Hamilton Rugby Football Club was founded in March 1875 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, and states that it is the oldest

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Hamilton RFC played in the first official match at

Newlands Stadium The Newlands Stadium, referred to as DHL Newlands for sponsorship reasons, is located in Cape Town, South Africa. The stadium has a capacity of 51,900 people, but is not an all-seater venue. Various sports teams use the stadium as their ho ...

on 31 May 1890.

Origins

The club's inception occurred when a Mr. W. Nightingale called together a meeting of football enthusiasts at the offices of Messrs. Hamilton Ross & Co. The meeting took the name of their club from a Hamilton Football Club (est. 1868) in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

of which Nightingale had been a member. The club merged with Sea Point Rugby Football Club in 1910 and in 1914 adopted its current jersey colours of three wide bands of red, black and yellow.

Club honours

* 2013: Hamiltons qualified to participate in the 2014 national club competition, the SARU Community Cup, by ending at the top of non-university sides in the 2013 edition of Western Province's Super League A. * 1883–2011: Hamilton RFC won WP's Grand Challenge Cup 15 times, in 2009, 1936, 1929, 1927, 1908, 1906, 1900, 1898, 1895, 1890, 1889, 1887, 1886, 1885 and 1883. * 2010: Hamilton RFC's sevens team won the 120th international

Melrose Sevens Melrose Sevens is an annual rugby sevens event held by Melrose Rugby Club, at The Greenyards in Melrose, Scotland. It is the oldest rugby sevens competition in the world, dating back to 1883 when the tournament was suggested by former Melrose ...

competition in

, and were runners up in 2011 to

Melrose RFC Melrose may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Melrose, Scottish Borders, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland ** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery ** Melrose RFC, rugby club Australia * Melrose, Queensland, a locality in the South Burnett ...

. * 2009: Hamiltons won WP's Super League A and went on to beat Pukke 36-34 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium to claim the SAA national club championships. * 2009–14: Hamiltons hosted the inaugural Cape Town Tens rugby tournament, "the biggest ten-a-side tournament in world rugby", and will do so again for the 6th time in February 2014. The event was launched by former Springboks

Robbie Fleck Robert Frank Fleck better known as Robbie (born 17 July 1975 in Cape Town) is a former rugby union footballer who played at centre for South Africa. He is also the current head coach of the team. He made his international debut in the Tour of ...

and

Bob Skinstad Robert Brian Skinstad (born 3 July 1976) is a former rugby union professional player who has represented the South African national team, the Springboks. He played in the positions of flanker and number eight. Education Skinstad lived in Kloof ...

in 2009, and organizers anticipated "more than 2,000 players and 12,000 spectators" to participate.

Notable members

* Loftus Versfeld - played for Hamiltons "for five or six years"; won the inaugural Western Province Grand Challenge Cup with Hamilton RFC (1883); founder member, Eastern Province Rugby Union; won Eastern Province Grand Challenge Cup with Union RFC (1888); founder, Pretoria Rugby Club; won Transvaal Grand Challenge Cup with Pretoria RFC (1889); played for a Country XV against W.E. McLagan's touring British side (1891); founder member, Pretoria Rugby Subunion (1908) which in 1938 became

Northern Transvaal Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

; established Pretoria rugby headquarters at Eastern Sports Grounds; introduced grass playing fields to the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

* W.V. ('Billy') Simkins - first president of Hamiltons; first referee to supervise a match at

(31 May 1890); chairperson of the South African Rugby Board; chairperson of the Western Province Rugby Union; chairperson of the Western Province Cricket Union. *

Bennie Osler Benjamin Louwrens Osler (23 November 1901 – 28 April 1962) was a rugby union footballer who played internationally for South Africa. Osler played mainly at fly-half for both South Africa, and his provincial team of Western Province. Osler w ...

, captain of Hamiltons (1927–1928 & 1930), Springbok (17 tests, 46 points); captain on tour to British Isles & Ireland (1931–32); joint record-holder, most consecutive test appearances at flyhalf (17).

Springboks

Several players represented while members of Hamiltons but did not necessarily make their debut for South Africa as such. The following players made their test debut for the

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

while being members of Hamiltons.

References

External links