BIRTH OF RUGBY

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 June 1928, Page 3

BIRTH OF RUGBY

INTERPROVINCIAL MATCHES.

To Mr R. C. Tennent, who is now living in retirement at Napier after having completed 52 years’ service with the Bank of New South Wales, belongs the honour of being the founder of the first Rugby football club jn New Zealand (says the “Dominion”). A keen athlete in his day, Mr Tenent represented Nelson at cricket and football and was also the champion mile runner of the province for three years. In an interview yesterday, he related some interesting reminiscences of the first interprovincial match played in the Dominion, and had also something to say about the standard of play today. It was either in 1868 or 1869, said Mr Tenennt, that the first club was formed in New Zealand. Finding that there was nothing to do in the winter months, the young men at Nelson, whore Mr Tennent whs attached to the staff of the Bank of New South Wales, decided to call a meeting with a view to forming a club in the district. “A club was formed,” said Mr Tennent, “but we were not quite certain what rules we should adopt. We had the Association rules and the rules of the Victorian Association. We decided to give both a try-out, and while we were doing so Mr C. J. Munro. a son of Sir David Munro, a former Speaker-of the House of Representatives, returned from England, where he had been attending school at Cherborne'. He suggested that we should try Rugby. We did, and we liked it better than any of the other codes. We formed a club, and I was elected "secretary and treasurer. “The Nelson College adopted the same rules and thus the game was started. After we had been playing for about two years, Mr C. J. Munro wrote to me from Wellington that the Government steamer Luna was visiting Nelson to pick up the Panama mail, and that he had seen Sir Julius Vogel, who had granted the team a free passage to Wellington on the Luna in order to play against a. fifteen of English players. “When we came over we found the Basin Reserve half covered with water and unplayable, so we decided to play at the Hutt. We went out in two drags. We found a. suitable field near Petone, and it was there that the first inter-provincial Rugby match was played, being won by Nelson by three goals to nil. “The rules as then played were similar to those played now, with the exception that when a scrum was formed all the forwards stood opposite one another in a line. The hall was thrown in between the lines by one of the players, and everyone kicked at it as it passed. In those days only goals were counted. The game was very fast—much faster than it is today, and the running and drop-kicking of the players was quite a feature. “The following year we returned the visit, tl\e game being played in the Nelson Botanical* Gardens. Nelson again won by three goals to nil. “The third interprovincial match,” continued"Mr Tennent,-’'was played in 1874, on the Basin Reserve, in the presence of the Governor and a large crowd of spectators. Mhny of the armed constabulary were in the Wellington team, and the game was a most strenuous one, Mr Alfred Bunny, of the Nelson side, being taken off with concussion of the brain, and a Wellington player, one of the constabulary, with a broken leg. It end= ed in a draw.”

Mr Tennent played for Nelson in all three matches, and was captain in the third match 1 : When he left Nelson, he was captain of the Patea team for five years, when he retired from football. He was elected a life niember of the Athletic Club (Wellington) in recognition of the fact that he was the founder of Rugby football in New Zealand.

“It may be interesting to players to know, said Mr Tennent, “that Sir Douglas McLean played fox* Wellington in the second interprovincial match, and Mr A. B. Campbell, now Of Napier, for Nelson in the third match, also Mr James Burnett, late chief engineer of railways. The captain of the first two matches on the Wellington side was Mr Isherwood, and of the third match, Mr Werry. On the Nelson side the captain of the first match was Mr Alfred Drew, of Palmerston North , of the second Archdeacon Kempthorne, and of the third Mr Tennent.”

The game, said Mr Tennent, has increased enormously in popularity. At first it was played mostly by the colleges and men in legal and mercantile pursuits. To-day it is New Zealand’s national game. “I consider the standard of play was never higher than it is to-day; and I look forward with a certain amount of confidence that New Zealand will win the majority of the Test matches in South Africa. My experience of sixty years has been that the love for the game has increased to an enormous extent; it has invaded.every section of the community, and if not carried to an excess, will be for the ultimate benefit of the whole nation.”