PREMIER DIVISION 1 MEN'S TROPHIES

The Gallaher Shield is awarded to the championship winner of the Premier competition.

It is also one of the oldest championship trophies in the country, having been first awarded in 1922, and apart from 2020, when Covid wrecked the season, it has found a home in every year since. It was contested for the 100th time in 2022 when, in a fitting final, one of the most frequent winners (Ponsonby) squared off against one of the infrequent victors (Manukau Rovers) in a match that was decided by the last kick of the season.

Gallaher helped Ponsonby win the Auckland championship in 1897 – an unlikely triumph, as the club wasn’t particularly strong at the time – and remained a regular in the rep side until 1900. His military interest was roused by what we know as the Boer War in South Africa; he signed on with the 6th Contingent and sailed late in the year.

After his service in the war, he re-joined Ponsonby in 1903, was named captain immediately and soon his form meant he was impossible to leave out of the All Black side that was to tour Australia. There he played the majority of matches, having settled at wing forward after previously being a hooker in the old two-fronted scrum, and he played the one test on tour, New Zealand’s first ever.

As well as leading the side, Gallaher did much of the forward coaching in tandem with Bill Cunningham and the tourists brought several novel features to their game. In 1905 - 1906, New Zealand went on a European tour. The side was winning continuously, except for the famous Wales test, lost 0-3, and returned home with a scarcely believable record of 34 wins in 35 matches, 976 points (243 tries) to 59, and a trail of bewildered rugger men in the UK trying to account for this blitz. Some of the answers were provided by the captain and vice-captain. Late in the tour, the pair combined to produce a textbook, The Complete Rugby Footballer. In it the pair described differences in the game as played in New Zealand, differences in approach and differences in required skills.

He retired after an exceptionally enthusiastic welcome home, when around 10,000 people descended on the Auckland waterfront and Seddon was the main speaker greeting the mighty team and its outstanding skipper. Soon he was coaching at Ponsonby, then selecting for Auckland. In 1909 he had to turn out in one match when injuries had reduced a touring party to 14 passably fit players, but that was it for active participation. He was a New Zealand selector for most of the time before World War I; every team under his control, whether Ponsonby, Auckland or New Zealand, fashioned imposing records.

Although above the age of call-up, Gallaher enlisted to fight during WWI after two brothers had been killed in Europe. During the early stages of the Battle of Passchendaele, he received fatal wounds and died on 4 October 1917. Even in skinny wartime papers, his death received widespread recognition both here and in the UK.

Had he been spared by war, any position in New Zealand rugby, up to and including the Presidency of the Union, could have been his. But it is doubtful that he would ever have received the accolades that he does now. And it is highly unlikely that Auckland club players would be contesting the much-coveted Gallaher Shield every season.

The Alan McEvoy Memorial Shield is awarded to the top team at the end of the premier round robin.

The Alan McEvoy Trophy was first contested in 1954, a few months after McEvoy, a 26-year-old Grammar prop who was an Auckland regular and who had trialed for the 1953 All Blacks, had drowned near Dargaville in a swimming accident. Although his isn’t a well-known name now, he was regarded as one of the better young props around the country and may have moved up in the mid-50s had things played out differently. McEvoy played 29 matches for Auckland A and was a regular at the time of his death. He had also appeared in half a dozen first-class matches for the B team, played for North Island and a New Zealand XV in 1952 as well as playing trials in 1953.

The Trophy was presented by two fellow Auckland players, Peter Bevin and Hallard ‘Snow’ White. White was the other front-row bookend of the time and Bevin a Grammar clubmate and lock, so tightness among the tight five is very evident.

From its inception the Alan McEvoy Trophy has been the prize for the first-round winner. In one way it may be considered harder than the Gallaher Shield to win, as a full round of 13-15 matches has been the norm, so every team is met, but the Gallaher is played among the top handful at a time when everyone has run into form. For many years the double was a rare feat, only achieved outright by three teams until 1976, but since then Ponsonby has made it almost commonplace. It’s not that, and never will be; winning either is tough but winning both requires a particularly good team to have a very good season​​​​​​​

This is the challenge cup for the premier grade. This is played for at all home games of the team that holds the cup.

The Sir Fred Allen Challenge Cup is one of a number of similar trophies which have been presented in recent times and named in commemoration of some of Auckland’s finest players. Each grade now has such a prize, which is defended each time the holder plays a home match - similar to the Ranfurly Shield.

Allen was the first to have such a trophy named after him, and this commemorates one of Auckland’s most decorated rugby men.

