History of rugby union in Australia
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Rugby union has a long history in Australia, with the first club being formed in 1863 at Sydney University. Today it holds tier one status with World Rugby and has over 82,000 players nationwide.


Early history and nineteenth century


Pre-codification football

There is some evidence of indigenous Australian forms of football being played in Australia, before the European arrival. Some of these involved kick and catch games. Early Europeans may well have played their own forms of traditional football as well, which involved kicking and handling. With the arrival of Europeans, a form of football was played very early on with matches being played in by 1829 in Sydney, Melbourne by 1840, Brisbane by 1849, and Tasmania by 1851. Most of these early games took part at local festivals, with no clear set of rules being used, and no codified version of any game being played. The first reports of a sport like rugby being played in Australia date back to the 1820s when visiting ship crews would play army teams at Barrack Square.History of the ARU
/ref> The versions played locally in this period borrowed elements from the various codes that are present today including Australian rules, soccer and rugby with the rules played being decided prior to the start of the match. However the Cambridge Rules were pedominant in country in the Colony of Victoria from 1841 and Harrow football was the predominant code in Colony of South Australia and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from 1843. In 1858 English public school football games began to be played in Melbourne and surrounding districts. The earliest known such match was played on 15 June 1858 between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School on the St Kilda foreshore. Some of these games would evolve into
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
.


Rugby football and Australian rules football

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
was first played in Australia in 1858. The founder of the game was Tom Wills. At the age of 14, Wills was sent to England to attend Rugby School, where he became captain of Rugby's cricket team. The
origins of Australian rules football The origins of Australian rules football date back to the late 1850s in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria. There is documentary evidence of "foot-ball" being played in Australia as early as the 1820s. These games were poorly documented bu ...
are murky, with various theories being put forward, including an indigenous provenance, and an influence from
Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...
. However, the influence of cricket is indisputable, as is the fact that Wills attended Rugby School. Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock, Ian Turner and
Sean Fagan Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...
have all written in support for the theory that the primary influence on the game was rugby football and other games emanating from English public schools. Writing to Wills in 1871, Thompson recalled that "the Rugby,
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
, Harrow, and Winchester rules at that time (I think in 1859) came under our consideration, ... we all but unanimously agreed that regulations which suited schoolboys ... would not be patiently tolerated by grown men." The hardness of the playing fields around Melbourne also influenced their thinking. Even Wills, who favoured many rules of Rugby School football, saw the need for compromise. He wrote to his brother Horace: "Rugby was not a game for us, we wanted a winter pastime but men could be harmed if thrown on the ground so we thought differently."de Moore, Greg. ''Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall''. Allen & Unwin, 2008. , p. 94


