Ellis said the school did a brilliant job at finding everyone who had played over the years and contacted them giving them all the opportunity to buy a velvet 1st XV cap which had 1823 embroidered on it as well as their player number.
He was the school’s 1250th player while his uncle was player 450. He learned that the school’s 200-year bicentennial was to be held in June. But prior to that the school had put together a list of all the boys who had played in the 1st XV.
Ellis saw the list on the Rugby School community page back in October last year and contacted the school to see if he could help. He was asked to make three videos of local rugby players that would form part of a collage called Pass the Ball. He chose three teams, the Dannevirke High School 1st XV, Dannevirke Sports Club Colts and Seniors.
The videos were then sent to Rugby School in Warwickshire, England. As an acknowledgement, Ellis was sent a Gilbert official replica ball which celebrates the birthplace of the game in 1823 when William Webb-Ellis first picked up the ball and ran with it.
It was this replica ball that Ellis took to Napier. The hour-and-a-half training session was watched by around 3000 people.
At the end of the session, the players spread out among supporters, signing rugby balls and shirts among other things.
”What a scrummage it was but it was all very good-humoured. The players were under a lot of pressure over a very short time,” Ellis said.
However, he managed to have the ball signed by 18 All Blacks and coach Ian Foster. ”I’m hoping to get some ex-All Blacks to sign it and have already got Sir Wayne Buck Shelford and John Ashworth.”
The ball will be put up for auction and the proceeds from it will go to provide East Coast farmers with fencing materials.
”I’ve been a sheep farmer all my life and having been mayor of Tararua this feels to be a very worthy cause.”
Ellis is still working on the details of where and when the auction will be held and once finalised it will be widely publicised.
