Harcourt Pascoe-Pearce

Harry Pascoe-Pearce’s international rugby career could hardly have been more meteoric, as it was all over at an age when most players are trying to establish themselves in club rugby.

He was one of a large number of new men chosen for the 1923 New Zealand tour – the team suffered greatly from unavailability and was hardly representative of the State’s strength at the time – but even so, Pascoe-Pearce’s selection was still chancy.

An 18-year-old lock forward would have to be something quite out of the ordinary to survive in New Zealand, especially at 5ft 11in (1.81m) and 12st 9lb (80kg), and the young man did not make it through the first match. He left the field against Wellington-Manawatu with an injury that proved career-ending and, before his 19th birthday, Pascoe-Pearce’s international rugby career was done.