Stan Webb (rugby league)

Stanley George Webb was a New Zealand international rugby league player who represented them 15 times in 1925 and 1926.

He combined with his brother for several of his tries but Clarence was dropped to a lower grade team mid season and broke his leg in a match at Māngere and was hospitalised.

The match was for the Northern Union Challenge Cup and the visitors upset Auckland 21–20 to claim the trophy.

They finished mid table in the first grade championship and were knocked out in the semi-finals of the Roope Rooster competition by City Rovers.

[12] He had returned to Auckland weeks later and made his first appearance in a 2–2 draw against City Rovers in a round 3 match on 10 May.

Marist had played one less match and so the Auckland Rugby League scheduled a final between the two sides to decide the championship.

An enormous crowd of 17,000, believed to be a club record at the time was on hand at Carlaw Park to see Marist win 20–17.

Earlier in the game Webb put Bert Laing away from a scrum and a try for Harper eventuated to give Devonport a 7–5 lead.

[14] Devonport had a revenge of sorts when they knocked Marist out of the Roope Rooster competition a week later with a 5-3 round 2 win however they then lost their semi final match with Ponsonby United 14–10 to end their season.

He will work hard and shirk nothing, but, as remarked elsewhere, Auckland has no really brilliant half-backs, and Webb has found a place in a weak year”.

He played in the opening match of the tour against New South Wales on 11 July at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Webb was playing alongside his Devonport clubmate Bert Laing who was captaining the side in the standoff position.

[30] He helped set up a try for Frank Henry when he passed the ball to him ten yards out and he crossed for a try which Craddock Dufty converted to narrow the score to 14–13 to Ipswich.

The Brisbane Courier reported that Webb “is a new player, who is very tricky and speedy” and that he was “the finest of the inside backs.

[41] After this match the New Zealand selectors named him in the touring side for England and Wales in the five-eighths position along with Jack Kirwan, Hec Brisbane, and Hector Cole.

[42] It was said after the trial matches that he and Kirwan had “played themselves into the team by consistent good work of a solo nature”.

New Zealand won the match 19-11 before a crowd of 3,100 with Webb playing at five eighth to begin with, with Wilson Hall at half back.

[46] He was reported to have moved to second five eighth “and his side stepping and straight, penetrating runs had the York backs thinking furiously”.

New Zealand lost the match 17–5 with Webb moving into the half back position and Ben Davidson playing at five eighth.

[50] The Daily News in London gave a fairly brutal assessment when it said that the New Zealand team was “distinctly third rate”, and that “Cole and Webb are negligible in defence and ineffective in attack.

[51] In the middle stages of the tour a large ruction occurred in the squad between 7 forwards and the coach Ernest Mair.

[52] Webb had moved into the half back position due to Wilson Hall breaking his arm in the match with Huddersfield on 6 November.

[54] Webb didn't play again until the 9 December match with St Helen's which New Zealand lost 22–12 in drizzly rain.

George Gardiner who had been playing outside Webb was sensationally sent off after he disputed a line umpire's call for Alf Ellaby's try.

The match see-sawed early with teams exchanging tries before Webb “took a good pass from Davidson, beat the Wigan defence, and again crossed the line” tying the scores at 12 each.

[61] In early September Webb was selected for Auckland's four game ‘Southern Tour’ of Canterbury the West Coast, Otago, and Wellington.

His try came after he was involved in a passing move with Lou Hutt and Horace Dixon that gave Auckland an 11–10 lead.

[68] He didn't in fact make his first appearance until Devonport's round 6 match with Ponsonby United which they won 21–19.

[70] On 9 May the Otago Daily Times reported that Webb was moving to Dunedin and would probably represent the City club there however he did not play any rugby league in 1929.

[75][76] His nephew Desmond John Haydon (son of his sister Norina) was killed in action during World War II on 28 June 1942.

New Zealand team to tour Australia in 1925. Stan Webb is 3rd from the right in the back row.
Webb making a tackle in a June 20 match against Ponsonby.
The NZ team to tour England and Wales with Stan Webb, second row from the top, second on the right (7).
Webb playing for Auckland.
Stan Webb's gravestone at the Birkenhead-Glenfield Cemetery.