1912 Auckland Rugby League season
The 1912 Auckland Rugby League season was the third full club season in Auckland. The season commenced on 11 May, with the start of the First Grade competition.
It saw six teams competing for the First Grade title after the addition of the Manukau Rovers who were formed after a meeting in Onehunga in March. There were other clubs which had formed but only competed in the lower grades. These were Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers, Ellerslie Wanderers, Hobsonville Pirates, and Otahuhu. The season commenced on 11 May with the start of the first grade competition.
Newton Rangers secured their first Auckland first grade club title after they defeated Ponsonby United in the penultimate round at Eden Park on 13 July.
Manukau Magpies are Born
held a meeting in Onehunga in March. They decided to field a senior team and two junior teams. James Rukutai was their captain and after his death in 1940 the trophy for the minor premiers was named after him. Teams still play for it today.Myers Cup (First Grade Championship)
Thirty regular season matches were played with nearly all fixtures being played at Eden Park. With the Devonport Domain being used for four North Shore Albions home matches, and one match at Ellerslie.Final Standings
Results
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Eden only had nine players for their match with North Shore and after trailing by 33 points to 0 they threw in the proverbial towel and the match ended at that point. No point scorers or match description was published in the NZ Herald or Auckland Star. In the match between Ponsonby and Newton Charles Savory was ordered from the field for “rough and tumble” play just before fulltime and a match his side won by 16 to 6. He had earlier scored 2 tries and kicked a conversion.Round 5
Round 6
The code showed that it was still struggling in its infancy to always organise itself properly with City only managing to field 12 players and the Auckland Star noted in its match report that several players “wore wrongly coloured uniforms”, and that the match was 45 minutes late kicking off. Also noticeable was the Newton and Eden result where Newton ran in 12 tries but only managed to convert one of them. Goal kicking in general was relatively poor and was shared amongst the teams with it not uncommon to see 3 or 4 players used.Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Top scorers
There were multiple instances of points being unattributed. As such the following try scoring and point scoring lists are incomplete. Games and/or teams with unattributed points are as follows: North Shore try and penalty v Manukau, North Shore 33 points v Eden, Manukau try v North Shore, Newton try v Manukau, Newton 2 tries v Manukau, Eden 25 points v City, City 5 points v Eden. This amounts to 84 points unattributed out of 773 points scored in total.Lower Grades and Exhibition Matches
Grades were made of the following teams with the winning team in bold:- Second Grade: City, Ellerslie, Hobsonville, Newton, Northcote, Ponsonby
- Third Grade: City, Eden, Manukau, North Shore, Northcote, Ponsonby A, Ponsonby B
Exhibition Match
Representative Season
The team to play Thames-Goldfields to begin the season was a considerably weakened one. Several players named originally in the NZ Herald did not actually make the trip and the match day line up as reported in the Thames News was a very different one with many players on debut for Auckland.Auckland v Thames-Goldfields
Auckland v New Zealand
The New Zealand team featured a previously unlisted played named “Riley” which most likely would have been Syd Riley who was playing club football in Auckland for Ponsonby at the time and was listed to play for Auckland in the match. The name Riley does not appear on any New Zealand cap lists meaning that it may well have been a last minute switch.Auckland v Hawke’s Bay (Northern Union Cup)
The Auckland team featured Harold Hayward who was from the Thames district which was affiliated to Auckland Rugby League. He had been a member of the combined Thames-Goldfields team which had played Auckland earlier in the season.Auckland v Rotorua
On 3 August Auckland played Rotorua in Rotorua and they also played Lower Waikato at Eden Park. The later match was listed in some quarters as a B team though it was filled with New Zealand internationals.Auckland v Lower Waikato
Auckland v Wellington (Northern Union Cup)
Due to the Rotorua and Thames leagues being affiliated with the Auckland Rugby League the Auckland team contained two players from each sub league. Namely Riki Papakura and Rukingi Reke from Rotorua and Harold Hayward and his brother Morgan Hayward from Thames.Auckland v Waikato
Auckland v New Zealand Māori
Auckland v New South Wales
Auckland won their first victory over an ‘international’ side when they defeated New South Wales by 10 points to 3. The game was marred by several acts of violence with the visiting side said to be at fault repeatedly. Near the end of the match Sid Deane was sent off for punching Billy Curran.Auckland v New South Wales
New South Wales reversed their earlier loss with a comprehensive win over a disappointing Auckland effort. Charles Dunning and Bob Mitchell who had both been named to play originally were forced to withdraw due to illness and were replaced by Harry Fricker and Jim Griffin.Auckland Representative Matches Played and Scorers
The following list is complete in terms of points scored however the match with Rotorua did not have team lists published with only the three point scorers from the match known.| Rank | Name | Club | Played | Tries | Con | Pen | Points |
| 1 | Arthur Hardgrave | Manukau Rovers | 7 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 25 |
| 2 | Bob Mitchell | City Rovers | 7 | 7 | - | - | 21 |
| 3 | George Seagar | North Shore Albions | 6 | 3 | 4 | - | 17 |
| 4 | Jim Rukutai | Manukau Rovers | 6 | 4 | 2 | - | 16 |
| 5 | Billy Curran | Newton Rangers | 6 | 3 | 1 | - | 11 |
| 6 | Charles Dunning | Ponsonby United | 5 | 1 | - | 2 | 7 |
| 7 | Arthur Francis | Newton Rangers | 1 | - | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 | Stan Weston | North Shore Albions | 6 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 7 | D Healy | Newton Rangers | 3 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 7 | Harry Fricker | Ponsonby United | 4 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 7 | Alan Blakey | Newton Rangers | 6 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 7 | Rukingi Reke | Rotorua | 4 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 7 | Young | ? | 1 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 14 | Charles Webb | Ponsonby United | 6 | 1 | 1 | - | 5 |
| 15 | C Clark | North Shore Albions | 1 | - | 2 | - | 4 |
| 16 | Malcolm | Newton Rangers | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Arthur Carlaw | Ponsonby United | 2 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Don Kenealy | Eden Ramblers | 4 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Alfred Jackson | North Shore Albions | 3 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Harold Hayward | Thames | 5 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Tobin | Newton Rangers | 3 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | Cross | Newton Rangers | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 16 | R Roope | Ponsonby United | 4 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 24 | Alex Stanaway | City Rovers | 1 | - | - | 1 | 2 |
| 24 | Jim Griffin | North Shore Albions | 3 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| 26 | Morgan Hayward | Thames | 6 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Harry Childs | City Rovers | 3 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Ernie Asher | City Rovers | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | George Smith | ? | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Frazer | ? | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | George Harrison | North Shore Albions | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Warner | City Rovers | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | McPherson | Ponsonby United | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Tom Avery | City Rovers | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Capill | Thames | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | G Lambert | Ponsonby United | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Biggs | Eden Ramblers | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Charters | Ponsonby United | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Charles Brockliss | Newton Rangers | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | Riki Papakura | Rotorua | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | George Gillett | Newton Rangers | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 26 | G Western | ? | 1 | - | - | - | - |