The All Golds
The Rebellious Tour that Changed Rugby Forever.
Based on the extraordinary true story of the controversial 1907–08 professional All Blacks tour to Australia and England.
When Albert Baskerville, a young Wellington postal clerk, dared to challenge rugby's powerful establishment, he set in motion one of the most audacious sporting revolutions of the twentieth century.
Branded traitors and derided as the "All Golds," a determined band of former All Blacks and New Zealand's finest provincial players—labourers, clerks, tailors and plumbers—risked everything to pursue a dream.
The All Golds is a remarkable true story that lends itself naturally to film and television adaptation. It is a tale of pioneers who dared to defy convention and, in doing so, changed the game forever.
A Film Treatment is available on request.
All enquiries to allgolds1907@aol.com
The Story Behind The All Golds
In 1907, it did not feel like history was being made. It felt like an argument about rugby.
A disagreement over principle. A handful of players speaking too plainly, and an establishment determined to protect tradition at all costs.
No one spoke of legacy. No one imagined that oceans would be crossed, sporting codes transformed, or that their actions would echo more than a century into the future.
They were working men asking a simple question: why should representing one's country require sacrifice beyond the field?
In the industrial towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire, an answer had already emerged. The Northern Union had broken away from Rugby Union, allowing players to be compensated for wages lost while playing the game. To its supporters, it was fairness. To its critics, it was professionalism — a word spoken with disdain.
New Zealand chose to remain amateur.
The celebrated All Blacks of 1905–06 had carried the silver fern through Britain and returned home heroes. Crowds flocked to see them. Gate receipts soared. National pride flourished.
The players returned to their day jobs. To railway yards and factory floors. To workshops, offices and building sites.
If injury followed glory, it was borne privately. Applause did not pay the grocer. Prestige did not replace lost wages. For most, that was simply the way things were.
For Albert Baskerville, it was not.
A twenty-four-year-old postal clerk from Wellington, Baskerville possessed the rare combination of idealism and determination needed to challenge an entire establishment. He loved rugby, but he also saw its contradictions. The game depended upon men who could least afford its demands.
So, with the renown athlete George Smith, William 'Massa' Johnstone, Lance Todd and others, they conceived something audacious. A New Zealand team ( with one Australian player, Dally Messenger) that would tour Australia and England under Northern Union rules. A team that would accept payment openly. A team willing to step beyond the authority of the Rugby Union and risk never being welcomed back.
Officially, they were the Professional All Blacks.
The newspapers found a sharper name: The All Golds.
It was intended as an insult.
It became a badge of honour.
Branded traitors and mocked as the "All Golds," the determined band of former All Blacks and provincial stars risked their reputations, livelihoods and futures in pursuit of a dream. Their journey would take them across the world, through Australia, Ceylon and Britain, into packed stadiums, fierce rivalries and sporting history itself.
What followed was far more than a rugby tour. It was a story of courage, friendship, loyalty and rebellion. A story of ordinary men prepared to challenge convention and change the game forever.
But it is also a story touched by tragedy. Just as their vision was being realised and their place in history secured, disaster struck, casting a shadow over one of the greatest adventures in sporting history and reminding those involved that pioneering change often comes at a cost.
My connection to this story is deeply personal.
One of the original All Golds, Arthur Kelly, was my great-grandfather,a former railway clerk and a Petone Club rugby player. The youngest on the tour, the Union had banned him for 3 years for playing under a false name when Albert signed him up. He was 21. The more I researched the tour and the extraordinary men who took part, the more I realised that their story, a story of some of the best players of their time, deserved to be told to a wider audience. What began as a family connection became a passion to uncover one of the most compelling and overlooked stories in New Zealand and sporting history.
The All Golds is the result of that journey.
Rich in drama, larger-than-life characters, triumph, heartbreak and an epic international backdrop, it is the story of ordinary men who dared to challenge the establishment and, in doing so, changed the course of rugby forever.
More than a century later, their legacy lives on.
This is the remarkable story of how it all began.
The Original All Golds pictured below
