Morris Edwin Wood (9 October 1876 – 9 August 1956) was a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player and athletics champion. As second five-eighth, Wood represented the provinces of Bush, , , , and . In athletics, he was New Zealand long-jump champion. Wood was a member of the New Zealand national team from 1901 to 1904. His 12 matches included New Zealand's first international test, against Australia. In his final match, he captained the Auckland province to a 13–0 defeat of the touring

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

. Wood's 1903

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

of would have been the New Zealand record, but was eventually assessed as being wind-assisted and so was not ratified. He went on to win the long jump at the 1904 New Zealand athletics championships, his leap of taking the title from

Te Rangi Hīroa Sir Peter Henry Buck ( October 18771 December 1951), also known as Te Rangi Hīroa or Te Rangihīroa, was a New Zealand anthropologist and an expert on Māori culture, Māori and Polynesian cultures who served many roles through his life: as a ...

Personal life

Morrie Wood was born in Napier, one of four children born to English migrant parents. He had four children with his wife Clara Ritchey. After her death, he married Kate Donne in 1947. They retired to

Paraparaumu Paraparaumu is a town in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It lies on the Kāpiti Coast, north of the nation's capital city, Wellington. It is also known to residents as Pram or Paraparam. Like other towns in the area, it has a ...

, where he died in 1956 at the age of 79.

References

1876 births 1956 deaths People from Waipawa New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Bush rugby union players Hawke's Bay rugby union players Wellington rugby union players Canterbury rugby union players Auckland rugby union players Rugby union centres New Zealand male long jumpers Rugby union players from Hawke's Bay New Zealand Athletics Championships winners {{NewZealand-athletics-bio-stub