1912 Auckland Rugby League season

It saw six teams competing for the First Grade title after the addition of the Manukau Rovers who were formed after a meeting in Onehunga in March.

Newton Rangers secured their first Auckland first grade club title after they defeated Ponsonby United in the penultimate round at Eden Park on 13 July.

They had the use of a paddock on Midgeley's farm for games and teams had to make their way there by launch from the city centre on Saturday mornings.

Images were published in the New Zealand Graphic of the City Rovers v North Shore Albions match.

In the match between North Shore and Newton, Joe Bennett broke his leg and missed the rest of the season.

In the same game three other players scored multiple tries (Charles Savory 3, Sid Riley 2, and Arthur Carlaw 2) in addition to their other 4 try scorers.

For the defeated Manukau side their first ever New Zealand representative, Arthur Hardgrave scored their only points.

No point scorers or match description was published in the NZ Herald or Auckland Star.

City had taken the lead towards the end of the game and from the kickoff with one minute remaining A Innes "took the ball up the field on his own" to score the winning try which Don Kenealy converted.

He went on to play 6 matches for New Zealand on their Australia tour and 6 times for Auckland before signing with Wigan.

The rugby league code showed that it was still struggling in its infancy to always organise itself properly with City only managing to field 12 players and the Auckland Star noted in its match report that several players “wore wrongly coloured uniforms”, and that the match was scheduled for 3:15 but kicked off 30 minutes late.

Charles Webb of the Ponsonby side was unable to play in their match with Eden after suffering from rheumatism.

Newton were one point ahead of Ponsonby in the championship and needed a win to secure the title.

Manukau scored first and Newton only had a 5-3 lead at halftime but in the second half they totally dominated, putting on 29 points to 0 for a 34-3 win.

With the New Zealand team touring Australia several players only played a handful of matches before departing which limited their scoring opportunities to 4 games.

They are from left to right Ernie Asher, George Seagar, Jim Griffen, ?, ?, Bob Mitchell, ?, ?, ?, ?, Harry Fricker, ?, and ?.

Early in the game Skeats for Auckland broke "several ribs" and had to leave the field with a replacement coming on, most likely William Tobin as he was in the reserves and later scored a try.

New South Wales reversed their earlier loss with a comprehensive win over a disappointing Auckland effort.

Charles Dunning and Bob Mitchell who had both been named to play originally were forced to withdraw due to illness and were replaced by Harry Fricker and Jim Griffin.