1911 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia


The 1911 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia was a tour by the New Zealand national rugby league team. It was the first tour organised by the New Zealand Rugby League.
The trip earned the NZRL £3000 profit, thanks to £4000 from gate takings. The tour served as a selection for the 1911-12 Australasian tour of Great Britain and resulted in the selection of George A. Gillett, Arthur Francis, Charlie Savory and Frank Woodward on that tour.

Squad

The touring party included backs; Ernie Asher, Ernie Buckland, Sid Kean, Ronald MacDonald, Frank Morse, Roy Siddells, George Smith, Reg Sprague, Barney Winder, Frank Woodward, forwards; Charles Dunning, Tom Cotterill, Bert Feary, Arthur Francis, Dave Mason, Walter Milne, Jim Rukutai, Charles Savory, Alex Stanaway and utilities; George A. Gillett and George Seagar.
Jim Gilmour and former All Black Billy Mitchell joined the team while in Australia. Mitchell had been bought over to Australia to play in the Queensland Rugby League competition. Gilmour played for Queensland before joining the New Zealand side.
The team was managed by Ted Phelan of Auckland.

Fixtures

Before the tour New Zealand defeated Auckland 16-14 at the Takapuna Racecourse.
They lost three matches to New South Wales, defeated Newcastle by 21-20, defeated Queensland two games to one and defeated Hunter River by 40-8.
DateOpponentVenueResultScoreAttendanceReport
New South WalesSydney Cricket Ground, SydneyLoss10-3546,000-
New South WalesSydneyLoss10-26-
NewcastleNewcastleWin21-20-
QueenslandBrisbane Cricket Ground, BrisbaneWin24-13-
QueenslandBrisbaneLoss13-23-
QueenslandBrisbaneWin18-14-
Hunter riverNewcastleWin40-8-
New South WalesSydneyLoss7-39-

The first match against New South Wales was the first match of rugby league held at the Sydney Cricket Ground and netted the New South Wales Rugby League a record gate receipts of £2551 and 10 shillings.