SOUTHLAND UNION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20503, 22 August 1936, Page 22

SOUTHLAND UNION

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS By Telegraph —Pres? Association INVERCARGILL. August 21. Fifty years of Rugby administration in the Southland province will be celebrated by the South.and Rugby Football Union to-morrow and over the week-end. The celebrations will begin with a grand parade of past and present representative players at Rugby Park tomorrow afternoon. On February 19, 1887, the Southland Rugby Football Union was formed. It was actually the selection of the Otago team which ultimately brought about the decision of several Invercargill enthusiasts to go on their own. Dissatisfaction over the treatment of eligible Southland players was very rife at the time, and it was pointed out to Otago that better results would be obtained by all concerned if Southland broke oway. Otago was in full accord with the decision, as it was realised that the distance between Dunedin and Invercargill was too great to allow of

play of the Southland men being fairly gauged. Thus was brought about the birth of the most southerly Rugby Union in the world. The eighty-third Rugby match between Southland and Otago will be played here to-morrow, and jt is expected that about 3000 people will come down from Dunedin to see it and take part in the week-end celebrations. They will be headed by a drum, bugle and trumpet band, fifty strong.