The Māori All Blacks have graced the turf of Gisborne’s Rugby Park twice in their illustrious history and may play here again shortly.

Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union chairman Hayden Swann has suggested the Māori or Super Rugby side Hurricanes could play in Gisborne to celebrate the new-look Rugby Park, with the $12.5 million redevelopment project due to be completed later this year.

Combined Poverty Bay-East Coast sides took on the might of star-studded Māori All Black teams at Rugby Park in 1965 and 1989.

The Hurricanes played pre-season games at Rugby Park in 2001 and 2009 and staged a match between their First XV and Second XV in 1996, the inaugural season of Super Rugby.

In 1965 the Prince of Wales Cup match between Northern Māori and Southern Māori was played in Gisborne.

From that match a Māori All Blacks side was chosen to play Poverty Bay-East Coast.

Rugby was strong in Tairāwhiti in the 1960s when leading footballers could spend their entire careers at home.

The home side, playing before 6000 spectators, were no mugs and were defeated 14-5.

The star player for the home side was 1964-65 three-test (Australia and South Africa) All Blacks second five-eighth Johnny Collins, but there were other quality players in the team.

Collins’ workmate, neighbour and Marist, Poverty Bay and Māori All Blacks teammate Pat Ransley played on the wing.

Ransley appeared seven times for the Māori All Blacks in 1961, 1964 and 1965.

He scored the winning try on debut for the Māori All Blacks in 1961 when the Māori defeated the first French team to tour New Zealand.

Ransley is still Poverty Bay’s leading try-scorer with 38 tries from 84 matches played between 1961 and 1971.

The combined side’s only try against the Māori was scored by East Coast utility back Buff Milner.

He played 16 matches for the All Blacks in South Africa in 1970, including one test.

Poverty Bay fullback and 1964 New Zealand Colt Haupai Henare kicked the conversion.

The Monday before, in the traditional Queen’s Birthday fixture between Poverty Bay and East Coast, Henare equalled the New Zealand record of kicking six penalties in a first-class match.

Henare played in six successful Ranfurly Shield defences in 1963 for the great Auckland side coached by All Black and future undefeated All Blacks coach Fred Allen before returning home.

He also played the day Auckland lost the shield to Wellington, 8-3, bringing an end to the holders’ then record three-year reign during which time the side repelled 25 challengers.

Another prominent player in the home side was Muru Walters, who became an Anglican bishop.

The fullback, who played mostly for North Auckland at provincial level, appeared more than 30 times for the Māori All Blacks from 1956 to 1963.

His 1958 Māori side drew a three-test series with the Wallabies in Australia.

Walters is the leading points scorer for the Māori All Blacks, according to Te Puni Kōkiri.

The late Walters made national headlines in 2010 when he said Māori Affairs Minister Ernest Corbett had told the 1956 Māori All Blacks minutes before the game that they must not beat the Springboks “for the future of rugby”.

The 1956 Māori side, expected to test the Springboks, were humiliated 37-nil before 61,000 spectators at Eden Park.

Three Poverty Bay-East Coast players, Ransley, Ron Rangi and Collins, had outstanding games in the 1965 fixture, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

Three Auckland-based All Blacks featured for the Māori at Rugby Park in 1965, including 1964, 1965 and 1966 10-test All Black centre Rangi.

The other two are luminaries of Māori football and remain well known today.

First five-eighth Mac Herewini played 32 matches, including 10 tests, between 1962 and 1967.

Waka Nathan, known as the Black Panther, played 37 matches, including 14 tests, between 1962 and 1967 and is considered one of the great All Blacks flankers.

Rangi, Herewini and Nathan all won the prestigious Tom French Cup for Best Māori Player twice, while Walters won in 1957.

The Māori All Blacks beat Poverty Bay-East Coast 40-19 in 1989 after a Prince of Wales Cup fixture.

Rugby Hurricanes v Chiefs - Gisborne's Hosea Gear in action for the Hurricanes in a pre-season Super Rugby game against the Chiefs at Rugby Park in 2009. Gear played 14 tests for the All Blacks and was also a Maori All Black. Photo / Paul Rickard

Legendary and undefeated All Blacks captain Buck Shelford vouched his side would play a “traditional Māori game”.

They did so, scoring nine tries to three.

Shelford and North Harbour/All Blacks teammate Frano Botica scored a try each, as did another North Harbour player and future All Black, Eric Rush.

Botica kicked two conversions.

Shelford is a four-time winner of the Tom French Cup and Botica won it in 1986.

For the home side, Johnny Martin picked up a spilled Māori pass and ran 20 metres to score “an opportunistic try”, according to Gisborne Herald sports reporter John Heikell.

Stu Ensor and Trevor Crosby also scored tries with Heikell describing Crosby, a 1991 Māori All Black, as the home side’s player of the match.

Richard Owen kicked two conversions and a penalty for Poverty Bay-East Coast.

About 6000 fans turned up on a “scorching” day to watch the Hurricanes-Chiefs pre-season match in 2001.

Honours were shared 28-all, with both sides scoring four tries.

All Blacks appearing for the Hurricanes were Gordon Slater, Jerry Collins, Jason O’Halloran and Norm Hewitt.

Superstar All Blacks Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen did not play.

All Blacks playing for the Chiefs included Bruce Reihana, Scott McLeod, Royce Willis, Rhys Duggan, Todd Miller and Mark Cooksley.

The same two sides met at Rugby Park in 2009 before 6000 spectators, with the Chiefs winning 38-24, scoring six tries to four.

Former Poverty Bay winger Hosea Gear, who made his All Blacks debut in 2008, scored for the Hurricanes.

Gisborne Boys’ High old boy, Chiefs debutant and future two-time Super Rugby-winning co-captain Craig Clarke also played.

Clarke played two tests for the All Blacks later in 2009 - against Samoa and Japan.

Twenty past or present All Blacks were in the two squads.

The Hurricanes had Neemia Tialata, John Schwalger, Andrew Hore, Jason Eaton, Rodney So’oialo, Scott Waldrom, Piri Weepu, Alby Mathewson, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Corey Jane and Gear.

Smith and future All Black Jeremy Thrush did not play because they were injured.

The Chiefs had Liam Messam, Sione Lauaki, Brendon Leonard, Stephen Donald, Richard Kahui, Sosene Anesi, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina in their squad.