THE HAKKA GUYS
The ALL BLACK
When the New Zealand
Rugby Union was formed in 1892 it was decided that the national team would wear
black jerseys and black socks with white knickerbockers. Prior to this the
various NZ representative teams had worn a variety of colors including dark
blue.
In the years leading up
to the 1905 tour of Britain, the national side was often called “the blacks” or
the “all blacks” in newspaper reports and diaries. At the time it was common
for teams to be referred to by their jersey’s colors. An Auckland paper
previewing a game during the team’s tour of NSW in 1893 says, “I expect to see
the all blacks come out on top”, and in 1904 Wellington’s Evening Post says “I
think the chances favor the ‘all blacks’”.
So the name was well
established before the 1905 tour. This is confirmed by an English report of the
first tour match when the NZ side beat Devon 55–4. The local newspaper The
Express and Echo wrote, “The All Blacks, as they are styled by reason of their
sable and unrelieved costume etc.” The NZ uniform now included black shorts. So
the name All Blacks was used by the UK press from the very beginning of the
tour and it clearly related to the uniform.
At the 50th Jubilee of
the tour in 1955 a member of the team, Billy Wallace, said that the name had
come about because of a printing error in a report of the Hartlepool match,
nearly a month after the Devon opener. He referred to a typesetter’s confusion
between “all backs” and “all blacks” as being the name’s origin. No such report
has been found and as the name was already in common use well before then,
Wallace’s account is not considered credible. However, because of the respect
that he had earned as an ex-All Black and a member of the 1905 side in
particular, his story was accepted by many at the time and is still widely
believed, despite the overwhelming historical evidence.
THE OFFICIAL LOGO SINCE 1905
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