Robert Wylie (Dick) McGregor

Robert Wylie "Dick" McGregor was the youngest and most gifted from a family of six brothers who about the turn of the 20th century were prominent players from Thames playing in the old Auckland union sub union of Goldfields.

Mainly a centre but adept at playing at fullback, McGregor was an Auckland representative in 28 matches between 1898 and 1904.

He made the national side (which at that time was not known as the All Blacks) in 1901 for a warmup match against Wellington and a one-off fixture against the touring New South Welshmen. In those years when international programmes were sparse McGregor was not in the national side again until 1903 when he went on the tour of Australia.

McGregor played in seven of the matches, once at fullback and on the other occasions at centre. An injury ruled him out for four consecutive matches in the tour's middle stages but he returned to play in the test against Australia, a landmark match because it has been recognised as the first full international played by New Zealand.

McGregor had a significant role for he scored a controversial try in New Zealand's 22-3 win, the Australians claiming that he had gone into touch at the start of his run and had not been called out. He scored four tries in all on the tour.

In 1904 McGregor got his second cap when he was a late replacement at fullback for Peter Gerrard, who was forced to withdraw because of a carbuncle just before kickoff in the international against Great Britain at Athletic Park. There have been many players lucky to have been All Blacks. Equally, there have also been some who have been unlucky for Gerrard joined a small group who never played for the country despite having been selected.

A nephew, A J "Dougie" McGregor, was also an All Black touring North America in 1913. But starting with Dougie the McGregor family then turned their passion and interest to the new league code.

Dougie became a Kiwi in 1915 and his nephew, Ron, as a centre became an outstanding league player and also played at international level for the Kiwis. Ron was also for many years chairman of the New Zealand Rugby League and was a popular and much respected administrator.

Much of "Dick" McGregor's later life was spent in ill health and a benefit match involving old representative players was staged on his behalf before he moved to Australia where he died in 1925.

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• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Mar 5 2018, 7:24:22 UTC