Percy Williams (1879-1947) 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 its m ...

and professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played representative rugby league (RL) for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Early years

Williams originally played

for the City club in Auckland and represented

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

.John Coffey and Bernie Wood, ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League'', Hodder Moa, Auckland, 2007, p. 49.

Playing career

He played club rugby for City in Auckland and also played for the Auckland representative team. He was signed by Wigan in August, 1910. Williams played for

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

for three seasons between 1910/11 to 1912/13. During this time he played in 111 matches for the club in the Lancashire League, including in the 1911

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

Final loss. In 1913 he was called into the New Zealand squad, joining them midway through their tour of Australia. He had been returning to New Zealand from England at the time. Williams was said to be instrumental in New Zealand's 17-11 upset victory over

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Williams returned to New Zealand after the tour and in 1914 he played 7 matches for the

City Rovers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers pa ...

club in Auckland before announcing his retirement before the start of the 1915 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Percy Auckland rugby union players City Rovers players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Place of birth missing Place of death missing Rugby league hookers Rugby league locks Rugby league second-rows Wigan Warriors players 1879 births 1947 deaths