Australian artist Sidney Nolan is rightly famed for his series of paintings (made 1945-55) on bushranger Ned Kelly. Another work he made in that same period is ‘Footballer’ – but which football code, if any, did Nolan intend to convey?… Read the rest of this page »
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ENGLISH RUGGERS GONE OVERBOARD
England’s centre Manu Tuilagi farewelled the 2011 Rugby World Cup by jumping from a ferry into Auckland Harbour. Bizarrely, he isn’t the first English rugger to end a New Zealand visit with a pier-side dunking in the city’s icy cold waters. The earlier instance was an accident, nearly a sad tragedy… Read the rest of this page »
RUGBY vs THE RED BARON
The airplane pilots and men involved in “dog fight” aerial combat during WW1 were (and often still are) portrayed as modern day knights, competing with gentlemen opponents under a chivalric code as the rules of engagement for something little more dangerous than a particularly “willing” game of rugby… Read the rest of this page »
PERILS OF MAKING RUGBY TOO FAST
Billy Stead, All Blacks 1903-08, has a special place in international rugby history, for not only was he one of the best to play in the first five-eighths positions, but he was also one of the sharpest early thinkers on the game… Read the rest of this page »
REDISCOVERING AN ANCIENT RUGBY BOND
The Wallabies met Samoa for the first time at Pontypool (Wales) during the 1991 World Cup, but the rugby connections between the two nations are far older, reaching back to 1925 when a now long-forgotten Sydney schoolboy of Samoan blood won Test selection… Read the rest of this page »
SOME CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD
Rupert Brooke’s five sonnet work 1914 – The Soldier is the most famous poem of World War One – That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. Brooke’s all too brief life story begins at Rugby School, including playing football on The Close – an experience he put down in prose… Read the rest of this page »
WITH A FINE DISREGARD
Many texts and articles say that rugby was invented in 1823 at Rugby School with schoolboy William Webb Ellis picking up the football in a soccer match and running with it – thus giving birth to rugby football. However is that really what happened? Was it really during a soccer game? Read the rest of this page »
DID A PAINTING KICK-OFF FRENCH RUGBY?
Did a painting that depicted the 1886 rugby meeting between Scotland and England kick-start interest in the game in France?… Read the rest of this page »
HOLLYWOOD’S DUKE LECTURES ON WILLIAM WEBB ELLIS
One of the more unlikely moments in the history of film is that of legendary actor John Wayne lecturing to the world in Trouble Along The Way upon the origins of American football in English rugby and with William Webb Ellis… Read the rest of this page »
ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND RUGBY
The worlds of rugby football and Hollywood film director Alfred Hitchcock intersect at only one point - in the 1927 silent movie Downhill - the story of an English public school boy… Read the rest of this page »
WHEN A SCHOOLBOY PLAYED FOR ENGLAND
When an international team or player has put in an ordinary performance, it is sometimes derided as being worthy of “schoolboy” football – which is hardly fair to the many, many, fine schoolboy footballers the game has seen. Indeed in 1903 schoolboy JG ‘Jumbo’ Milton was chosen for England. Read the rest of this page »
WILD & WEIRD SPRINGBOKS
We are all familiar with the All Blacks haka, and that the early Wallabies teams had an Aboriginal war cry, but what of the Springboks, did they once have a Zulu-infused battle shout? Read the rest of this page »
RUGBY RULED AUSSIE RULES
It’s an intriguing question: Through the last quarter of the 19th century, how did rugby in New Zealand, New South Wales and Queensland manage to repel the advance of Australasian (later Australian) rules football – a code that was deliberately made safer to play and more spectacular to watch than rugby, and unashamedly wrapped itself in a cloak of patriotism, tugging at hearts as the colonies moved towards becoming one country? Read the rest of this page »
THE RUGBY PLAYING PADRE
Matthew Mullineux was a British ‘padre,’ whose life was full of adventure, philanthropy and service to the British Empire. Small of stature with a happy face and cheerful smile, he looked a typical English clergyman. His life was far from ordinary, first coming to prominence as an international rugby player in the mid 1890s. Read the rest of this page »
THE LEGACY OF “OLD BROOKE”
Thomas Hughes’ classic novel, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, is generally considered to be a semi-biographical account of life at Rugby School in the early 1830s. One of the chief characters in the football match was “old Brooke”, and after the book was released in 1858 his deeds inspired countless youths to take up the game. A decade earlier though, the real “old Brooke” sailed to far away Tasmania, and kicked off the game’s first existence outside of Britain. Read the rest of this page »
