page_title: 1907–08 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain
section_title: Wales
hierarchical_section_title: 1907–08 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain / The Test Matches / Wales
caption_attribution_description: English: Dai 'Tarw' Jones, Welsh international rugby union player c 1905 in Wales jersey
context_page_description: The 1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain was made by a group of New Zealand rugby footballers who played matches in Australia, Ceylon, England and Wales between 1907 and 1908. Most of the matches were played under the rules of the Northern Union, a sport that is today known as rugby league. As such, the team were the immediate predecessors of the New Zealand national rugby league team. The tour had a large role in establishing rugby league in both Australia and New Zealand, and also gave birth to international rugby league. The tour party has come to be known as the professional All Blacks or All Golds, although at the time they were commonly referred to as the All Blacks—a named popularised by the New Zealand rugby union team that toured the Northern Hemisphere in 1905.
  The idea for a professional rugby tour was conceived by Albert Baskiville, a player from the Wellington region of New Zealand. Baskiville managed to recruit a significant number of international and provincial representatives for the team; including George Smith who toured with the All Blacks team of 1905. The team played their first match in Sydney in 1907 against New South Wales.
context_section_description: New Year's Day saw the touring party head to Wales for their first international match. Aberdare Athletic Ground was the venue of the first ever rugby league international on 1 January 1908, played between Wales and New Zealand. The New Zealand Rugby League later recognised this match as New Zealands first ever test match. Aberdare had been chosen for the venue as it could hold a larger capacity than Merthyr, in the end 20,000 Welshmen turned up. The Welsh side contained a former Welsh amateur international as well as several players who had been playing in the Northern Union for years.
  WALES: Chick Jenkins, Dai Thomas, Tom Llewellyn, Bert Jenkins, Llewellyn Treharne, David Beynon, Johnny Thomas, Dai Jones, David Davies, Oliver Burgham, George W. Thomas, Dai Rees, Howell de Francis.
  NEW ZEALAND: Hubert Turtill, Dally Messenger, Harold Rowe, Arthur Kelly, William Wynyard, Edgar Wrigley, Richard Wynyard, Massa Johnston, William Mackrell, Dan Gilchrist, Charles Pearce, Angry Cross, Hercules Wright (c).
  New Zealand led the match 8–3 at halftime but the Welsh came back and Dai Jones scored a try with only minutes to go that put the Welsh 9–8 in front. Dick Wynyard then dropped a pass in front of the try line and the Welsh won the first international rugby league match.
  The day after the game the touring party left Wales, heading back to Kingston upon Hull for their second visit, this time to play the Hull Kingston Rovers. The All Blacks somewhat rebounded, winning 6–3 in a tightly fought contest. Reaching the business end of the tour, the New Zealanders next headed north to play the representative Cumberland side. Here they were defeated 21–9 after resting several key players for the international against England.
caption: Dai Jones scored the winning try for Wales in the first match of international rugby league
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