Dave Gallaher 1905 All Blacks jersey sells for £180,000 (original) (raw)

An All Blacks rugby jersey dating back 110 years has been sold for £180,000 at auction.

Dave Gallaher wore the shirt during the 1905 tour of the British Isles and swapped it with Wales captain Gwyn Nicholls after a match.

It went under the hammer at Rogers Jones & Co in Cardiff on Friday where it had been expected to sell for £20,000 to £40,000.

The buyer was based in the UK and bid over the phone.

After getting the shirt, Nicholls subsequently gave it to a van boy at his laundry business, Thomas Mahoney, whose family have kept it ever since.

David Rogers Jones, of Rogers Jones & Co, said: "We're totally astonished. The bidding started off at about £35,000 and lasted for about 10 minutes, going up and up and up.

"We were hoping to break the previous world record for a rugby shirt of £22,000 and have certainly done that."

A bronze statue of Gallaher, who died in 1917 in Belgium while serving in World War One, was unveiled outside the home of New Zealand rugby, Eden Park, in 2011.