The Invincibles (rugby union)

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All Sports Rugby 1924, cover of the English sports magazine with George Nepia from the New Zealand Invincibles

The Invincibles was a nickname given to the 1924-25 New Zealand rugby union team which toured the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Canada. The team was captained by Cliff Porter, and numbered among its top players George Nepia and brothers Cyril and Maurice Brownlie.

Between September 1924 and February 1925, the team played 32 games including four test matches, one each against Ireland, England, Wales, and France. They won all 32 games, scoring 838 points and only having 116 points scored against them.

[edit] Results

(test matches listed in bold)

vs Devonshire 11-0

vs Cornwall 29-0

vs Somersetshire 6-0

vs Gloucestershire 6-0

vs Swansea Club 39-3

vs Newport Club 13-10

vs Leicester Club 27-0

vs North Midlands 40-3

vs Cheshire 18-5

vs Durham County 43-7

vs Yorkshire 42-4

vs Lancashire 23-0

vs Cumberland 41-0

vs Ireland 6-0

vs Ulster 28-6

vs Northumberland 27-4

vs Cambridge University 5-0

vs London Counties 31-6

vs Oxford University 33-15

vs Cardiff Club 16-8

vs Wales 19-0

vs Llanelli Club 8-3

vs East Midlands 31-7

vs Warwickshire 20-0

vs Combined Services 25-3

vs Hampshire 22-0

vs London Counties 28-3

vs England 17-11

vs Selection Francais 37-8

vs France 30-6

vs Vancouver 49-0

vs Victoria (Canada) 68-4

[edit] The squad

Ces Badeley	Handley Brown	Cyril Brownlie
Maurice Brownlie	Bert Cooke	Leslie Cupples
Bill Dalley	Quentin Donald	Gus Hart
Ian Harvey	Bill Irvine	Fred Lucas
Brian McCleary	Neil McGregor	Read Masters
Jimmy Mill	Abe Munro	George Nepia
Mark Nicholls	Lui Paewai	Jim Parker
Cliff Porter	Jock Richardson	Alan Robilliard
Jack Steel	Ron Stewart	Snowy Svenson
Alf West	Son White

Cliff Porter was tour captain, but played only 17 of the 30 games due to injury, including just one test (against France). During the remaining games, tour vice-captain Jock Richardson took over the captaincy.