Early rugby football

In 1863, the first formal rugby football club was formed at Sydney University. In 1869, Newington College was the first Australian school to play rugby in a match against the University of Sydney. From this beginning, the first metropolitan competition in Australia developed, formally beginning in 1874. This was organised by the Southern Rugby Union, which was administered by the rugby union at Twickenham, in England. Administration was given over to the Southern Rugby Union in 1881. Rugby began outside of Sydney first in Queensland in 1876, with the first inter-colonial match being played in Sydney in 1882. During these years the rugby that was played, was administered by the
Queensland Football Association The Queensland Football Association (QFA) was the first governing body for football in the Colony of Queensland founded on 30 April 1880. Its role was primarily to facilitate club and representative matches primarily in Australian rules football ...
, which was the organisation administering principally the Melbourne Rules football code. Primarily due to the poor treatment rugby received by the QFA, a new organisation to oversee rugby was founded at a meeting held on 2 November 1883 at the Exchange Hotel in Brisbane. This organisation was formally constituted a decade later in 1893, as the Queensland Rugby Union. The first rugby union club to be established in Australia was
Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...
's in 1863. A decade after the first club was formed, a body called the Southern Rugby Union was formed as a result of a meeting at the Oxford Hotel in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, a Sydney competition was established, which was administered from the England Rugby headquarters at Twickenham. The first competition commenced the following year in 1865 with 6 teams. The 'Waratah' Rugby Club invited
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
club, the Carlton Football Club to play two matches, one under rugby rules and one under Australian rules.M. P. Sharp
Football in Sydney before 1914
, Sporting Traditions Vol 4 No 1 Nov 1987.
On Saturday 23 June, 3,000 spectators watched Waratah beat Carlton at rugby at the
Albert Cricket Ground Albert Cricket Ground, also known as the Albert Reserve and previously as the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground, is a cricket ground in St Kilda, Victoria. It is operated by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), and used as its primary home ground in th ...
in Redfern. In the return leg, Carlton defeated Waratah under Australian rules. A week later over 100 footballers formed the New South Wales Football Association (NSWFA) to play the Australian game. With its origins, image and administration anchored in England, supporters of rugby saw the code as a symbol and reminder of their Englishness. The first inter-
colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...
game occurred in 1882, when players from the four Queensland clubs (who played both rugby and Australian rules football) travelled to
NSW ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
. NSW won by 28 points to 4 at the
Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...
in front of 4,000 spectators. On 2 November, in 1883, the Northern Rugby Union was formed as the rugby body in Queensland after a meeting at the Exchange Hotel. As a result of the formation of the new body, several prominent GPS schools took up rugby as opposed to
Melbourne Rules The laws of Australian rules football were first created by the Melbourne Football Club in 1859 and have been refined over the years as the sport evolved into its modern form. The laws significantly predate the advent of a governing body for ...
. That same year, the Southern Rugby Union undertook its inaugural tour of New Zealand, the following year, a New Zealand party travelled to Australia and the first club competition was held in Queensland. In 1888 the Melbourne Rugby Union was formed in Victoria. In 1892, the rugby bodies in Australia dropped Southern and Northern from their titles, adopting New South Wales and Queensland respectively. That year also saw the first British and Irish Lions tour take place, and although unsanctioned by official bodies in Europe, the 21-man squad travelled to both Australia and New Zealand. In 1893, Frank Ivory was the first Indigenous Australian to play representative rugby union (for Queensland) In 1899, the national team of Australia played their first match. The Hospital's Cup became an annual competition in Queensland.


Twentieth century


Arrival of rugby league

By the time England's new "
Northern Union The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...
game" arrived in Australia it was fundamentally different from rugby union, with lineouts, rucks and two players from each team having already been removed, and the play-the-ball introduced. In 1907, the schism that more than a decade earlier, had torn the Northern Rugby Football Union from the
Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...
, arrived on Australia's doorstep. Rugby union's amateur high ideals, irked the working class rugby players who sought compensation for time away from work. A meeting took place at Bateman's Crystal Hotel in Sydney on 8 August 1907, where a resolution was made to form the New South Wales Rugby Football League. They played their first season in 1908. Such was the impact of the arrival of rugby league, that in 1908, when the touring
Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
team returned from England, eleven of the players joined rugby league teams. By 1910 rugby league had overtaken rugby union in popularity.


Recovery

In 1903, Australia played its first test against the All Blacks, in front of a crowd of 30,000 at the
Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...
. In 1907, Australia again played the All Blacks, at the same venue as the 1903 match, with crowd numbers reaching 50,000. This figure would not be surpassed again by rugby union at the ground after the start of rugby league in 1908 (the SFS commenced as the Sydney rectangular venue for rugby league and union in 1988). By the time of the 1910 British Lions rugby league tour, rugby league was well entrenched as the major winter sport in all of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, surpassing rugby union. This was a position from which rugby union would never recover in Australia. In 1928 the QRU reformed, and the
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
and major clubs returned to rugby union. In 1931, the governor of New Zealand donated a sporting trophy called the Bledisloe Cup, named appropriately after Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, for competition between Australia and New Zealand. The first game was held that year at
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...
, though the official start of the competition is disputed between that game and the 1932 New Zealand tour to Australia. During the 1930s, the playing of sport on Sunday was banned in most of the country outside South Australia. During the 1930s, rugby league, which had gone professional, began to overtake rugby union in popularity in Queensland, with the league being the dominant spectator code by 1937. The late 1940s saw the construction of a national governing body, as opposed to the
NSWRU The New South Wales Rugby Union, or NSWRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within Australia it is considered ...
being the main organisation. In 1949, the Australian Rugby Union joined the world governing body, then known as the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB). Since 2017, the national governing body has been known as Rugby Australia.


