The 1939 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France was a scheduled tour by the

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team (Māori: Tīma rīki motu Aotearoa) has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of ...

of Europe between September and December 1939. After arriving in the United Kingdom in August 1939, the tour was abandoned after one match had been played due to the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Invitation

In October 1938 the British

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

(RFL) invited the

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ''T ...

to send a team to tour Britain during the latter part of 1939. The RFL also suggested that the side visit France as well and offered to help with arrangements for the French leg. At a special meeting of the New Zealand League Council in November 1938 both offers were accepted.

Squad

After trial games a squad of 26 players (14 backs and 12 forwards) was finalised on 13 July 1939. J.A. Redwood (chairman of the

) and G. Grey Campbell (chairman of the

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...

) were named as the co-managers of the team but Grey Campbell later withdrew due to ill-health and was replaced by R. Doble, also of the Auckland Rugby League. Canterbury forward Rex King was named captain of the team.

Tour

The squad sailed from

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

on 27 July 1939 onboard the RMS ''Rangitiki'' and arrived in London on 29 August 1939. Arriving at the Beechwood Hotel, Harrogate – the squad's base for the tour – on 31 August the team tried to maintain a normal attitude even in the face of the deteriorating political situation around them but acknowledged that the situation was liable to change at any time and in an interview, Doble volunteered the services of the team to help with

air raid precautions Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...

in the Harrogate area. The first game of the tour took place as planned on 2 September as the tourists beat St Helens 19–3 in front of a crowd of 5,000 at

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside, was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For a period, the venue also hosted ...

, but the declaration of war by Britain against Germany the following morning meant a review of the tour's viability. An emergency meeting of the RFL tour sub-committee attended by the New Zealand managers on 5 September concluded that no further matches were possible and "the only course was to endeavour to arrange for the return of the party to New Zealand at the earliest possible moment". With the tour officially abandoned the remaining fixtures were all cancelled but while awaiting a ship home permission was given for the game against

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

to take place on 9 September. Despite being announced at short notice the game was watched by 6,200 and the tourists won 22–10 to end the tour with a 100% winning record. Through the intervention of the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, Bill Jordan, the team were able to return to New Zealand on-board the ''Rangitiki'' – the same ship they had arrived on and arrived back in Auckland in late October. The New Zealand Rugby League established that the curtailment of the tour had led to a net loss of £3,827 to the League.

Schedule

The schedule of games in Britain was agreed in June 1939 and the French fixtures were to be arranged while the British part of the tour was in progress. Had the tour continued there would have been 21 games against English club sides, representative matches against Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland, a test match against Wales and a three-test series against Great Britain.

References

Footnotes

Notes

{{Kiwis tours 1939 in New Zealand rugby league 1939 in English rugby league 1939 in Welsh sport Rugby league tours of Great Britain New Zealand national rugby league team tours Cancelled sports events