Skip to main content

Story: The New Zealanders

Rugby triumphs and national pride

Image
Rugby triumphs and national pride

The sense of New Zealanders as physically superior men was reinforced by the success of the All Blacks rugby tour of Britain in 1905–6. As this popular postcard shows, the All Blacks were hugely successful in England (although less so in Wales, where they lost the test), and observers began to suggest that this proved British people were made better in the colonies. This 1905 postcard was drawn by Trevor Lloyd.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-A-Rugby-1905-1

by Trevor Lloyd

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, The New Zealanders – A man’s country, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/1963/rugby-triumphs-and-national-pride (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 May 2015.