Vincent Bevan

Early life

Bevan was born in the Horowhenua at Otaki, about halfway between Wellington and Palmerston North, and was the son of Winifred Bevan and Louis Holmes.

Playing career

Bevan served in the North African and Italian campaigns during World War II and played for the 22nd Battalion team (winners of the Freyberg Cup), the 9th Brigade and 8th Army XVs and the 7th Brigade Group (1942).

He played for Wellington College Old Boys before being selected by the former All Black Alex McDonald to represent the Wellington Rugby Football Union at a provincial level. Bevan wasn't always the first choice halfback for Wellington, being bumped from the top spot in 1946 by Dr Manahi Nitama Paewai. In 1947, he made the first of his four appearances for the North in the annual interisland match.

Bevan was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1947 to 1954. But for injury, (he had been hit by a truck at the end of the War), he may well have been chosen for the famous New Zealand team which in 1945-46 toured Britain and France.

Bevan's official All Blacks profile says that "he is best remembered for games he didn't play and the tour he was not allowed to go on. Bevan's career, indeed, is one of the starkest examples of some of the gross stupidities, even injustices, New Zealand rugby created for itself by trying for too long to fit in with the colour bar, later formalised as apartheid, being enforced in South Africa. Bevan should have been the All Blacks' number one halfback on the tour of South Africa in 1949, but an inadvertent reference to his trace of Maori ancestry a year or two beforehand meant he was ruled ineligible to be selected".

His first two test caps came instead in the 1949 series against Australia that was played in New Zealand. This tour coincided with the stronger though Maori-free All Blacks team touring South Africa. Bevan played all four tests the following year against the touring British Lions. Injuries prevented him from touring with the 1951 All Blacks to Australia. Bevan was a member of the 1953-54 New Zealand rugby union tour of the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and North America and played capably enough during his 16 appearances. But with age he was losing a little of his speed and his cousin, Keith Davis, his junior by nearly 10 years, was preferred for all five internationals. In total, Bevan played 25 matches for the All Blacks including six internationals.

During his first-class career, Bevan played for Wellington College Old Boys (1943), Athletic (1946-49), Tawa (1950-51), Athletic (1953-54), North Island (1947-49, 53), NZ Trials (1947, 50, 53) and the New Zealand XV (1949).

Bevan rounded out his long career with several appearances in festival-type matches for the Centurions (1952, 55-56), bringing his first class match tally to 121.

Playing style

Alex McDonald had originally been impressed by Bevan's strength, quickness, length of pass and hard-nosed application and was part of the selection panel that sent him to Australia as an All Black in 1947. Despite excellent form, Bevan did not play a test.

Against Australia, in the second test in the 1949 series that was played at Eden Park in Auckland, Bevan gave away several penalties but played a rugged game and his passing was generally good, although Australia scored after nineteen minutes when Bevan threw a wild pass to Jack McLean (rugby) on the blindside near his own line. The All Blacks lost the test 16-9.

In the third test against the 1950 Lions at Wellington, Bevan played behind an All Black pack of six, which was shredded by injury and the no-replacement law of the day. He scolded, spurred and cajoled the pack and showed a perception of pressure points, breadth and alacrity of clearance and physical toughness that were telling factors in transforming a mission impossible into a day of glory for New Zealand rugby.

Bevan based his passing game on his swiftness to retrieve ball hooked at high velocity and on a swivelling dive-pass that foiled marauders and spoilers. He was quick to respond to physical affront, real or imagined, and employed a devastating hip-throw that felled and humiliated many unsuspecting locks and props steamrolling with belligerent intent through the lineout.

Bevan had an innate rugby sense and once saved a Ranfurly Shield match for Wellington by potting a goal from the base of the scrum about twenty five metres out. He was a quick and neat passer and ran well from the scrum or ruck and was a good all-round player.

Controversial non-selections

Bevan lost some of the best years of his career when international rugby was mothballed during and after World War II. The All Blacks played just four tests between 1939 and the 1949 tour to South Africa.

The nuggety Bevan was widely considered New Zealand's best halfback of the immediate post-war period. He wasn't selected for the All Blacks tour of South Africa in 1949, however, as the Maori Advisory Council had informed the New Zealand Rugby Football Union that he had Maori ancestry. Bevan's mother was quarter Maori and once that became known New Zealand's best halfback was ruled ineligible for the tour, where race rules in South Africa at the time meant rugby was strictly for Europeans. New Zealand was beaten in all four tests for various reasons, not the least the lack of a top halfback.

Maori players who may have made the All Blacks tour of South Africa also included Nau Cherrington, Ron Bryers, Ben Couch and Johnny Smith. The captain, Fred Allen (rugby union), later mourned the loss of Smith and in particular Bevan from the tour.

It was also said that Bevan was not considered by Maori of the time to have enough Maori blood to be a Maori All Black. He never once appeared for a New Zealand Maori selection or in any Maori match such as a Prince of Wales Cup trial.