South African Jaco Peyper refereed this morning's opening match of the World Cup with a special whistle first used in an All Blacks match played 110 years ago.
The whistle originally belonged to Gill Evans, a Welshman who controlled the England-New Zealand match in 1905 at London's Crystal Palace featuring the famed 1905 All Blacks "Originals".
After his career was over, Evans gave the whistle to Albert Freethy, a schoolmaster and a Welsh referee. Freethy used the whistle at the last time rugby was played at the 1924 Olympic Games when the USA beat France and again the following year when the All Blacks played England at Twickenham in a bruising match infamous for the sending off of New Zealander Cyril Brownlie for allegedly kicking an opponent. It was the first time that a player had been sent off in a rugby test.
After the Twickenham Test, Freethy gave the whistle to the manager of the All Blacks, Stan Dean who gave it to the New Zealand rugby museum in Palmerston North when it opened in 1969.
The coin used at this morning's toss to decide which team kicked off the England-Fiji encounter also had Kiwi links. It had been sent all the way from the Palmerston museum and was first used at the toss of the 1925 match between England and the All Blacks "Invincibles", won 17-11 by New Zealand.