Impact of World War I

Heavy enlistments took their toll on the playing population of Rugby Union in Australia during World War I. The Queensland Rugby Union dissolved, and was only able to reorganise again in 1928. Such was the drop in playing numbers that the only players available during the 1920s for representing Australia were the Waratah players. An event that was to greatly shape rugby union's future in Australia was the onset of World War I in 1914. While rugby league, which had been introduced to Australia in 1908, continued to play in the form of NSWRL competitions, rugby union competitions were suspended due to an overwhelmingly high percentage of rugby union players enlisting to serve in the Australian Imperial Force. The enlistment of rugby union players was so quick and extensive, that by 1915, a Sydney newspaper reported: "According to figures prepared by Mr W. W. Hill, secretary of the
New South Wales Rugby Union The New South Wales Rugby Union, or NSWRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within Australia it is considered t ...
, 197 out of 220 regular first grade players are on active service, or 90 percent." Weakened by the loss of its players to the war effort, the Queensland Rugby Union was dissolved in 1919. In the aftermath of the war, a large number of national representatives would defect to rugby league, giving rugby league a strong position in the states of New South Wales and Queensland, which it continues to maintain to this day.


1980s and 1990s

In 1987, the first ever Rugby World Cup was held in both Australia and New Zealand, as a result of both the respective rugby bodies putting forth the idea to the IRFB. Australia was defeated by France in the semifinal stage. In 1995, rugby union became openly professional in Australia following an agreement between SANZAR countries and Rupert Murdoch regarding pay television rights for the game. Australia won two world cups in the 90s, the
1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...
defeating England in the final, and the
1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...
defeating France in the final. With rugby union becoming an openly professional sport in 1995, after more than a century of being a professed amateur code, major changes were seen in both the club and international game. The
Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
rugby competition was born that year. The tournament involved 12 provincial sides from three counties; New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Australia entered three sides into the competition;
ACT Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...
, Queensland Reds and the
New South Wales Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, ...
. The year also saw the Tri Nations Series, between the three Super 12 countries. In 1999, the Bledisloe Cup match between Australia and the New Zealand All Blacks was staged at the Homebush Olympic Stadium, now known as ANZ Stadium. The game attracted a then world record crowd of 107,042 for a rugby union match. In 2000 this was bettered when a crowd of 109,874 witnessed the 'Greatest ever Rugby Match' when a Jonah Lomu try sealed a 39–35 All Blacks win over the Wallabies. The All Blacks had led 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see Australia draw level at 24 all by half time. The Wallabies were champions of the
1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...
in Wales, claiming their second Webb Ellis Cup trophy. In doing this, Australia became the first multiple winners of the tournament.


The new millennium

The year 2003 saw the staging of the Rugby World Cup in Australia. Prior to the tournament, three high-profile Kangaroo rugby league players switched codes; Wendell Sailor, Mat Rogers and
Lote Tuqiri Lote Daulako Tuqiri (born 23 September 1979) is a former professional dual-code rugby footballer who primarily played as a winger across both codes. He represented Australia in both rugby league and rugby union, and Fiji in rugby league. Tuqir ...
. The fifth Rugby World Cup was held in various Australian cities from October to November in 2003. Matches were played all across the country, in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Brisbane, Melbourne,
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, Adelaide, Perth, Townsville, Gosford, Wollongong and Launceston. The tournament was hailed as a huge success, an estimated 40,000 international spectators travelled to Australia for the event, some estimations said that a $100 million may have been injected into the Australian economy. The Australian Rugby Union said that revenues exceeded all expectations, the tournament surplus was estimated to be at $44.5 million. The hosting of the World Cup in Australia also saw an increase in Super 12 crowds and junior participation. In 2005, to celebrate a decade of professional rugby union in Australia, the
Wallaby Team of the Decade To celebrate 10 years of professional 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 ...
was announced. In 2007, the ARU launched a national competition, the Australian Rugby Championship, with eight teams—three from New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one each from the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia. The ARC was scrapped after only one season due to higher-than-expected losses of $4.7 million. In late 2013, the ARU announced plans to launch a new national competition to be known as the National Rugby Championship. Originally scheduled to launch in September 2014, after the Super Rugby season and much of The Rugby Championship, the competition was expected to involve 10 teams. Player payments were expected to be considerably lower than in the former ARC, and the NRC has a broadcast contract with Fox Sports. The ARU officially unveiled the NRC in March 2014 for an August launch with nine teams; the geographic distribution was identical to that of the former ARC, with the exception of a fourth NSW team. Since then, the competition has lost one domestic team but added the Fijian Drua, a developmental side for that country's national team. In 2017, the Australian Rugby Union was renamed Rugby Australia, coinciding with relocating to their new premises in Moore Park,
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.


