John Spencer (rugby, born 1880)
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| Full name | John Clarence Spencer Lock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Loose forward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Clarence Spencer (1880–1936) was a New Zealand rugby football player who represented New Zealand in both rugby union and rugby league. His brother, George, also was a dual-international.
Early years
Spencer attended Mt Cook School in Wellington.
Rugby union career
Spencer was only 17 when he first represented
Spencer missed most of the 1904 season as a result but returned in 1905 to play for Wellington against the departing Originals side. He then captained a combined Wellington-Wairarapa-Horowhenua selection to a 23–7 win over the touring Australian side and was made captain of the New Zealand side which played an official test against the tourists, despite the absence of the Originals squad.
Spencer, along with his brother George, made the All Blacks' tour of Australia in 1907, playing in only three of the eight matches. In the first Test match he became the first New Zealander to win a test cap as a replacement when he came of the bench to replace an injured John Colman.[4]
Rugby league career
In 1908 he and his brother George switched to league, being part of the first ever provincial match in the country when they both played for Wellington against Auckland on 24 August.[5]
In 1909 he toured Australia with the New Zealand rugby league side. He played in all three test matches.[6] The Spencers are the only brothers to have been both All Blacks and Kiwis.[4]
He played in Wellington's 1913 victory over Auckland.[7]
Later years
Spencer returned to rugby union in later years and became a club coach for Berhampore in Wellington.[4]
References
- ^ John Clarence Spencer Archived 5 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine goalserve.com
- ^ John Spencer scrum.com
- ^ "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Jack Spencer allblacks.com
- ISBN 0-473-03864-1
- ^ SPENCER, John Clarence 1909 – Kiwi #40 Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine nzleague.co.nz
- New Zealand Rugby Football League, 1988. p.p.151-159