Alex Takarangi, of Te Āti Haunui-ā-Pāpārangi, led the first New Zealand Māori Team. After being the first New Zealand rugby player to amass 100 first class games, he served as a selector and administrator of Māori rugby. Such were the size of his calf muscles, children used to contemplate sticking pins in them to see if they could deflate that part of his body. It was he who told a young George Nepia to play at fullback rather than at first five eight in 1924.