Historic Katikati: Featuring famed All Black Dave Gallaher and other rugby notables

The New Zealand rugby team and officials during the Anglo-Welsh Tour of 1908.

Te Puna resident Ian Reedy has submitted a photograph featuring some standout names in rugby history, including his own grandfather.

The photo was of the New Zealand team and officials during the Anglo-Welsh Tour of 1908.

It shows Katikati’s famed Dave Gallaher, the first captain of the All Blacks (middle row, third from right). He is labelled here as selector.

Another athlete in the photo is Ian’s grandfather William Reedy, known as Bill (front row left). Bill, from Petone, worked as a blacksmith at the rail yards and was “a bit of a hard man’', Ian says.

Bill played two test matches in 1908 and was asked to tour Australia the following year.

“The photo itself is interesting in that it includes Dave Gallagher and also Bob Deans ... the try that wasn’t.’’

Robert (Bob) Deans claimed to have scored a try in rugby union in 1905 during the “match of the century’' against Wales but the try was disallowed - causing the Kiwis’ only loss of the 35-match tour.

Katikati Primary School students, where Gallaher was a foundation student, were interviewed last year for a recently screened documentary All Blacks at War. The Homegrown Television production featured a special segment honouring Gallaher at his grave in Belgium and it featured on Anzac Day.

The school has a tribute mural to the rugby hero and fallen soldier on one of its walls.

The Katikati Primary School mural that pays tribute to the life of Dave Gallaher, the first All Black captain who spent part of his childhood in Katikati.