FOUNDERS OF RUGBY

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 162, 7 June 1930, Page 5

FOUNDERS OF RUGBY

GAME IN THE DOMINION. ECHO OF THE EARLY DAYS. While Mr C. J. Monro, of Palmerston North, lays claim to being the founder of Rugby football in New Zealand, Mr R. C. Tennent, who is now a resident of Woodville, can claim an equal share to the establishment of the game in the Dominion; indeed his association with football, in the wider sense of the term, predates that of Mr Monro. It was away back in 18G8 or IBG9 that Mr Tennent, who was then a member of the staff of the Bank of New South Wales in Nelson, in company with other of the younger members of the community, decided to form a footcall club. Some uncertainty, however, had existed as to the rules to bo adopted and, as the club was in possession of the Association rules and those of the Victorian Association, it was decided to give both a try out. It was after the club had become established that Mr Monro, a son of Sir David Monro, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, returned from England where he had been attending school and suggested the adoption of the Rugby rules. When commenting upon those early days of football in the Dominion, Mr Tennent explained to a “Standard” representative that, acting upon Mr Monro’s suggestion, the Nelson Club had adopted Rugby rules which had been tho forerunner for the Nelson College to do likewise. The club, of which Mr Tennent had been, incidentally, secretary and treasurer, had continued to play Rugby and some two years later Mr Monro had written him suggesting that a match be arranged between Nelson and Wellington. Suitable arrangements had been made for the transport of the Nelson players, but on arrival it had been found that the Basin Reserve, on which tho match was to have been staged, was under water and the two teams had journeyed further afield by drags and the game had been finally contested at Petone. That first iiiterprovincial match had resultled in a victory for Nelson by three goals to nil, and the return match a year later had likewise found Nelson victorious by tho same scoring margin. Tho third interprovincial match had been played on the Basin Reserve, Wellington, in 1874, when Mr Alfred Bunny, of tho visiting team, had been removed from the field suffering with concussion of the brain, while one of the home players —a member of the constabulary—had sustained a broken leg. That strenuous struggle had terminated with the honours even. Mr Tennent participated in all three matches and had captained the Nelson team in the third game. To-day Mr Tennent is still wonderfully halo and hearty, and lie looks back on bis association with those early days of Dominion football with a degree of pride. Of those others who participated in those matches, the majority have answerod the command of yet a higher “referee,” but Mr A. B. Campbell, of Napier, and Mr E. N. Blundell, a former manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Feilding and New Plymouth, are still alive to recount incidents of those early days when New Zealand was a fledgling country and its players but members of the Rugby nursery.