![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Freeman-Wellington-1965-team-photo.jpg\")
Freeman and the 1965 Wellington team.<\/p>\nOne of Wellington rugby\u2019s most famed coaches, Bill Freeman was Wellington A representative coach between 1964-70.<\/p>\n
Under his coaching, Wellington teams enjoyed several memorable wins over the space of a few years, including twin victories over the touring Springboks and British and Irish Lions in 1965 and 1966, and for introducing some all-time great players to the team such as Graham Williams (174 appearances for Wellington).<\/p>\n
Long after retiring, Freeman was noted as a resource coach at college level and hundreds if not thousands of college players at all levels were put through his drills and his infectious, positive personality. Today the Bill Freeman Memorial Trophy is awarded to the Representative Team of the Year at the annual WRFU awards.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the rise above the eyes\u201d or \u201cpass it high and watch it fly\u201d were two of his phrases.<\/p>\n
Freeman owned and operated Freeman\u2019s Bookstore on Molesworth St for many years, which his son Tony and his wife Lorraine in turn ran for over four decades up to 2019.<\/p>\n
William Purvis Freeman was born in Kaponga on 19 December 1922.<\/p>\n
Freeman attended Okato primary school and then Hawera High School, before moving Petone in 1940 to take up employment as an apprentice boilermaker at the railway workshops in Lower Hutt.<\/p>\n
The second world war came along, and he was an aircraft maintenance engineer during the war, before purchasing and renaming Freeman\u2019s Bookstore in 1945.<\/p>\n
Freeman was a five-eighth and he played 17 first-class games, including six for Wellington in the war years 1942-44 out of Petone. He also played for Athletic after the war and appeared for a Wellington XV in 1948 and later for the Centurions in several matches between 1951-54.<\/p>\n
He was later on the WRFU management committee between 1963-71, overlapping with his seven seasons as Wellington A coach.<\/p>\n
The July 1965 23-6 win over a powerful South African touring team at Athletic Park in front of 38,000 fans remains Wellington rugby\u2019s greatest triumph. Captained by All Blacks prop Ken Gray, Wellington took the match to the South Africans and blew them away in the first half to lead 17-3 by halftime and held them off in the second half.<\/p>\n
Freeman and the 1965 Wellington team.<\/p>\n
The following June, it was the British Lions\u2019 turn to meet a comprehensive defeat to Freeman\u2019s Lions, the Wellington Lions winning 20-6 in front of a heaving 45,000 people.<\/p>\n
1966 was also one of Wellington\u2019s best ever seasons in terms of results. They lost just one match all season, to Canterbury, whom they dispatched on their return fixture in Christchurch. They won all four matches on the southern tour for the first time since 1930 and beat (mid-1960s) powerhouses Auckland and Taranaki twice each. They were understrength in a 0-0 draw with Waikato, while the climax of the season was a 20-6 win over new Ranfurly Shield holders Hawke\u2019s Bay. Individually, All Blacks Gray and Mick Williment passed 100 games for Wellington and Williment set a New Zealand record 213 points in a first-class season.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Freeman-Wellington-v-BIL-1966.jpg\")
Freeman\u2019s team beat the British and Irish Lions in 1966.<\/p>\n
Freeman, who took over the coaching reins in 1964 from Clarrie Gibbons, also coached Wellington to several heartbreaking Ranfurly Shield defeats.<\/p>\n
There were two to Taranaki in 1964 and 1965. Taranaki held on to win 3-0 in 1964 after Wellington halfback Brian Coulter had seemingly scored the match winning try, only for it to be knocked out of his hands by his opposite and former Wellington player, Neil Wolfe.<\/p>\n
In 1967 on McLean Park in Napier, holders Hawke\u2019s Bay snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat when it seemed the Lions were going to take the Shield home. Lions forwards Gray and Nev MacEwan and first five-eighth Mattie Blackburn led Wellington to a 12-6 lead. But the Bay came back to trail 9-12 and then their first five-eighth Blair Furlong kicked a last-gasp dropped goal to seal the draw.<\/p>\n
In Freeman\u2019s last season in 1970 it seemed the Lions were destined to win the Shield off Canterbury. With livewire openside flanker Graham Williams now captain, the Lions played attractive rugby in beating an All Black-laden Auckland four tries to none, 19-12 in front of 30,000 people at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
They then challenged for the Shield in Christchurch and went to an early 3-0 lead, wing Robert Gray scoring in the corner (three point tries). The Lions were all over Canterbury for the rest of the match and should have increased their lead further if not for a dropped goal attempt by John Dougan that hit the uprights and five missed penalties by fullback Joe Karam.<\/p>\n
Somehow Canterbury held on though, and the score remained 3-0 well into the second half when Williams fielded an up and under kick and crossed the line for a disallowed try.<\/p>\n
Canterbury clawed their way into the game and gained more territory but opportunities were sparse. Now it was Wellington\u2019s turn to hang on, which they did right to the very end until Fergie McCormack kicked a winning dropped goal reminiscent of Furlong\u2019s for the Bay three years earlier.<\/p>\n
Freeman was also considered unlucky not to have coached the All Blacks. His Wellington Assistant and former All Blacks prop Ivan Vodanovich got the job between 1969-71.<\/p>\n
He did become a NZRU council member from 1972-87 and he was appointed the national union\u2019s director of coaching from 1976-88 and he coached the coaches.<\/p>\n
In 1990 he was awarded a Queen\u2019s Service Medal for community service.<\/p>\n
Freeman passed away on 20 February 2013, aged 90.<\/p>\n
REFERENCES<\/p>\n
Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016 Like this:<\/p>\n Like Loading…<\/p>\n
\nClub Rugby website \u2013 previous story we published when he passed away 27 February 2013: https:\/\/www.clubrugby.co.nz\/wellington\/story.php?id=541<\/a>
\nDonaghue, Tim. Bill Freeman obituary, Dominion Post 2 March 2013
\nRugby Weekly Vol. 11 No. 1. 11 April 1964.
\nVeysey, Alex and Fox, Bob. Wellington\u2019s Rugby History 1951-1979, Part 2. Tolan Printing Co, 1979.<\/p>\n