Australian National Team

The first international tour took place in 1899, when the two unions of New South Wales and Queensland played a four match series against a visiting team from the British Isles. Australia won its first match, but lost all remaining matches. The second match was played in Brisbane. Australia played its first match with New Zealand in 1903, and its second in 1907.


Birth of the Wallaby

The first international tour was organised for 1908, when a squad of players travelled nine months United Kingdom, Ireland and North America. Invited to play in the rugby tournament that was a part of the 1908 London games, Australia won the gold medal, defeating the English team.


Bledisloe Cup

In 1931, Lord Bledisloe the Governor General of New Zealand, donated a rugby trophy to honor the sporting rivalry between New Zealand and Australia.


Founding of a national union

Before 1947, all administration of Australian international rugby events was performed by the New South Wales Rugby Union. State unions in 1947 determined that Australia should be served by a national union in these matters. In 1948, World Rugby, then known as the International Rugby Football Board, extended the invitation to Australia and not the New South Wales Rugby Union, to take a seat on its board. This precipitated into the formation of the Australian Rugby Football Union (ARFU). Eleven delegates from the unions in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria met on 25 November 1949 for ARFU's inaugural meeting.


Co-hosting the first Rugby World Cup

The idea of a world cup tournament for rugby had arisen several times. Possibly as early as the 1950s murmurings of a world cup tournament were made by Harold Tolhurst. In 1979 Australian Rugby Union's president
Bill McLaughlin Reginald Edward Millen "Bill" McLaughlin MBE (1914–1990) was an Australian Rugby Union player and President of the Australian Rugby Union. He represented for the Wallabies twice and was later assistant manager and coach of the national side.A ...
was requesting that Australia host a Rugby World Cup in conjunction with its Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. The IRFB had turned down all of these requests, forbidding any member unions from planning or attending any such events. Two separate objections have been noted, the first that the IRFB felt that the underlying amateur principle of rugby would be effected, the second that they did not want a rugby tournament being run by commercial interests. These objections were laid aside in 1984, after receiving separate requests from New Zealand and Australia, to host a world cup, the IRFB decided to approve a feasibility study of a Rugby World Cup. Joining forces, New Zealand and Australia began their study on 1 December 1984. Presenting their findings to the IRFB at the Paris meeting in March 1985, the approval for a joint Rugby World Cup was hard-won. With an IRFB split evenly, it took a detractor
John Kendall-Carpenter John MacGregor Kendall Kendall-Carpenter (25 September 1925 – 24 May 1990) was an England rugby union international who won 23 caps as a back row forward between 1949 and 1954. He subsequently served as President of the Rugby Football Union ...
to change his vote to the affirmative, to allow the World Cup to take place. The Rugby World Cup was held between 22 May to 20 June 1987.


See also

*
Origins of Australian rules football The origins of Australian rules football date back to the late 1850s in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria. There is documentary evidence of "foot-ball" being played in Australia as early as the 1820s. These games were poorly documented bu ...
* History of rugby league * Rugby league in Australia *
Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...


References


Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:History of Rugby Union in Australia
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
Rugby union in Australia History of sport in Australia