More Info →"Rugby Manawatu vs. Wellington"

This image was taken by a Manawatu Evening Standard photographer and is held in the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection, but appears not to have run in the newspaper itself.

The game was played on June 5th, 1961 (Queens Birthday weekend). The result was a win to Wellington by 27-19. In this photo, Don McCaskie (with Gerald Nesdale close at hand) has Ralph Caulton and Barry Cull looking to make a tackle. Other notable names for Manawatū on the day were Stu Freebairn, Jimmy Nichols, Kevin Wing, Murray Ball, Jimmy Taitoko, Nev Mears, Bill Hounsell and Sam Knight; and for Wellington, John Millar, Rod Heeps, Neil Wolfe, Ron Horsley, and Colin Currie. The referee was Frank Parkinson.

Wellington scored 7 tries (x 3 points ) from Millar (2), Wolfe, Cull, Currie, Bendle, and Heeps, with 3 conversions by Brian Frederikson, for their 27 points. For Manawatū there were tries by Wing and Freebairn, with 3 penalties by the fullback Cowan who later left the field with an injury, at which point Gary Hermansson took over the goal kicking and converted the two tries, to make up the 19 points. What was particularly special for Hermansson was that most of the Wellington players that day became his teammates some two seasons later when he started playing for the Wellington team.