North Island rugby league team

The North Island rugby league team is a rugby league team that represents the North Island of New Zealand. They first played in 1920 against the touring England team in Napier, Hawke's Bay. However the primary purpose of the side was to play against the South Island team, with the match often serving as a trial type match to chose the New Zealand international side.

1920
The England team was touring New Zealand following their tour of Australia where they had played 13 matches. They played Auckland, Rotorua, South Auckland (Waikato), New Zealand, and King Country, before a match was organised for them against a North Island team at Napier in the Hawke's Bay on August 4. The North Island team was relatively weak with only 8 of the 13 players chosen being New Zealand representatives when ordinarily the entire side would have been national representatives. The side included 5 local Hawke's Bay players (Pat Burrows, Edmund Downing, Percival Exeter, Con McCarthy, and Henry Pring). Aside from a loss to Auckland in their first game the England side made short work of all domestic opposition, including this North Island side who they thrashed 46-5.

1925
1925 saw the first ever 'proper' North Island rugby league team match in what was to become a near annual fixture over the ensuing decades. The match was played in "unfavourable conditions" at Carlaw Park before 4,000 spectators, making "good football out of the question". The match was largely a battle of the forwards though North Island backs Lou Brown, Ben Davidson, and Horace Dixon all crossed for tries. Forward Ernie Herring had an outstanding game scoring a hat trick. Frank Delgrosso struggled with his goal kicking in the conditions, converting just one of their 7 tries. Neil Mouat scored all of the South Island's points with a try and 3 penalties. At halftime Neville St George came on for the North Island after Alf Townsend retired with a broken rib.

1926
The entire North Island team was composed of Auckland players with the exception of Wally Desmond from Wellington. Unlike the previous season which saw just 4,000 attend the match the crowd for the 1926 edition was an enormous 18,000 with the match described as "brilliant". The South Island backs were said to be "Herculean", "fighting like tigers". The northern backs were far to clever though and they put on several tries with the margin likely to have been larger if not for Peckham and Cole leaving the field through injury in the second half leaving them 2 players short.

1929
Len Scott was injured during the match and replaced by Allan Seagar for the North Island while for the South Island Sanders was injured and replaced by Doogan. In past years the North Island team was dominated by players from the Auckland competition however the North Island team on this occasion featured players from outside Auckland such as Ted Meyer, Dick Trautvettor, Bob Stephenson, Joe Menzies, Tom Timms, and Tassie Bergan.

1930
For the North Island v South Island trial the Devonport and Ponsonby clubs gave permission for their jerseys to be worn by the respective sides. Mick O’Brien of the South Island team broke his tibia late in the match.

1931
The North Island had one of their largest ever wins over the South Island. Pat Meehan of the Marist club scored 4 tries, with New Zealand internationals Claude List (3), Edwin Abbott (2), Hec Brisbane (2), and Alan Clarke also scoring. Clarke also kicked 5 conversions and a penalty for 15 individual points. For the South Island Falgar scored 2 tries, with Johnny Dodds scoring a try and kicking their lone conversion.

1932
Jim Amos left the field with an injured shoulder for the South Island team and was replaced by E O'Brien. Bert Cooke made his North Island debut and played brilliantly, scoring three tries for the winners in front of a crowd of 15,000. He had only recently converted to rugby league but his performance was instrumental in his selection for the New Zealand test team. Len Scott also scored three tries with Claude List crossing for one. Albert Laing converted three of the North Island's seven tries. Laing also made his debut for New Zealand after his effort, while Scott and List also gained New Zealand selection once more after having debuted for New Zealand in 1928. For the South Island J. Devonport and E. Hamberger scored a try each. Jim Amos had kicked two goals before being replaced. Jonas Masters kicked their other three goals.

1934
The match was described as "by far the most brilliant North-South match seen in Auckland for many years". The South Island led 13-3 at the half time break before a magnificent rally by the North Island saw them overcome the deficit and draw level following tries to George Tittleton and Bert Cooke, both of which were converted by R.E. Smith from the Hawke's Bay. The North side extended their lead through tries to Cliff Satherley, Wally Tittleton, Cooke, and then Lou Hutt before the South Island scored a consolation try to Billy Glynn.