WHY HOOKERS THROW AT LINE-OUTS
In the modern game it is the task of the hooker to throw the ball into the line-out. It hasn’t always been the way, with earlier eras assigning the role to the winger, half-back or other positions. Read the rest of this page »
MUDDIED OAFS OF RUGBY
The most common epithet applied to a rugby player is that of being a “muddied oaf”. Though usually given in a light-hearted manner, and even worn with pride, it nevertheless reinforces a stereotype portraying rugby footballers as lacking intelligence or manners, and often both. So where did the “muddied oafs” appellation originate? Read the rest of this page »
NEW ZEALAND’S ALL BLACKS JERSEY
One of the most iconic brands in world sport is the New Zealand rugby team’s ‘All Blacks’ jersey. The black jersey with silver fern leaf was adopted by the NZRU in 1893, but what remains a mystery is “Why black?” Read the rest of this page »
RUGBY WORLD CUP
The Rugby World Cup trophy is named in honour of William Webb Ellis – the school-boy who in 1823 broke with the conventions of the day by running with the ball in his hands towards the opposition goal. Rugby historians though point out that Ellis’ deed is more myth than reality. So if Ellis was not the originator of rugby, then who? Read the rest of this page »
ALL BLACKS TACTICS
Complaints bemoaning All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and his ‘on the edge’ ruck tactics against the Wallabies and Springboks are not hard to find. More prevalent and sterner though is criticism directed at referees, with suggestions they are failing in their responsibilities to police infringements, and are too reluctant to reach for the yellow card’ for repeat offenders. After all, isn’t it every rugby player’s responsibility to get away with what he can, and the referee’s job to catch and penalise him? Read the rest of this page »
THEIR MUDDIED, CRACKED BODIES
Many club websites include collections of famous, thoughtful and witty rugby quotes. Some fine words from Victor Cahn about rugby are particularly popular in America, no doubt because it is written from a local perspective on rugby and its place within the USA. Most Americans will know it from the line “Yet these rugby players, with their muddied, cracked bodies…” The full quote though is worthy of attention. Read the rest of this page »
RUGGER, SOCCER & FOOTER
Few would be unfamiliar with ‘rugger’ as an informal name for rugby. For the most part ‘rugger’ is seen as a jaunty and good-humoured word, evoking rugby’s historical ties to England’s upper social classes and University life around the globe. ‘Rugger’ – along with the etymologically linked ‘soccer’ – came into popular use well over a century ago – from ‘footer’… Read the rest of this page »
THE GHOST IN THE RUGBY PAINTING
Art and sport rarely mix. Few painters have ventured into the world of rugby to depict the triumphs and tragedies of the football field. The most famous rugby painting belongs to the late 19th century: William Barnes Wollen’s The Roses Match – the painting that, it is said, was altered to expunge from existence amateur rugby players who had turned to professional rugby league in 1895. Read the rest of this page »
THE FAMOUS MAORI FOOTBALLER, JACK TAIAROA
When talk comes around to New Zealand rugby’s first Maori stars, Tom Ellison and Joe Warbrick are usually and fairly the two names brought to the fore. However, to many of those who possessed a living memory of late 19th century rugby, the standout performer was a man who contributed to the rise of both Ellison and Warbrick, but is himself now long forgotten: Jack Taiaroa. Read the rest of this page »
SCHOOLBOY RUGGER MORE THAN A GAME
The design pattern for schools around the world in the mid-late 1800s were the English Public Schools, particularly Rugby School. Under the ‘Muscular Christianity’ mantra, the aim was to turn out boys fully developed mentally, morally and physically – to send them out fitted in body and soul for everything the world of the 19th century could throw at them. The game of rugby was an essential part of the school model. Read the rest of this page »
THE FIRST PRINCE OF RUGBY
Mention is often made of the key dates and stories behind the founding of the world’s first rugby clubs in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but barely anything is ever mentioned of the star players of this pioneering era. Rather than an oversight, it is a reflection of there simply being a lack of available information. One name though emerges from the shadows of this distant time – CS Dakyns. Read the rest of this page »
ENGLAND TO TOUR IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
In 1888 the first (what is now recognised as) British Lions sailed ‘down under’ – given the hazards, distance and communication difficulties of the time, merely bringing the venture to fruition was an astonishing feat in itself. Remarkably, nine years earlier, England’s rugby captain had made a similar daring attempt at organising a tour. Read the rest of this page »
WHAT GLORIOUS CREATURES WE ARE!
