Rugby: 'Originals' All Blacks jersey sells for $412,000

Dave Gallaher
Dave Gallaher
A shirt worn by New Zealand captain Dave Gallaher in a test match against Wales in 1905 was sold for £180,000.

The shirt, which had been expected to fetch £20,000-£40,000, went under the hammer at the Roger Jones & Co saleroom in Cardiff and was sold to a British-based bidder, the BBC reported.

The 1905 "Originals" tour was the first outside Australasia by a New Zealand rugby team and it was while in Britain that they were dubbed the "All Blacks" by the local media.

The match against Wales was the only one the tourists would lose, setting off a rivalry between the two rugby-mad nations that has lasted more than a century.

The Irish-born Gallaher, who was later to die in combat during the First World War, swapped the shirt with Wales captain Gwyn Nicholls, who gave it to an employee of his laundry company.

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