WILSON HALL – KIWI #172

Waikato product Wilson Hall represented New Zealand from Auckland’s Athletic and Canterbury’s Hornby clubs, before enjoying a lengthy career in England with Hull and Castleford.

Playing for Ngaruawahia in Waikato, the diminutive Māori half transferred to Auckland and toured Australia with the New Zealand team in 1925. Hall made a tryscoring debut in a win over Newcastle and featured in two of the marquee fixtures against NSW and one against Queensland. He played for New Zealand in the first match against the famed Queensland tourists in Auckland later that season.

Hall, who had played for North in the inaugural interisland match in 1925, moved to Canterbury the following season to work at the Islington freezing works (alongside another ex-Waikato man, Len Mason) and represented South in the 1926 game. Hall and Mason were chosen for New Zealand’s tour of Britain from championship-winning Hornby.

Hall was a standout and a stalwart on the troubled tour, breaking his arm against Huddersfield – in what was his seventh consecutive appearance – before gamely returning to play New Zealand’s last nine matches. He was at halfback for the first and third Tests against England.

Multiple English clubs vied for his services and he eventually agreed to join Hull in late-1927. Following 44 games in two seasons for the Humberside outfit, he linked with Castleford for a 175-game tenure (punctuated by a one-game stint at Dewsbury) before hanging up the boots in 1934.

Hall was a historical curiosity due to being frequently listed with the surname Wilson-Hall and given the initial A during his eventful career.

WILSON HALL
NEW ZEALAND (1925-27)
2 Tests – 0 points
-1925 New Zealand tour of Australia
-1926-27 New Zealand tour of Britain