War Blacks

War Blacks is the extraordinary story of New Zealand's national sport and The Great War, and the effect each had on the other. Published to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the founding of the NZ Rugby Football Union. Rugby and war have played major roles in the forging of a national New Zealand identity. This is the story of where both met for the first time, on the battlefields of Europe during World War I. War Blacks presents the story of all the men who were or would be All Blacks and their 1914-18 wartime service, wearing the single sliver fern of the All Blacks, and the double silver fern of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The most famous of those player-soldiers, Dave Gallaher, captain of the "Originals" All Blacks in 1905, was killed in 1917 at Passchendaele (2017 marks the centenary of his death). He was just one of 13 All Blacks killed in action during WWI. From that point on, the twin New Zealand histories of rugby and war have been...