The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 42: Jimmy Duncan first All Black captain (1903)
Now here was an interesting bloke.
Jimmy Duncan was a saddler, an All Black, a coach, a referee and, yes, a bit of a rugby genius.
The Dunedin-born and raised pioneer was part of the dominant Kaikorai club and made his debut for Otago in 1889.
He played initially in the old wing forward position, the term for the player who was technically part of the pack but who roved off the side of the scrum.
Duncan switched to halfback and then first five-eighth.
His first taste of international rugby was on the 1897 tour of Australia, and he also led New Zealand to victory over the touring New South Wales side in 1901.
Finally, in 1903, New Zealand - the All Blacks name had not yet been coined - got to experience a full test for the first time, with Duncan chosen as first five and captain against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
New Zealand scored three tries to none, winning 22-3. Over the tour, the team played 10 games, winning them all and scoring 276 points while conceding just 13.
Duncan then hung up his boots, before being asked to coach the national side the following year.
In 1905-06, he coached the Originals on their epic tour of Britain. But his appointment was not well received in many quarters, and the common belief is that he ended up marginalised doing very little actual coaching.
Duncan refereed the test between New Zealand and the Anglo-Welsh in Dunedin in 1908 - Carisbrook's first test - and coached at Otago Boys' High School in the 1920s and 1930s.
Two of his proteges were Vic Cavanagh and Charlie Saxton, two of the great thinkers of the game.
Duncan is credited with developing the five-eighth backline system. He came up with the term to find middle ground between the halfbacks and the three-quarters and fullback.
Prematurely bald, Duncan sometimes wore a cap on the field. It was said one of his special moves was to pass his cap to a team-mate, pretending it was the ball.
Duncan died in Dunedin in 1953.
