As the 2015 Rugby World Cup progresses, Southland Express reporter Janette Gellatly delves into the history books to remember Billy Stead, the only Southlander in the 1905 Originals ''All Black'' team.
IN 1905, a team of rugby players left New Zealand shores under the banner of the New Zealand Football Team. By the time they returned, after touring Great Britain, France and North America, they were known as the All Blacks.
According to the last surviving player from that tour, the late Billy Wallace, the name came about because a London newspaper reported the New Zealanders played as if they were ''all backs'' and, apparently due to a typographical error, subsequent references called them ''All Blacks''.
It was the first New Zealand national rugby team to tour outside Australasia.
New Zealand's rugby reputation was established by this team, which scored 976 points in 35 matches, conceding only 59 points and losing one match.
One of the players was Invercargill five-eighth, John William Stead, known as Billy, who not only was the vice-captain and a Maori All Blacks player but went on to become a coach and international rugby selector.
He also wrote about the game, most notably the book The Complete Rugby Footballer a coaching manual that the 1905-06 captain Dave Gallaher, of Auckland, also contributed to and illustrated.
Stead contributed rugby columns to The Southland Times and NZ Truth for many decades.
His scrapbooks are now stored in Dunedin's Hocken Library.
Star Rugby Club (SRC) patron and life member Lindsay Bell (85), who joined the club in 1948, said he remembered hearing about Stead from his dad ''Wampy'' Bell, and reading about Stead in the club's 1961 jubilee and 1986 centennial books.
''Stead wrote about the first 25 years, then Wampy wrote about the next 25 years ... I wrote about the last 10 years for the centennial book,'' Bell said.
Bell's father also played for Star, became an All Black and toured with the Maori All Blacks.
''Dad would have joined [the club] in 1919. He was the next Star captain after Billy and was an All Black in 1923, as well as a vice-captain of the Maori All Blacks in 1926-27 when they toured overseas for nine months.''
Life member Alan Blackler (70) joined the club in 1957 as a schoolboy player and was captain from 1968 to 1971. He said once he and Bell were gone, the memories of past players would diminish.
Stead was the first son of John Stead and his wife, Florence (nee Small). John Stead was mayor of Invercargill from 1898 to 1899 and 1917 to 1921 and his name is memorialised in the Stead St Bridge, Stead St Wharf and the Stead St causeway, which connects Invercargill to Otatara.
Billy was born in Invercargill on September 18, 1877.
His Maori lineage came from his maternal great-grandmother Hine Kaitoki, of Ngati Kahungunu in the Hawkes Bay, who married John Farrell, from Yorkshire, about 1837.
Farrell, a ship's carpenter on a whaling boat had journeyed to the northern regions of New Zealand regularly for about four years before he ''jumped'' ship about 1828 because he believed it was unsafe and in need of repair, according to his obituary.
Stead was educated at Southland Boys' High School, where he played for the school's 1st XV in 1892-93.
When he was 11 he was allowed to carry the boots and cap of 1888 Maori player Joseph Warbrick from the Caledonian Ground to his boarding house, ''much to the envy of my mates'', Stead wrote in the SRC jubilee book.
Although he was renowned at first five-eighth, he played at halfback, second five-eighth and centre when needed.
Stead, who worked as a boot salesman, debuted inter-provincially in the Southland tour of 1896, aged 18.
He represented New Zealand from 1903 to 1908, playing 42 matches and seven tests and amassing 12 tries or 36 match points.
He was reputed to have played in only one losing All Blacks team during that time.
In his international debut (New Zealand v Great Britain in Wellington) in 1904 he became the first New Zealand captain in a home test match to lead his team to a win over the British team, according to The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby, by Ron Palenski, Rod Chester and Neville McMillan.
Playing for SRC, he represented Southland from 1896-1904 and 1906-08, captaining the teams in 1899, 1903, 1904, 1907 and 1908; the South Island team in 1903 and 1905, and New Zealand Maori in 1910.
In the Centennial History of The Southland Rugby Football Union, Stead was summed up by Auckland wing George Smith: ''There's a great little player, brains and pluck; he's full of them. Always does the right thing, always at the right time; a real little wonder.''
Although Stead decided to retire from playing in 1908, he was persuaded to come out of retirement by Maori rugby stalwart Ned Parata, who wanted his assistance for a benefit match in Dunedin.
This led to him touring as vice-captain with the New Zealand Maori team to Australia in 1910.
Although Stead finally retired from playing in 1910 at 33, he was the manager and coach of the New Zealand team for the first two tests of the 1921 Springbok tour, and also coached the New Zealand Maori side.
Stead continued to support SRC and his interest in rugby - writing, coaching, managing and contributing to the game he so loved.
He died in 1958, age 80, and is buried in Bluff, alongside his wife Emily Stead, who died before him.
• Janette Gellatly
John William (Billy) Stead
• Born Invercargill 1877; died Bluff 1958
• Position: Five-eighth
• Represented New Zealand: 1903-06; 42 matches, incl. 7 tests
• Points for New Zealand: 36 (12 tries)
• First-class record: Southland 1896-1904, 06-08 (Star); South Island 1903, 05; NZ Maori 1910; Otago-Southland 1904-05.
