All Black No 413.

"By modern standards Cyril Pepper was probably too small to be a top class prop forward. He stood 1.78m and weighed only about 80kg. But as one who had been a top class swimmer he was extremely fit and played with a vigour and energy appropriate to his surname.

Pepper went on the All Blacks' tour of Britain and Canada in 1935-36 and while he did not make any of the internationals he was a useful contributor. He played in 17 matches in all, scored four tries and when the first choice hooker Bill Hadley was out for a long period at the start of the tour with injury filled in in that position.

In his tour book the team's vice captain Charlie Oliver said of Pepper:

"... a good honest worker, very fast and very effective in following up .... to my mind he would make an excellent side-row man."

Most of Pepper's rugby at top level was as an Auckland representative and his consistent efforts from them won him All Blacks trials in 1935, from which he was chosen to tour, and 1937 when the Springboks toured New Zealand.

Between 1933 and 1939 Pepper played 31 matches for Auckland. This tally included a number of notable fixtures, in 1936 in an 8-5 win over the touring Wallabies and in a 5-19 defeat against the Springboks in 1937.

Pepper was in the Auckland side which lifted Ranfurly Shield in 1934 and in the side which challenged unsuccessfully against Otago in 1936.

Pepper served with the New Zealand Army during World War II and served in North Africa with distinction gaining the Military Cross for bravery. He suffered such severe wounds when he was run over by a truck whilst sleeping in a shallow trench that he lost an eye and was invalided back to New Zealand in June 1940 and became a staff officer at Army Headquarters. 

His death was attributed to a fall from the fourth floor window of a residential property in Salamanca Road, Kelburn causing severe head injuries of which caused his death a few hours later, dying at the age of 31.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.