One of the most erudite men to have ever played for the All Blacks, Geoff Alley was one of a notable Canterbury family, the best known of whom was Rewi who won fame for his educational work in China.

Besides his rugby ability Geoff Alley was a leading literary figure and in 1964, after years working in the library service, became New Zealand's first National Librarian. His writing skills saw him publish a book on the British team's tour of New Zealand in 1930 and he also contributed a chapter, mainly on the scrummaging problems the team had encountered, in the book written by Mark Nicholls on the All Blacks' 1928 tour of South Africa.

Alley was a big man for his times at 1.90m and around 100kgs and was the equivalent of a lock in the old 2-3-2, diamond scrum formation. He excelled at rugby in the first XVs of Christchurch Boys High School and became a representative player in his early 20s during a farming stint in Southland.

He played nine matches for Southland in 1925 and after being one of the South's best forwards in the 1926 interisland match won selection for the All Blacks' tour of Australia, in which he made four appearances.

In Canterbury in the 1927 season, Alley played for his home province, for New Zealand Universities, again for the South Island and in two trial matches before winning a place in the All Black team to tour South Africa in 1928.

Alley's size and strength made him an asset on the tour even if he was far from being the side's most flamboyant player. Because of injuries to Cyril Brownlie and Ian Harvey he carried a heavy work load. He played in 10 consecutive matches at one stage and made 15 appearances in all, including the first three tests.

After the tour Alley played in only one first class match, but it was a major occasion.

He reappeared in 1930 in the Canterbury team for its match against the touring Great Britain side and shared in the province's 14-8 upset win, one of the three matches outside the tests which the tourists lost.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

FULL NAME

Geoffrey Thomas Alley

BORN

Wednesday, 4 February 1903 in Amberly

DIED

Thursday, 25 September 1986 in Upper Hutt

PHYSICAL

1.90m, 100kg

POSITION

Lock

LAST SCHOOL

Christchurch Boys' High

RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from)

Lumsden

PROVINCES

Southland, Canterbury

ALL BLACK DEBUT

Wednesday, 30 June 1926
v Wellington at Wellington
aged 23 years, 146 days

INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Saturday, 30 June 1928
v South Africa at Durban
aged 25 years, 147 days

LAST TEST

Saturday, 18 August 1928
v South Africa at Port Elizabeth
aged 25 years, 196 days

ALL BLACK TESTS

3 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK GAMES

16 (0 as Captain)

TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES

19 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK TEST POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK GAME POINTS

3pts (1t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)

TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS

3pts (1t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)

ALL BLACK NUMBER

327

The All Black Games that Alley played.
(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced

Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card

1926

 30 Jun vs Wellington at Wellington 14-21 (+) 

 24 Jul vs Victoria at Melbourne 58-15  

 29 Jul vs A N.S.W. XV at Sydney 28-21  

 4 Aug vs Auckland at Auckland 11-6  

1928

 2 Jun vs Cape Town Clubs at Cape Town 3-7  

 13 Jun vs Orange Free State at Kroonstad 20-0  

 16 Jun vs Transvaal at Johannesburg 5-0  

 20 Jun vs Western Transvaal at Potchefstroom 19-8  

 23 Jun vs Natal at Pietermaritzburg 31-3  

 30 Jun vs South Africa at Durban 0-17  

 7 Jul vs Northern Provinces at Kimberley 18-18  

 14 Jul vs Rhodesia at Bulawayo 44-8  

 21 Jul vs South Africa at Johannesburg 7-6  

 25 Jul vs Pretoria Clubs at Pretoria 13-6  

 28 Jul vs Orange Free State at Bloemfontein 15-11  

 4 Aug vs Border at East London 22-3  

 18 Aug vs South Africa at Port Elizabeth 6-11  

 25 Aug vs Western Province at Cape Town 3-10  

 29 Sep vs Victoria at Melbourne 58-9  

Points scored for the All Blacks

t

c

p

dg

pts

vs Western Transvaal, 20 Jun 1928

1

-

-

-

3

Totals

1

0

0

0

3

Test Record by Nation

P

W

D

L

t

c

p

dg

pts

South Africa

3

1

-

2

-

-

-

-

-

Totals

3

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

0