Charles Edward "Bronco" Seeling (14 May 1883 – 29 May 1956) was a New Zealand international

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

player of the early 20th century. He played in the forwards for

the original All Blacks The Original All Blacks (also known simply as "The Originals") were the first New Zealand national rugby union team to tour outside Australasia. They toured the British Isles, France and the United States of America during 1905–1906. Their op ...

, appearing in 11 tests including the famous "'' Match of the Century''" against

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. Seeling then traveled to Great Britain armed with a 'letter of introduction' from a colleague.Sean Fagan ''The Rugby Rebellion: The Divide of League and Union'' RL1908 2005. . p.316. He signed with English

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

in 1910. During the 1912–13 season Seeling played as a front-row forward and scored a try in

's 21-5 victory over

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in the 1912 Lancashire Cup Final at

Weaste Weaste () is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. In 2014, Weaste and Seedley ward had a population of 12,616. History Historically in Lancashire, it is an industrial area, with many industrial estates. The A57 (Ec ...

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, on Wednesday 11 December 1912. Seeling went on to make over 200 first grade appearances for the club over thirteen years, playing as captain for three of them. He scored 54 tries for Wigan and appeared in three consecutive championship finals. Noted British rugby writer, E. H. D. Sewell, wrote of Seeling: "Search where one may, a better forward than Seeling does not exist." He spent the rest of his life in Britain, dying in 1956 at the age of 73 in a car accident. In 1996 Seeling was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame as well as the international Rugby League Hall of Fame. In 2001 he was inducted as one of the

NZRL The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ...

Legends of League. Seeling's son, Charlie Seeling Jr. also played rugby league, playing at club level for

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, becoming captain of

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

, and playing at representative level for Dominion XIII.Song and Charlie Seeling
at ''rugbyleagueoralhistory.hud.ac.uk'' A shared benefit match for; Percy Coldrick, Charlie Seeling, and Frank Walford

took place in April 1925.

References

Sources

Charlie Seeling at wiganwarriors.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seeling, Charlie 1883 births 1956 deaths Auckland rugby union players Footballers who switched code New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Road incident deaths in England Rugby league players from Whanganui Rugby union players from Whanganui Wigan Warriors players