The MAG Vietnam Vol 3 Nov 2016 | Page 50

Rugby

Bruce Mackenzie Rugby enthusiast Dive fanatic and OHS officer. TRANS TASMAN Rugby History

Origins of Rugby: Australia and New Zealand

Australia( Wallabies)

In 1882 the Southern Rugby Football Union( renamed the New South Wales Rugby Union in 1892 toured New Zealand. The New Zealand national team toured New South Wales in 1884 – defeating New South Wales in all three matches, and winning all nine matches on tour.

The first tour by a British team took place in 1888. A British Isles team toured Australia and New Zealand, though no Test matches were played. Although they had representatives from all four home nations, the players were drawn mainly from England and the Scottish borders.[ 2 ] The tour was not sanctioned by the Rugby Football Union as it was organised by entrepreneurs and thus contravened the union’ s strict regulations pertaining to professionalism.

In 1899 the first officially sanctioned British Isles team toured Australia. Four Tests were played between Australia and the British Isles( three in Sydney and one in Brisbane). The Australian team for the first Test match consisted of six players from Queensland and nine from New South Wales.[ 5 ] The team wore the blue of New South Wales when playing in Sydney and the maroon of Queensland when playing in Brisbane, but with an Australian Coat of Arms in place of the usual emblems of each colony. The first Test was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and won 13 – 3 by Australia, but the tourists won the remaining three Tests.

In 1907 the New South Wales Rugby League was formed and star player Dally Messenger left the Rugby union for the rival code. The next year the first Australian team to tour the British Isles left Sydney. Newspapers in England initially gave the team the name‘ Rabbits’. The Australian players thought this nickname derogatory and replaced it with‘ Wallabies.

New Zealand( All Blacks)

Rugby union – almost universally referred to as rugby in New Zealand – was introduced to New Zealand by Charles Monro in 1870; Monro discovered the sport while completing his studies at Christ’ s College, Finchley, England. The first recorded game in New Zealand took place in May 1870 in Nelson between the Nelson club and Nelson College.

In 1892, following the canvassing of provincial administrators by Ernest Hoben, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union( NZR- FU) was formed by the majority of New Zealand’ s provincial unions, but did not include Canterbury, Otago or Southland. The first officially sanctioned New Zealand side toured New South Wales in 1893, where the Thomas Ellison captained team won nine of their ten matches. The following year New Zealand played its first home“ international” game, losing 8 – 6 to New South Wales. The team’ s first true test match occurred against Australia on 15 August 1903 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of over 30,000 spectators, and resulted in a 22 – 3 victory.

The Original All Blacks that toured the British Isles, France and the United States during 1905 – 06. The team won 34 of their 35 tour matches. A representative New Zealand team first toured the British Isles in 1905. The side is now known as the Originals, as the All Blacks name emerged during this tour when, according to team member Billy Wallace, a London newspaper reported that the New Zealanders played as if they were“ all backs”.[ 18 ] Wallace claimed that because of a typographical error, subsequent references were to“ All Blacks”. This account is most likely a myth – because of their black playing strip, the side was probably referred to as the Blacks before they left New Zealand. Even though the name All Blacks most likely existed before the trip, the tour did popularise it.

Information courtesy of public domain Wikipedia 50 The MAG Vung Tau