William Thomas "Tabby" Wynyard (1 January 1867 – 15 March 1938) was a

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 ...

footballer who toured with the

1888–89 New Zealand Native football team The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand rugby union team that toured Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889. It mostly comprised players of Māori ancestry, but also included some Pākehā (white N ...

and the 1893

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 ...

team. He also played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for both

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 ...

and

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 ...

Rugby career

Wynyard was first selected for provincial rugby for

while playing at the Grafton club in 1887, and in 1888 along with his brothers

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(Sherry) and

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(Pie), Tabby was recruited by

Joe Warbrick Joseph Astbury Warbrick (1 January 1862 – 30 August 1903) was a Māori rugby union player who represented New Zealand on their 1884 tour to Australia and later captained the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team that embarked on a ...

for an ambitious rugby tour of the British Isles. The team assembled by Warbrick became known as the New Zealand Native football team, and was initially intended to contain solely Māori or part-Māori players, but eventually included a number of non-Māori in order to bolster the team. The final team consisted of 26 players, and toured New Zealand before departing to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. They then toured Great Britain, Australia, and finally New Zealand again — the trip lasted 14 months. Tabby Wynyard played three-quarter, and played at least 75 of the team's 107 matches; including a minimum of 52 in Britain. The team lists for eleven of the matches on tour are either incomplete or non-existent. Therefore, the figure of 75 appearances in total, and 52 in Britain, is only a minimum value. In addition to his exploits in rugby, Wynyard gained fame for singing ''On the Ball'' – a rugby song composed in 1887 that became popular at the time. After returning from tour, Wynyard continued playing for Auckland, but by 1893 was living in Wellington. He was playing his club rugby for Poneke, and was selected for the New Zealand tour on Australia conducted that year. The New Zealand team was the first national team fielded since the formation of the

New Zealand Rugby Football 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 ...

in 1892. Captained by fellow New Zealand Native tourist

Thomas Ellison Thomas Rangiwahia Ellison, also known as Tom Ellison or Tamati Erihana (c. 1867 – 2 October 1904) was a New Zealand rugby union player and lawyer. He led the first New Zealand representative rugby team organised by the New Zealand Rugby ...

, the side played eleven matches (including a warm-up match in Wellington) of which Wynyard appeared in seven. Wynyard continued to play provincial rugby, for Wellington in 1893 and 1894, and again for Auckland in 1895 and 1896, after which his representative career ended.

Other sports

Wynyard excelled in not only rugby, but was also a provincial representative in athletics and cricket. He played twelve first-class cricket matches for

and

between 1882 and 1907. Additionally, according to historian Greg Ryan he was an accomplished golfer, oarsman, cyclist and billiards player.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynyard, Tabby 1867 births 1938 deaths New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand Māori rugby union players Sportspeople from Auckland Wellington rugby union players Auckland rugby union players Wellington cricketers Auckland cricketers Māori All Blacks players Rugby union players from Auckland Rugby union three-quarters