page_title: 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team
section_title: Impact and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team / Impact and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Thomas Ellison (c. 1867-1904), a member of the 1888-89 New Zealand Native Football team, and captain of the New Zealand national rugby union team on their 1893 tour of Australia.
context_page_description: The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand rugby union team that toured Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889. It mostly comprised players of Māori ancestry, but also included some Pākehā. A wholly private endeavour, the tour was not under the auspices of any official rugby authority; it was organised by New Zealand international player Joseph Warbrick, promoted by public servant Thomas Eyton, and managed by James Scott, a publican. The Natives were the first New Zealand team to perform a haka, and also the first to wear all black. They played 107 rugby matches during the tour, as well as a small number of Victorian Rules football and association football matches in Australia. Having made a significant impact on the development of New Zealand rugby, the Natives were inducted into the International Rugby Board Hall of Fame in 2008.
  After a preliminary tour of New Zealand in 1888, the side travelled to England via Melbourne and Suez. The Māori players initially provoked curiosity due to their race, but the British press subsequently expressed some surprise that the side was not as "Māori" as they had expected.
context_section_description: The tour had a significant impact on the development of rugby within New Zealand. It was the first tour of the British Isles by a team from the Southern Hemisphere, and the longest in the history of the sport. By the time the Natives returned to New Zealand, they had developed into a side superior to any in the country, and introduced a number of tactical innovations. Seventeen of the 26 players went on to play provincially in New Zealand, and two, Ellison and David Gage, subsequently captained New Zealand.
  The tour also prompted the eventual formation of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU, later renamed New Zealand Rugby Union) in 1892; one reason for its formation was to ensure greater control over any future touring New Zealand sides. The NZRFU sent an officially sanctioned New Zealand team, captained by Ellison, to tour Australia in 1893. The Natives are also the forefathers of the Māori All Blacks, a representative team organised by the NZRFU, that first played in 1910. The Native team, along with Joe Warbrick, was inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame in 2008 – the seventh inductee.
caption: Thomas Ellison, who played 83 of the sides' 107 matches, went on to captain the first official New Zealand side in 1893.
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