West Coast Rugby Union 1893-2024 It is with great pleasure that I can present to you every player that has had the privilege to don the Might of RED & WHITE over the past 130 years since the first match in 1893 against Nelson on the 23rd September 1893 right through to the historic extra time Lochore Cup Final against King Country on the 20th October 2024. In 2024 we welcomed 18 players who earned their cap for West Coast which took our players list from 1,402 at the end of 2023 up to 1,420 players at the end of 2024. So now to celebrate and to move forward we now bring you every player from Cap #1 George Millar (Brunner) 2 games through to our most recent cap #1420 Jaime Kearns (Kiwi) who with just the one game in 2024 as a replacement against King Country in the Lochore Cup Final defeat by 44-46. And as we now know , the final that ended 130 years of “almost’ s” to finally clinch the National title West Coast have been hunting for, a Provincial Title that was the 2023 Lochore Cup victory over Poverty Bay, in 2024 they had the opportunity to defend this title only to go down to King Country in a pulsating Extra Time final 44-46. A lot of research has gone into this list and I have needed a bit of help especially the early years , but with the Rugby Almanac Series that began in 1935 covering the 1934 season and till this day provides plenty of memories every year as we reflect on those that came before us. Also the Online treasure trove that is Papers Past where we find many old match reports and details from newspapers such as the Christchurch Star, Evening Post , Herald and even the Grey Argus has helped me collate this list together. But in saying all this we are sure that we have now completed the list to be the comprehensive list that we have been awaiting and now players past and present can see where they are placed in the history of West Coast rugby. To add Players that have come to light since publication from anonymise sources that have been checked we have placed them in order with an amended cap number. “Don’t you just LOVE HISTORY !” So as we now move forward and look towards the 2025 season and beyond we can now celebrate each new debutant with their own individual cap number, for example the next debut player will be #1,421 while this number will only increase over the years.
Player Caps that we can Highlight here would be : #0001 – W. George Miller (Brunner) Our first Cap , 2 games #0041 - Tom Learmont (Special Mention) Nels-Marl-Buller West Coast ( Greymouth Star) 1905 Canterbury-Sth Cant.-West Coast 1904 2g South Island 1904-05 2g, 1t Never appeared for West Coast due to the Coast not playing Rep Games in 1904 but he appeared in Combined sides as a West Coast Rep. (Per Press Association WELLINGTON, May 25. Tho South Island -Rugby team to play North on Saturday week at Wellington is as follows Pull, Gillot (Canterbury) ; threequarters. Booth (Otago), Harper (Canterbury) Reid (Southland) five-eighths-, Deans (Christchurch), stead (Southland) ; half, Fraser (Southland) ; forwards', Carey, .Johnson and McDonald (Otago), McNie (Southland), Corbett, Learmont (West Coast), Horgan (South Canterbury), Newton (Canterbury)). #0100 - Walter Charles Church (Star) 1911-15 , 5 games #0500 - John James Henderson (Hokitika St.Mary’s) 1948 , 1 game #1000 - Kyle Geoffrey Parker (Kiwi) 1994-97-2000-02, 24 games #1173 - Maleli Tora Mudu (Blaketown, Marist) Our 1st Centurion , 101 games 2004, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 #1245 - Troy Kurt Tauwhare (Kiwi) 108 games, In 2024 Troy became our 2nd Centurion. 2009,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21,22,23, 24 #1420 - Jaime Kearns (Kiwi) – 2024 , Our Latest member of the “Might of Red & White” I do hope you enjoy this look back at our players history, and to make it even better we have 2 versions available, one by Cap Number and one sorted into Surnames so you can trace your family’s history with the West Coast Rugby Family.
Kevin Hare – West Coast Rugby Web Admin/Social Media , Rugby Historian
Compiled by Kevin Hare
2
