By Craig Stephen
As Scotland and the All Whites took to the field at the La Rosaleda Stadium in Malaga on June 15, 1982, and the de facto anthem Scotland the Brave was performed, three of the Kiwi players would have been familiar with the famous tune.
Allan Boath, Adrian Elrick and Sam Malcolmson had all left lower-tier teams in their homeland for the Rothmans National League in the 1970s.
Now they were playing in the World Cup after the famous 15-match slog to get to Spain.
Against all odds, the All Whites clawed their way back from a 3-0 half-time deficit to come within a goal of the star-studded Scots only to succumb 5-2. Elrick and Boath played in all three games in Spain, but Malcolmson only played in the Scotland game.
Malcolmson had only been a bit-part player for Airdrie, Queen of the South and Albion Rovers.
With 34 appearances for those clubs in three years, nobody needed to tell him that he was unlikely to ever make a name for himself in his native land.
Seeing the Commonwealth Games in summery Christchurch on television was enough for Malcolmson and his wife to start packing their bags.
Midfielder Boath was a product of Celtic’s youth system but didn’t get a break at Parkhead.
All up, Boath played 39 times for New Zealand between 1980 and 1988, scoring six times; not bad for someone whose Scottish League appearances were limited to the 15 games he got in Forfar Athletic’s colours in the 1977-78 season.
Meanwhile, Aberdonian Elrick’s footballing career had barely started in Scotland before his family moved to Auckland. He made his international debut in a 2-0 win over China in 1975 and played internationally until 1984.
The trio were part of a long tradition of Scots who were good enough to play for New Zealand. Indeed, the inaugural New Zealand representative team which toured New South Wales in 1904 was captained by David McMillan with two other Scots featuring, William Morrison and Alex Stark.
One of the first stars of the game here was George Campbell, whose efforts have sadly been largely forgotten despite his considerable talent. Campbell, the captain and inspiration behind the successful ‘Ashes’ test series against Australia in 1923, came to Aotearoa in his youth and represented Otago from 1913.
The outbreak of war momentarily curtailed his footballing ambitions but once the conflict ended Campbell led the YMCA club to the inaugural Chatham Cup final in 1923 and to victory in the 1925 shoot-out.
Campbell wore the black jersey on 20 occasions between 1922 and 1924, all as captain. Fellow Caledonians Jim Christie (1933) and Jim Hunter (1954) also had the honour of captaining the national team.
In the 1950s and 1960s international players such as Ken Armstrong and Billy Walsh arrived in New Zealand. Several immigrant Scots also played at a high level before emigrating. But some, having arrived as children, learned how to play the game at school here.
A stalwart of football in England was Jock Aird who became a trailblazer for Scottish footballers. The right-back began his senior career with Burnley, arriving at Turf Moor in the summer of 1948 as the Clarets prepared for a second season in the old Division One.
As well as his 143 appearances for Burnley, Aird gained four caps for Scotland, two of them at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, where bizarrely he was utilised as the left-back.
At the age of 28, Aird moved to Gisborne to play for Eastern Union and soon earned a call-up to the New Zealand national team, playing twice against Australia and scoring in one game.
Striker John Newall swapped Ayr Utd for Petone after the war prevented him from making an impact in Ayrshire, and for five decades – as Jock Newall – held the New Zealand goalscoring record, netting 28 goals in 17 games, in the early 1950s.
This was achieved despite, as the Ultimate New Zealand Soccer website notes, struggling with health issues that would have felled a lesser man.
“Remarkably, his goalscoring feats for New Zealand were achieved after his company’s doctor had initially refused him a certificate of fitness to travel with the team to the (Pacific) islands. The doctor relented only after cajoling and on the understanding that his patient would retire from the game. Jock continued to play for another season but developed an asthmatic allergy and was advised to return to Scotland.”
As previously noted on Friends of Football, Bert Ormond was a regular in the Falkirk, Airdrie and Dumbarton sides of the 1950s and early 60s, before joining Eastern Union and playing twice for New Zealand in 1962. He was undoubtedly a major influence on the game as national captain and a successful club coach. His two sons, Ian and Duncan, both also played for New Zealand.
Feature: The Scot who became a pioneer of football in New Zealand >>>>
Around this time, the number of Scots arriving on these shores increased, as they did for other players from the British Isles and Europe.
The likes of Fred Dubber, Dougie Law, Jimmy Campbell, Arthur Stroud, Alec Caldwell, Jimmy Ferrier, Tom McNab, George Lamont, Tom McKinlay, Jim Warrender – a captain of New Zealand – and one-time head coach of the All Whites, Ian Marshall, are among just some of those.
Clubs bearing the names of Thistle abound throughout the country in places such as Gisborne and Invercargill, with their names and crests a hat-tip to their roots.
