broughton	8	0
17 December 1888	Wigan	Wigan	5	1
19 December 1888	Llanelli	Llanelli	0	3
22 December 1888	Wales	Swansea	0	5
24 December 1888	Swansea	Swansea	5	0
26 December 1888	Newport	Newport	3	0
29 December 1888	Cardiff	Cardiff	1	4
1 January 1889	Bradford	Bradford	1	4
3 January 1889	Leeds Parish Church	Leeds	6	3
5 January 1889	Kirkstall	Kirkstall	7	3
7 January 1889	Brighouse Rangers	Brighouse	4	0
9 January 1889	Huddersfield	Huddersfield	7	6
12 January 1889	Stockport	Stockport	3	3
14 January 1889	Castleford	Castleford	3	9
17 January 1889	Warrington	Warrington	7	1
19 January 1889	Yorkshire County	Wakefield	4	16
23 January 1889	Spen Valley District	Cleckheaton	8	7
26 January 1889	Somersetshire County	Wellington	17	4
30 January 1889	Devonshire County	Exeter	12	0
31 January 1889	Taunton	Taunton	8	0
2 February 1889	Gloucestershire County	Gloucester	4	1
4 February 1889	Midland Counties	Moseley	6	1
6 February 1889	Blackheath Rovers	Blackheath	9	3
9 February 1889	United Services	Portsmouth	10	0
16 February 1889	England	Blackheath	0	7
18 February 1889	London Welsh	Richmond	2	1
19 February 1889	Cambridge University	Cambridge	3	7
21 February 1889	Oxford University	Oxford	0	6
23 February 1889	Manningham	Manningham	4	0
25 February 1889	St. John's, Leeds	Leeds	9	0
27 February 1889	Leigh	Leigh	1	4
2 March 1889	Runcorn	Runcorn	8	3
4 March 1889	Oldham	Oldham	0	6
5 March 1889	Halifax Free Wanderers	Halifax	6	0
7 March 1889	Barrow and District	Barrow	0	3
9 March 1889	Widnes	Widnes	8	1
11 March 1889	Manchester	Manchester	7	1
13 March 1889	Walkden	Walkden	6	1
14 March 1889	St Helens	St Helens	9	0
16 March 1889	Salford	Salford	7	1
18 March 1889	Rochdale Hornets	Rochdale	10	0
20 March 1889	York	York	4	3
23 March 1889	Hull	Hull	1	1
25 March 1889	Widnes	Widnes	6	1
27 March 1889	Southern Counties	Leyton	3	1
Total			394	188

Source: (Ryan 1993, p. 143)

Australia

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
24 May 1889	Melbourne	Melbourne	14	6
31 May 1889	Navy Team XVIII	Melbourne	13	6
11 June 1889	Victoria	Melbourne	19	0
15 June 1889	New South Wales	Sydney	12	9
17 June 1889	University of Sydney	Sydney	17	7
19 June 1889	Parramatta Club and King's School XVIII	Sydney	21	0
22 June 1889	New South Wales	Sydney	16	12
25 June 1889	Arfoma	Sydney	27	3
28 June 1889	Permanent Artillery XVIII	Sydney	32	10
15 July 1889	Queensland	Brisbane	22	0
17 July 1889	Toowoomba XVI	Toowoomba	16	0
19 July 1889	Ipswich	Ipswich	17	5
22 July 1889	Queensland	Brisbane	11	7
24 July 1889	Toowoomba XVI	Toowoomba	19	0
Total			236	65

Source: "Matches played — New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". nzhistory.net.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

New Zealand

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
7 August 1889	Southland	Invercargill	5	1
8 August 1889	Mataura District XVI	Gore	16	3
10 August 1889	Otago	Dunedin	11	8
15 August 1889	Hawke's Bay	Christchurch	13	2
17 August 1889	Canterbury	Christchurch	15	0
19 August 1889	Wairarapa	Masterton	10	8
20 August 1889	Wellington	Wellington	4	1
24 August 1889	Auckland	Auckland	2	7
Total			76	30

Source: "Matches played—New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". nzhistory.net.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

Victorian Rules in Australia

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
15 May 1889	Maryborough	Maryborough	8 (1/2)	45 (6/9)
18 May 1889	Ballarat	Ballarat	4 (0/4)	26 (4/2)
25 May 1889	Carlton	Melbourne	16 (2/4)	94 (13/16)
28 May 1889	Wanderers	Melbourne	71 (10/11)	15 (2/3)
30 May 1889	South Melbourne	Melbourne	40 (6/4)	37 (4/13)
1 June 1889	St Kilda	Melbourne	12 (1/6)	43 (6/7)
6 June 1889	Daylesford	Daylesford	16 (2/4)	11 (1/5)
8 June 1889	Essendon	Melbourne	35 (5/5)	80 (11/14)
29 June 1889	New South Wales	Sydney	29 (4/5)	34 (4/10)
Total			231 (31/45)	385 (51/79)

Source: "Matches played—New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". nzhistory.net.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

Association football in Australia

Date	Against	Venue	For	Against
July 1889[lower-alpha 5]	Northumberland	Maitland, New South Wales	3	6
July 1889[lower-alpha 5]	Newcastle	Newcastle, New South Wales	2	6
Total			5	12

Source: "Matches played — New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". nzhistory.net.nz. Retrieved 13 April 2013.

Notes

1. The tour was not organised under the authority of any provincial or national unions such as the Rugby Football Union.^[3]
2. The Northern Union was the predecessor of the Rugby Football League.
3. Includes Ireland.
4. This match was played at Sheffield Park.^[20]
5. Exact date is unknown.^[21]

References

1. 2008 Inductee: J Warbrick ....
2. Mulholland 2009, p. 6.
3. Ryan 1993, p. 12.
4. Ryan 1993, p. 27.
5. Ryan 1993, p. 9.
6. Ryan 1993, p. 32.
7. Ryan 1993, p. 33.
8. Ryan 1993, p. 42.
9. Ryan 1993, pp. 43–45.
10. Ryan 1993, p. 67.
11. Ryan 1993, p. 69.
12. Ryan 1993, p. 96.
13. Ryan 1993, p. 121.
14. Ryan 1993, p. 106.
15. Ryan 1993, p. 144.
16. Ryan 1993, pp. 116–117.
17. Ryan 1993, p. 148.
18. Ryan 1993, p. 141.
19. Frost 1988, pp. 11–13.
20. Ryan 1993, pp. 47–49.
21. Matches played.

Sources

• "2008 Inductee: J Warbrick & 1888 Natives Team". irb.com. 23 November 2008. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
• Frost, Terry (1988). Bradford City A Complete Record 1903–1988. Breedon Books Sport. ISBN 0-907969-38-0.
• "Matches played—New Zealand Natives' rugby tour, 1888/89". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
• Mulholland, Malcolm (2009). Beneath the Māori Moon – An Illustrated History of Māori Rugby. Huia Publishers. ISBN 978-1-86969-305-3.
• "New Zealand Natives' rugby tour of 1888/89". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 22 January 2013. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
• Ryan, Greg (1993). Forerunners of the All Blacks. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press. ISBN 0-908812-30-2.
• "The 1905/06 'Originals'". New Zealand Rugby Museum. Archived from the original on 26 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.