Vincent Bevan
| Full name | Vincent David Bevan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 24 December 1921 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Otaki, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 26 May 1996 (aged 74) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Otaki Convent School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notable relative(s) |
Moray Bevan (brother) Keith Davis (cousin) Tamati Ellison (grandson) Jacob Ellison (grandson) |
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| Occupation(s) | Café owner, carpenter, milk vendor and taxi proprietor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position(s) | Halfback | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand No. | 479 | ||
| Provincial / State sides | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1943–54 | Wellington | 70 | () |
| National team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1947–54 | New Zealand | 6 | (0) |
Vincent David Bevan (24 December 1921 – 26 May 1996) was a New Zealand rugby union player.
Bevan was born in the Horowhenua at Otaki, about halfway between Wellington and Palmerston North, and was the son of Winifred Bevan and Louis Holmes.
Bevan served in the North African and Italian campaigns during World War II and played for the 22nd Battalion team (winners of the Freyberg Cup), the 9th Brigade and 8th Army XVs and the 7th Brigade Group (1942).
He played for Wellington College Old Boys before being selected by the former All Black Alex McDonald to represent the Wellington Rugby Football Union at a provincial level. Bevan wasn't always the first choice halfback for Wellington, being bumped from the top spot in 1946 by Dr Manahi Nitama Paewai. In 1947, he made the first of his four appearances for the North in the annual interisland match.
Bevan was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1947 to 1954. But for injury, (he had been hit by a truck at the end of the War), he may well have been chosen for the famous New Zealand team which in 1945-46 toured Britain and France.
Bevan's official All Blacks profile says that "he is best remembered for games he didn't play and the tour he was not allowed to go on. Bevan's career, indeed, is one of the starkest examples of some of the gross stupidities, even injustices, New Zealand rugby created for itself by trying for too long to fit in with the colour bar, later formalised as apartheid, being enforced in South Africa. Bevan should have been the All Blacks' number one halfback on the tour of South Africa in 1949, but an inadvertent reference to his trace of Maori ancestry a year or two beforehand meant he was ruled ineligible to be selected".
His first two test caps came instead in the 1949 series against Australia that was played in New Zealand. This tour coincided with the stronger though Maori-free All Blacks team touring South Africa. Bevan played all four tests the following year against the touring British Lions. Injuries prevented him from touring with the 1951 All Blacks to Australia. Bevan was a member of the 1953-54 New Zealand rugby union tour of the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and North America and played capably enough during his 16 appearances. But with age he was losing a little of his speed and his cousin, Keith Davis, his junior by nearly 10 years, was preferred for all five internationals. In total, Bevan played 25 matches for the All Blacks including six internationals.
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