A souvenir of the 1921 Springbok Rugby tour of NZ. Published in Tauranga there are no known copies in New Zealand. In fact, only 1 copy is known globally.

Only 1 copy known in New Zealand. This is held at the NZ Rugby Museum in Palmerston North

Several copies known in NZ

Only a few copies known. Covers are just paper, so often missing. Cockroft played 7 games for the All Blacks between 1913-14, including 3 tests.

An obscure book on old Rugby tales in New Zealand. Very rare and seldom comes up for sale

Several copies known in NZ

Most copies were sent overseas to the forces (World war II) and were destroyed when the ship was sunk

Ocassionally comes up for sale. Rare and fragile

As with the 1942-3 Almanack, this is very rare

A book on the All Blacks 1905-6 tour of Britain and Ireland. It has paper covers which are normally detached or missing

The attached image lists the 10 rarest NZ Rugby books as determined by Dave McLaren in A handbook of Rugby Literature in 1985. Most of these books are still in our top 10. However, with the advent of the internet, online book-dealers and online auctions, some of the books have become more available and have dropped out of the top 10. Our number 1 was noted by Dave as being extremely rare and one of the only books on his wants list at that time. He did not list it in his list as he noted it as a souvenir booklet rather than a book. We have taken the liberty of updating the list – “in our opinion”. Please feel free to contact us and debate the list

An itinerary of the All Blacks South African tour 1928, together with a concise record of each member of the team. This booklet is very rare and seldom appears for sale

Very rare booklet on 44 years of rugby rivalry between Palmerston North Boys High School and Napier Boys High School. They play for a “trophy” named The Polson Banner. We have never seen this book available for sale

A book on the 1908 British tour of New Zealand. Ocassionally available for sale. Very fragile – the covers and spine are normally detached or missing

A rare liitle booklet on the records of the major inter-school matches to 1947

Regarded as a classic of NZ Rugby literature, Tom Ellison was a New Zealand rugby union player and lawyer. He led the first New Zealand representative rugby team organised by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) on their 1893 tour of Australia. Ellison also played in the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team on their epic 107-match tour, scoring 113 points, and 43 tries with the side. This book is rare but just doesn’t make it into the top 10

Another classic. Coaching book and reminiscences. Gallaher and Stead were captain and vice-captain of the 1905-6 Originals team. This book is now selling quite regularly

This is the wonderful book covering the 1905 Original All Blacks on their tour of Britan and Ireland. Dixon was manager of the team. Again, this book is now coming up regularly for sale

This history was printed by a gestetner on single sided pages. There were only a handful of copies published