All Blacks rugby jersey sold for £180,000
Dave Gallaher wore the shirt during the 1905 tour of the British
Isles and swapped it with Wales captain Gwyn Nicholls after a match.
It went under the hammer at Rogers Jones & Co in Cardiff on Friday
where it had been expected to sell for £20,000 to £40,000. The buyer was
based in the UK and bid over the phone. After getting the shirt,
Nicholls subsequently gave it to a van boy at his laundry business,
Thomas Mahoney, whose family have kept it ever since. David Rogers
Jones, of Rogers Jones & Co, said: "We're totally astonished. The
bidding started off at about £35,000 and lasted for about 10 minutes,
going up and up and up."
"We were hoping to break the previous world record for a rugby shirt
of £22,000 and have certainly done that."
A bronze statue of Gallaher, who died in 1917 in Belgium while
serving in World War One, was unveiled outside the home of New Zealand
rugby, Eden Park, in 2011. (bbcsport) |