In the 1970s, the likes of the gangly Alf Stamp, and hotshot Keith Nelson arrived, and were joined by Sandy Davie, who had a successful career in both Scotland and England with Dundee Utd and Luton Town.
Davie appeared in the 1974 Scottish Cup final against Celtic, and played against Barcelona in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, when the Dundonians famously, and incredibly, beat the Spanish giants in both the home and away legs.
Davie spent nine years at Dundee United, playing almost 200 games and has been inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
He made a single appearance for the Scotland U-23 side, but at the age of 28 headed here, signing with North Shore.
Such was the quantity – and quality – of the Scots that played here, they had a team of their own in the close season international tournament against England, New Zealand, and ‘The Rest’. Scotland weren’t part of the early tournaments but replaced the Dutch in the early 60s. Before then players such as Jock Aird would be part of the global team.
In 1966, the Scots aced the tournament, beating the ‘auld enemy’ England 10-0 in the final. The following year Scotland’s national team defeated the newly-crowned world champions England 3-2 at Wembley, becoming self-proclaimed ‘unofficial world champions’.
The same month Celtic became the first British and non-Latin team to win the European Cup. What a time it was to be a Scottish footballer on either side of the world at that time.
Scotland-Kiwi XI
So, who would be in your Scotland-Kiwi squad? To stimulate discussion, here’s a squad drawn from the contingent of Scots who contributed to the game in New Zealand …
Sandy Davie
Davie arrived in New Zealand in 1974 but due to eligibility rules didn’t make his All Whites debut until 1979 in a 3-0 win over Fiji, one of 11 caps. He played for North Shore, Mount Albert and Napier City Rovers.
Keith Pritchett
The Glaswegian left-back was a star of the 1970s and early 80s Watford side, alongside Luther Blissett and John Barnes, and helped them rise from the fourth division to the first and into Europe. Pritchett ended his career in Auckland with Mt Roskill and Waitakere City. He coached the national team in 1996 and 1997.
Tom McNab
The former Partick Thistle defender was the inspirational captain of the New Zealand side that travelled to Vietnam in 1967 for a multi-nation cup tournament. On the eve of travelling to Asia, McNab said “We hope we come back from Saigon with …”, and after a timely pause simply stated: “We hope we come back from Saigon.”
Sam Malcolmson
Malcolmson played the first of his 37 games for New Zealand in 1976 against Burma, and the World Cup game against Scotland was his last.
Alf Stamp
Stamp found his comic-strip style name, unorthodox style of play and 6′ 4” frame made him a cult figure at clubs including Caversham and Eastern Suburbs. The winger was called up for New Zealand against Australia and gained four caps.
Jim Warrender
The Aberdonian was captain of the Banks O’ Dee FC side which won the Scottish Junior Cup in 1957 at Hampden Park, Glasgow in front of a crowd of 31,000. He played in the black of New Zealand six times between 1959 and 1961, including two games against Tom Finney’s FA XI, captaining them on each occasion.
Iain Gillies
Better known as a journalist and editor of the Gisborne Herald, Gillies was one of four from the family to play for Eastern Union at the same time. Iain also played once for New Zealand, in New Caledonia in 1967.
Bert Ormond
Ormond had two footballing brothers – Willie and Gibby. In Scotland, Willie was an international, featuring in the 1954 World Cup and managed the national team at the 1974 edition in West Germany.
Michael McGlinchey
Born in Wellington, thus being able to play for the All Whites. Mighty Mike was very young when his family returned to Scotland so when he played for the Phoenix he was effectively an import.
George Campbell
For his heroics and eye for goal, the Glaswegian was regarded highly over the Tasman because of the 1923 tour of Australia, but he didn’t receive the same recognition here.
Jock Newall
Newall scored 28 goals for New Zealand in 17 games. The record stood for half a century until Vaughan Coveny beat the mark in 2006. Coveny played 67 games before reaching the record figure.
Subs
Jonathan Gould (player-coach)
The Scotland and Celtic keeper began his career with Napier City Rovers as a defender and coached Hawke’s Bay United and later was a goalkeeping coach with Wellington Phoenix. Gould has since been goalkeeping coach with several top English clubs.
Adrian Elrick
Elrick played in most of the ’82 qualifying games and all three in Spain. He hung around Brazilian No.10 superstar Zico for the last few minutes so he could swap shirts with the superstar.
Ken Ironside
Glasgow-born and on the books of Hamilton Accies, he played once for New Zealand, against New Caledonia in 1967.
Keith Nelson
Twice New Zealand Player of the Year (1976 and 1982) and a prodigious scorer for Hamilton but was cruelly omitted from the Spain squad.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to New Zealand football historian Barry Smith. QSM, for supplying additional information.
READ MORE: Historian Barry Smith added to list of Medal of Excellence recipients >>>>
Craig Stephen
Craig Stephen writes about football for a number of publications, and for RNZ. He is the author of Bombs and Boots, a book that tells how New Zealand football came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.
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