James Allan (11 September 1860, in

East Taieri East Taieri is a small township, located between Mosgiel and Allanton in New Zealand's Otago region. It lies on State Highway 1 en route between the city of Dunedin and its airport at Momona. It lies close to the southeastern edge of the Taie ...

, New Zealand – 2 September 1934, in

Hāwera Hāwera is the second-largest centre in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight. The origins of the town lie in a government military base that was established ...

, New Zealand. Retrieved on 22 January 2007.) was a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player who played eight games for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

, the New Zealand national rugby union team, and was nicknamed the Taieri Giant. Allan played in the first match contested by the New Zealand team, and the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

regard him as the first ever All Black. Allan played as a forward and played six seasons for his province Otago, from 1881 to 1886. Allan's eight All Black appearances came on the 1884 New Zealand rugby union tour of New South Wales on which he scored three tries. He was one of New Zealand's most valuable players. on the tour, where he played eight of the All Blacks' nine games – all played over 23 days. Allan was highly regarded as a forward with contemporary reports saying he was "consistently in the vanguard". Allan was also reported to be never far away from the ball along with being as "hard as nails". During his playing career at Otago, Allan became a distinguished player for the province. He had three other brothers who represented Otago. Allan was a pupil of

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, James 1860 births 1934 deaths New Zealand international rugby union players People educated at Otago Boys' High School Rugby union forwards Rugby union players from Otago