James Allan

James Allan (11 September 1860 - 2 September 1934) ) was a New Zealand rugby union player who played eight games for the New Zealand national rugby union team, and was nicknamed the Taieri Giant.

Family and early life Allan's father, also called James, migrated to New Zealand in 1842 and settled at Hope Hill, Taieri. His mother arrived in Dunedin in 1848. They had four sons including James, who was born on 11 September 1860 in East Taieri.

He was a pupil of Otago Boys' High School.

He was one of New Zealand's most valuable players on the tour, where he played eight of the tourists' nine games – all played over 23 days.

Allan was highly regarded as a forward with contemporary reports saying he was "consistently in the vanguard". Allan was also reported to be never far away from the ball along with being as "hard as nails". During his playing career at Otago, Allan became a distinguished player for the province. He had three other brothers who represented Otago.

Death and headstone

Allan died on 2 September 1934, aged 74, and was buried in Hāwera, Taranaki. In 2026 a volunteer group, the New Zealand Remembrance Army, discovered that his grave was unmarked. While the Remembrance Army usually restored and documented graves of military veterans, which Allan was not, they decided to raise $1,500 for a headstone with the aim on installing it that April.