Edward Hughes : Rugby Player

Dolphin · Dec 8, 2009

This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who served in, and survived, The Great War. If anyone has further information on the men concerned, I’d be most grateful if it could be added to the thread.

Gareth

Hughes, Edward ‘Ned’ played for New Zealand

Internationals: 6 : 1907 A+ (1t) A+ A= ; 1908 AW+ ; 1921 SA+ SA-

Edward Hughes was born on 26 April 1881, in Invercargill.

Played as a Hooker for: Southland, Wellington

Profession: Cooper

War service: 20156 Lance Corporal, NZ Rifle Brigade

Remarks: Equal longest NZ career (with Colin Meads); 15 years between caps. Oldest NZ player to play in an international: 40 years 123 days in second test v SA 1921. NZ tour of Australia 1907. He played 9 matches for the All Blacks, including 6 Internationals. He joined the Rugby League and represented NZ in 1910; however, he regained his amateur status after the War.

He died on 1 May 1928, in NSW

liverpool annie · Dec 8, 2009

Ned Hughes had one of the most astonishing careers of any All Black, notable for two particular reasons. The first was the gap between his appearances. His first three test matches were on the 1907 tour of Australia, which was followed by the first test against the Anglo-Welsh in 1908.

He then did not reappear in the All Blacks until 1921 when he played the first two tests against the Springboks.

So by then Hughes was past 40, which is his second claim to fame. For he appears to have been the oldest man to have played in a test for the All Blacks.

Hughes was a tough, nuggety hooker in the old 2-3-2 scrum who played 23 matches for Southland between 1903 and 1908.

In 1904, 17 years before he met the Springboks, he had played for a combined Otago-Southland selection against the touring Great Britain side.

In that match he had played as a wing forward, a position he also occupied when he played for the South Island in 1907.

In 1921, in another illustration of his amazing playing span, he appeared for the North Island.

The length of his career is not the only reason for Hughes being of major interest to any rugby historian.

He was a principal, along with a fellow All Black Don Hamilton, in the unsavory saga of petty officialdom which marred both the Southland and eventually New Zealand unions in 1908-09.

He was the captain of the Britannia club, whose players along with those of Hamilton's Pirates, were suspended by the Southland union for refusing to play a match because of their objections to the weather and ground conditions.

When the clubs soon after played a benefit match under the rules of the new Northern union the players, including Hughes and Hamilton, were expelled from the game in early 1909 by the New Zealand union.

Unlike Hamilton, Hughes chose to switch his playing allegiances to league and in 1910 he played for the Kiwis in a test against a touring Great Britain side.

After he had served in World War I Hughes was reinstated to rugby and by then he was in Wellington as a member of the Poneke club. He was a Wellington representative when recalled to the All Blacks after a 13-year break for the series against the Springboks.

In 1920 Hughes was a participant in a remarkable Ranfurly Shield season when Wellington played defences at home as well as in their away matches. Hughes played in 10 of the shield matches and in 1921 he was also in the Wellington side which narrowly lost to the Springboks
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Lindsay Knight

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