1935
This was the 10th inter-island match stretching back to 1925. The North Island had won 7, the South Island had won 1 in 1929, with a draw in 1930. Roy Bright, Wilf Hassan and McNeil (Richmond) were selected to play for the North Island but were unavailable. The North Island had 3 players debuting, Bill Telford, Ted Mincham, and W. Large (Hawke's Bay).

1936
During the match Reg Haslam was running with the ball when he began falling into a hole which had fallen into the ground. In the meantime he had passed the ball and play moved away but was forced to stop once the referee realised what had happened. It had formed near a drain where the water had washed away the soil beneath the ground. A ball boy was photographed standing in the hole ‘buried’ to his waist. The gate receipts for the match were £608 19/ with 15,000 in attendance at the match and the trial curtain-raiser.

1938
Brian Riley was initially named to play for the North Island side but as he was unable to get leave from work to potentially tour Australia if selected he was replaced in the North Island side. The result showed the absolute domination of the Auckland competition over other parts of New Zealand with 12 of the 13 players drawn from the Auckland club competition. Joe Cootes was the only player from outside Auckland, playing in Wellington. For the North Island Des Herring scored 3 tries, and Rangi Chase 2, with 7 other players (Gordon Midgley, Walter Brimble, Jack Satherley, Joe Cootes, Angus Gault, Jack Brodrick, and Clarry McNeil) also crossing the line. Jack Smith kicked 10 conversions and also kicked a penalty. The only scorer for the South Island was P. Scott who kicked a penalty.

1939
Wally Tittleton was chosen as the North Island captain while Rex King captained the South Island.

1944
This was the first time since 1939 that the North Island v South Island match had been played. The North Island won comfortably scoring 9 tries to 3. Roy Nurse was the only North Island player who had previously played for them with the other 12 on debut. Ralph Martin had played for Manukau from 1940 to 1944 had moved to Wellington during the year for his army training and had joined the Korodale club and also represented Wellington following that point. Hawea Mataira had originally been selected but was travelling to Wellington with the Auckland Waterside Workers team to play in their annual fixture with Wellington Waterside and was replaced by Ririnui but then on match day he himself was replaced in the side by Wellington's F. Andrews who was in his first year of rugby league. Owen Brooks from the Waikato had a remarkable day scoring 3 tries and kicking 8 conversions for a personal tally of 25 tries. Joe Murray from the Manukau club also scored 3 tries. Pouvi (Robert) Salaia, one of the first Pacific born players involved in New Zealand rugby league, scored for the North Island. For the South Island New Zealand international John Newton scored twice and Ces Davison converted all three of their tries.

1945
The South Island team featured 2 Wellington players (F Moses and Hector Mallinder) for the first time in its history, rendering it a South Island team in name only. G Moyes, chosen at lock from Waikato was unavailable as he was feeling unwell so his place was taken by Fred James of the City side and he played well scoring 2 tries. Veteran Arthur Kay played for the North Island in the centre position. He was in his 13th season of senior rugby league having debuted for Ponsonby in 1933. The crowd was estimated at between 15 and 20,000 which was the largest seen at the ground for many years.

Players, appearances and scoring (1920–1945)

 * Notes
 * Wally Desmond moved to Wellington in 1926 and played for the representative side against Waikato (South Auckland); however there was then no club competition in Wellington.
 * In 1925 Neville St George came on as a replacement for Alf Townsend at halftime.
 * In 1929 Allan Seagar replaced Len Scott at halftime.
 * In 1931 the Marist and Devonport clubs fielded a combined team as a short-lived requirement by the Auckland Rugby League.
 * In 1944 Ralph Martin was representing Wellington. He had played several seasons for Manukau in Auckland but had moved to Wellington as part of his Army training and was a member of the Korodale club.

Representation by province (1920-1945)
Jim Laird is the only player to represent the North Island for more than one province (Waikato in 1932, and Auckland in 1935).