1922 Auckland Rugby League season
The 1922 Auckland Rugby League was the 14th in its history. There were 68 teams playing across the various grades. City Rovers won the first grade championship for the 5th time, with Ponsonby winning the Roope Rooster for the 2nd time. City Rovers also defended the Challenge Shield, warding off efforts from Petone, Tongariro, and Huntly to lift it from them. Bill Davidson set a record for points scored in an Auckland club rugby league season with 116 for City Rovers. He and his brothers Ben and George between them scored 186 of City Rover's 339 points which was also a competition record for a team in a single season. City scored a further 19 points in the Roope Rooster competition and 85 points in their 3 Challenge Shield matches for 443 points in all official games.
It was an incredibly busy year for the Auckland representative team. They played more matches than some club teams had played in earlier seasons with ten matches in total. There was also an Auckland Provincial team match against New South Wales, and one Auckland B fixture with the team making the trip down to Cambridge to play the local side. Bill Davidson also led the representative team in scoring with 37 points.
Preceded by 1921 |
14th Auckland Rugby League season 1922 |
Succeeded by 1923 |
First Grade Championship
Final Standings
First Grade FixturesRound 1
Round 2In the match between Athletic and Ponsonby Eric Grey had a highly unusual collection of points after he scored a try, and kicked a conversion, a penalty, a goal from a mark, and a drop goal.
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Roope Rooster Knockout CompetitionRound 1
Semi Finals
Final
Top Try Scorers and Point ScorersThese lists include tries and points scored in the First Grade competition and the Roope Rooster competition only. Ben Davidson set a record for the number of points scored by a single player in a season. While earlier seasons were often incomplete with some points unattributed his 116 points was well ahead of the previous highest of 78 by Karl Ifwersen in the 1915 season. P Gallagher of Marist was the top try scorer with 15.
Challenge Shield MatchesCity Rovers came into the season as holders of the trophy after defeating Ponsonby United the previous season. The shield had taken the place of the Thacker Shield which had been taken from Ponsonby and returned to the Canterbury Rugby League after a dispute over who was eligible to compete for it. City went on to defend the shield 3 times during the season defeating Petone, Tongariro, and Huntly. City v Petone
City v TongariroThe Tongariro team was “made up of Maori players drawn from the scattered settlements of the King Country” according to the New Zealand Herald match report, though were missing some of their best players. The Auckland Star reported that many of their players were graduates of Te Aute College.
City v HuntlyHuntly came to Auckland as the South Auckland (Waikato) champions and were expected to provide a stern test to City however after a competitive first half they fell away badly in the second half with City ending up running in 11 tries.
Lower GradesLower Grade ClubsThere were 6 lower grades in 1922 if you include the Sixth Grade which was split into an A and B grade. Grades were made of the following teams with the winning team in bold:
Representative SeasonIt was an extremely busy season for the Auckland representative side. They played ten matches in total, while many members of the side also played for the Auckland Provincial team, and an Auckland B team also played a match in Cambridge. Of the ten matches they lost 6 and won 4. The first representative fixture of the season was played on 20 May between Auckland and the Maori team which was preparing to visit Australia and play a series of matches. There were 7,000 in attendance and gate receipts totaled £297 2s 6d. On 19 June the touring Australian Universities Rugby League team arrived in Auckland on board the ‘Manuka’. They were welcomed at a function at the Auckland Town Hall by a large assembly of Auckland politicians including the Mayor Mr. J.H. Gunson, and representatives of Auckland Rugby League and the New Zealand League Council.[68] The Australians acquitted themselves well by beating Auckland twice, and losing to them once and a loss to the South Waikato team in Hamilton. The games were played over the space of just 8 days. After the NZ Māori team returned from their tour of Australia seven members of their team were transferred to the Fire Brigade Club, though only four played in their round 9 match (Pitman, Gardner, Yeats and Te Whata). History was made on 2 September when Auckland was defeated for the first time in a Northern Union Challenge Cup match. They had held the Cup for over a decade, but had to hand it over when they were defeated by South Auckland 21 to 20 on Carlaw Park in front of a large crowd. On 16 September they met the touring New South Wales team at the Auckland Domain and in front of a huge crowd of 20,000 they went down in a “tremendously fast and exciting game” by 45 points to 25.[69] Auckland v New Zealand Maori
Auckland v Australian UniversitiesThe Australian University team was made up of players from Sydney University and Brisbane University.
Auckland v Australian Universities
Auckland v Australian Universities
Auckland v Cambridge
Auckland v Hawkes Bay (Northern Union Challenge Cup)
Cambridge v Auckland B
Auckland v South Auckland (Northern Union Challenge Cup)
Auckland v New South WalesAuckland played the touring New South Wales team in front of 20,000 spectators at the Auckland Domain but was heavily defeated with Australian legend Frank Burge running in 5 tries.
Auckland Province v New South WalesA few days after the match with New South Wales an Auckland provincial team took on the touring side. The Auckland team was largely made up of Auckland club players but also included Bill Te Whata who had played in Australia for the New Zealand Māori side, and a handful of others from the Waikato. They lost a tight match by 21 points to 20. Frank Burge was ordered off for disputing Wilson's try late in the match.
South Auckland v Auckland (Northern Union Challenge Cup)
Bay of Plenty v Auckland
Auckland Representative Matches Played and Scorers
References
External links |