Probably best remembered as a superb coach, Fred Allen was also an exceptional player who lost many of his best years to World War II. He was just arriving on the provincial scene in 1939, aged only 19, and had already established himself at first-five for Canterbury by the time Adolph Hitler tried to establish himself in Poland. Soon called to military service, as was the case with almost every young man of that time, Allen saw service overseas with both the Air Force and the Army. One of thousands to have a lucky escape from death, he made it through the war, played rugby when he could and was quickly tagged as a ‘must-have’ player for the 2nd NZEF Kiwis, who were to make an extensive British and European tour after the fighting stopped.

Named captain of the 1946 All Blacks for the home series with Australia, Allen began a 21-match international career during which he led New Zealand in every game, a record number of appearances for a player who was never one of the other ranks.

Allen himself turned to coaching after ceremonially kicking his boots into the Indian Ocean on the way home, and by 1957 was in charge of Auckland. The next three years saw his charges post spotty records and he probably would have been given the heave-ho except Auckland claimed the Ranfurly Shield off Southland at the end of 1959, so Allen was able to remain as coach until such time as the Shield was lost. Successful defences piled up over four seasons. The 25th defence, which set a new record, was a draw against Hawke’s Bay in 1963, and an average Wellington outfit took the Shield in the following challenge. As planned, Allen then stepped aside from the Auckland post and set his sights on the national role.

He was a great believer in the power of the mind and prepared his teams to believe anything was possible. In demand for coaching clinics and guest speaking roles, he became an elder statesman on the side. He was made a Life Member of the Auckland RFU in 1981, of the New Zealand RFU in 2006, won the Steinlager Salver for lifetime contribution to rugby in 2002, was made OBE for services to rugby in 1991 and finally knighted in 2010, the first New Zealander ever to gain that recognition for ‘services to rugby’ without any community involvement also being on his citation. Sir Fred Allen died in 2012, aged 92, after a remarkable rugby life.

The Portola Trophy (is currently awarded to the ninth-placed team in Senior A after the knockout process is finished - meaning the winner of the third section.

The name is interesting: the Portola Festival is a music festival in San Francisco which began in 1909, so exactly how the name got on a trophy for Auckland club rugby has been lost in the mists of time. The ARFU Annual Report does not mention anything about the new trophy (to give its full original name, the Portola Festival Trophy), and neither do the 85th and 100th Jubilee books. When it was introduced in 1955, it coincided with a revamp of the Senior championship, with a new prize needed to fill the space created by the Pagni Cup being relocated to Second Grade.

Gaspar de Portola, the man whose name is remembered in a number of ways in California, including the festival, was allegedly the first white man to see the San Francisco Bay, although he did not name it. Exactly what he had to do with rugby remains unclear.

From its donation, the trophy has always been a second-tier one (i.e. never at stake at the top end of the Senior Competition, or one of the old trophies awarded in lower grades which had been in place for years), but it fills a niche that is appreciated by teams outside the top echelon.

The Jubilee Trophy is currently awarded to the winner of the second section in Men’s Premier after the knockout stages, which means it goes to the club that finishes fifth overall on the season.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

It sounds as if it was presented to mark some special occasion – what is its history?

As the name suggests, the Jubilee Trophy was presented on an anniversary of the Union’s founding - in this case, the 50th Jubilee, in 1933. It was initially allocated to the post-Gallaher Shield season knockout competition, open to all senior clubs.

That was quite a big thing in the inter-war period, as the Union was always trying to find some form of meaningful competition for the rank-and-file player once the Gallaher Shield was completed and in-between the representative season.

However, the post-season competitions lost shape as the Senior grade expanded; by 1939 there were 16 teams, in two divisions, and that number only grew after WWII was over until it reached what was a settled number (14 in Senior A, 14 in Senior B and a floating number in Senior C, when that grade was contested), by the end of the 1960s.

Thus the Jubilee Trophy became something of a floating award after 1938, variously going to the winner of a challenge match with the winner of the Gallaher Shield (challenger to be selected by the Auckland RFU) in 1939-49; most points scored in the second round when the top grade played two full rounds (1950-51); the Senior A first round winner for one year, 1953, after which the Alan McEvoy was awarded and took its place; a match between the Senior A first and second round winners in 1954; the prize for a subsidiary Senior competition in 1957-58; the winner of Senior A, second section (after the Alan McEvoy Trophy had been decided) in 1960-64; the Senior B  second round winner in 1975-81 and then the second section of Senior A from 1982, which is the same position it holds today. In amongst all that it was not awarded in 1952-55-56-59.

As can be seen, it has, for 90 years now, been regarded as one of the premier trophies available to Auckland clubs but exactly how it should be decided was often a victim of changing club structures as the search went on for an ideal season format. It now seems to be settled in its own niche, which is fitting for a trophy presented to mark a special occasion and one which is nearing its own Centenary.