By the early 20th century the primary tenets of sound rugby were team work and combination. Every man had his place and his assigned role. Players were a cog in an industrial machine. Individuals who went for glory on their own were derided as a “gallery player” and accused of looking to earn the cheers of the crowd and get their name in the newspaper. Yet just a generation earlier it was individualism that was lauded, with boys brought up on feats of solo derring-do rugby, particularly in the popular The Boy’s Own Paper (launched in 1879). Read the rest of this page »
RUGBY’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL PYTHON
It is not unheard of for a sporting team to be accompanied by a live mascot – College Football in the USA has made it a tradition. The first Australian Wallabies rugby team to visit Great Britain had one of the more unusual zoological companions….a snake! Fearing their slithery comrade would be nabbed by the English port authorities, the players conspired to smuggle the Australian python through the Customs search. Read the rest of this page »
A GENTLEMAN’S GAME PLAYED BY HOOLIGANS – FOOTBALL OR RUGBY?
No doubt, you’ve come across the witty quote – in various forms – about the football codes and whether a particular one is a game for gentlemen, ruffians, hooligans and so forth. Its most common from is in a comparison between rugby union and soccer (Association Football): “Football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligans’ game played by gentlemen”, or “Football – a game for gentlemen played by hooligans. Rugby – a game for hooligans played by gentlemen.” But which is correct? And from where did it originate? Read the rest of this page »
“JUMPING JACKS” OF INTERNATIONAL RUGBY
Playing rugby for a country other than your own, or even playing for two different countries, was hardly uncommon a century ago. The greatest example of these “Jumping Jacks” came in early 1899, when news broke that the soon to arrive down-under British rugby union team would only be visiting Australia. Read the rest of this page »
OUR BARBARIAN WAYS
In March 1890, Blackheath’s W.P. ‘Tottie’ Carpmael lamented that the rugby season was already over, even though there were still a few good weeks of football weather remaining. It is also bothered Carpmael that the club system meant always playing with the same men, and rarely with his friends and foes from other clubs. Carpmael’s solution was the formation of the Barbarian FC; a composite team of specially selected and invited gentlemen footballers, to go on tour, sharing goodwill while having a good time. The Barbarian FC is a vestige of rugby’s long-faded past; in its antiquated charms lay lessons for today. Read the rest of this page »
HAKA & OTHER RUGBY WAR CRIES
In 1884 the first New Zealand rugby side was formed, journeying across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, Australia. The team’s enduring legacy is the tradition that they gave birth to – the haka. The Maori war cry made an instant and lasting impression. A Sydney newspaperman described it as “the sound given in good time and union by 18 pairs of powerful lungs was sometimes tremendous,” adding that “the NSW men declared it was hardly fair of the visitors to frighten them out of their wits before the game began.” The New Zealand team though were not the only rugby team to have a war dance. Read the rest of this page »
WHEN GRIDIRON’S “BIG GAME” MEANT RUGBY
Here’s a trivia question that might score you a few ‘biscuits’ one day…”In the decade before WW1, apart from the UK’s biggest cities and Sydney, what was the only other place in the world where at least one rugby match each season would draw a crowd well over 20,000?” The answer? Not Brisbane, not Capetown, not Auckland nor Wellington – it was San Francisco, California. Read the rest of this page »
OUR MEN PLAY THE RUGBY GAME
This goal kicked in AFL (Australian rules football) illustrates in one passage of play many of the reasons that supporters of the rugby codes in NSW and Queensland rejected the Victorian game. Watch this 20 seconds Youtube clip of the goal, and then read what old ruggers would have made of it. Read the rest of this page »
