March 8 - 1919 NZ Army thrash Yorkshire

The NZ Army team enjoyed a big win, 44 – 5 (12 tries to one) over Yorkshire in Bradford. It was by far their biggest win to date.

And in Portsmouth, on the same day, what amounted to the Army’s Reserve XV beat the Canadian Expeditionary Force 11 – 0. This may have been the more significant of the two results, as the match at Portsmouth was part of the King’s Cup tournament involving Services teams from British Empire countries and ultimately won by New Zealand.

Some have since claimed the King’s Cup tournament to be the first Rugby World Cup. That’s a bit of a stretch but perhaps there is some truth in the claim.

There were ten past or future All Blacks in the team fielded at Bradford, six back and four forwards. Those ten All Blacks dominated the scoring, Jack Kissick from Taranaki was the only non All Black, and the only forward, to score.