Say goodbye to the old Lansdowne Road.1870 - Wanderers, Ireland formed. Burton Football Club formed and played both Rugby and Association football until 1876, when it adopted Rugby Union rules only. Civil service club formed. There were now 49 clubs in England (source: Alcocks Football Annual). These different clubs have different interpretations of the laws as played at Rugby School.
November - an anonymous surgeon writes to 'The Times' complaining that Rugby football is dangerous. The need is felt to form a body to regulate the laws.
In December 1870 Edwin Ash the Secretary of Richmond Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play".
The first rugby game in New Zealand between Nelson College and Nelson football club, played on 14 May 1870 (Auckland, Canterbury and Otago clubs develop the game there over the next several years).
Credit for the introduction of rugby to New Zealand goes to Charles John Monro, son of Sir David Monro, Speaker in the House of Representatives from 1860 to 1870. Charles Monro, who was born at Waimea East, was sent to Christ's College, Finchley in England to complete his education and while there he learned the rugby game. On his return to Nelson he suggested that the local football club try out the rugby rules. The game must have appealed to the club members for they decided to adopt it.
Following this, the college also decided to adopt rugby rules and the first rugby game in New Zealand between two clubs took place at the Botanical Reserve, Nelson, on Saturday, May 14, 1870. The Nelson club won by 2 goals to nil (they played 18-a-side).
A visit to Wellington by Monro later in 1870 resulted in a game being arranged between Nelson and Wellington. Mr Tennent wrote and challenged Mr Monro who organized some Wellington players who had been playing a mixture of Victorian and association rules football into a team. This match was played at Petone on 12 September and was won by Nelson by two goals to one. (note: Nelton played with 14 players against Wellingtons 13).
In a letter to the editor of The Dominion (Wellington) and later published in that journal July 5, 1928 Monro wrote: "Mr Tennent was a member of the Nelson club, not one of whom had ever seen the Rugby game, which they adopted at my instigation, and played under my tutelage, until familiar with the rules. No credit is due to me in the matter. My introduction of Rugby to my native land was merely a coincidence of circumstances. As a matter of fact, the first match at Petone was played in the same year that I introduced the game to Nelson. I made the whole arrangements, even to picking the Wellington team, since there was no football club there in those early days. It was Mr Tennent who wrote me asking if it could be possible to arrange the match, and he played as one of the team."
1871 - 26th January, The Rugby Football Union founded in the Pall Mall Restaurant in Regent Street, London to standardize the rules that also removed some of the more violent aspects of the Rugby School game. The meeting was initiated by Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Club, who submitted a letter to the newspapers which read: "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play".
The 21 clubs that attended the first meeting chaired by the club captain of the Richmond Club, one E. C. Holmes, included Harlequins, Blackheath, Guy's Hospital, Civil Service, Wellington College, King's College and St. Paul's School which are still playing today. Other clubs now defunct, or playing under other names, were the picturesquely named Gipsies, Flamingoes, Mohicans, Wimbledon Hornets, Marlborough nomads, West Kent , Law, Lausanne, Addison, Belsize park, Ravenscourt park, Chapham rovers and a Greenwich club called Queen's House. Many famous provincial clubs, founded before 1871, were not founder members of the Rugby Football Union, though, of course, they became members later; among these were Bath, Bradford, Liverpool and Brighton.
Note: Belsize Park were disbanded in 1880 and many players joined Harlequins. A new Belsize club was founded in 1971.
One famous name that was missing, though, was the London club Wasps. Somehow they managed to send their representative to the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong day but another version of the story was that he went to a pub of the same name and after consuming a number of drinks was too drunk to make it to the correct address after he realized his mistake.
Algernon Rutter (of Rugby and Richmond) was elected the first president of the RFU and E.H. Ash was elected treasurer.
Other committee members were: R H Birkett (Clapham Rovers), F I Currey (Marlborough Nomads), W F Eaton (Ravenscourt Park), A J English (Wellington College), J H Ewart (Guy's Hospital), A G Guillemard (West Kent), F Hartley (Flamingoes), E C Holmes (Richmond), and F Stokes (Blackheath). Secretary & Treasurer: Edwin H. Ash (Richmond).
The joining fee and the annual subscription fee for a member club were both set at 5 shillings.
See past presedents of the RFU
Other National Rugby Unions
The first ever international game: Scotland v England played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, March 27th, in front of a crowd of 4000 (Scotland won by one goal and one try to one goal, the teams were 20-a-side and Halves were 50 minutes each). The try was awarded after a 10 minute argument, leading to a famous aphorism by Dr. HH Almond, the Scottish umpire: "I must say, however, that when an umpire is in doubt, I think he is justified in deciding against the side which makes the most noise. They are probably in the wrong."
The scores for Scotland were obtained by Angus Buchanan, from whose try W. Cross kicked a goal, but he was unsuccessful in his attempt to convert the second try which he scored himself. The English try was credited to R. H. Birkett, but F. Stokes, the English captain, was unsuccessful with the place kick.
England H. J. C. Turner (Manchester)Scotland A. G. Guillemard (West kent) - Back W. D. Brown (Glasgow Academicals) - Back A. Lyon (Liverpool) - Back T. Chalmers (Glasgow Academicals) - Back R. R. Osbourne (Manchester) - Back B. Ross (St. Andrews University) - Back W. Maclaren (Manchester) Three-quarter back J. W. Arthur (Glasgow Academicals) - Half-back J. E. Bentley (Gipsies) - Half-back F. Cross (Merchistonians - Half-back F. Tobin (Liverpool) - Half-back T. R. Marshall (Edinburgh Academicals) J. F. Green (West kent) - Half-back F. I. Moncrieff (Edinburgh Academicals), Captain F. Stokes (Blackheath), Captain A. Buchanan (Edinburgh University) R. H. Birkett (Clapham Rovers) A. B. Colville (Merhistonians) B. H Burns (Blackheath) A, Drew (Glasgow Academicals) J. H. Clayton (Liverpool) W. Forsyth (Edinburgh University) C. A. Crompton (Blackheath) F. Finlay (Edinburgh Academicals) A. Davenport (Ravenscourt Park) R. Irvine (Edinburgh Academicals) J. M. Dugdale (Ravenscourt Park) W. Lyall (Edinburgh Academicals) A. S. Gibson (Manchester) H. Mein (Edinburgh Academicals) A. St. G. Hamersley (Marlborough Nomads) J. W. McFarlane (Edinburgh University) J. H. Luscombe (Gipsies) D. Munro (St. Andrews University) C. W. Sherrard (Blackheath) T. Ritchie (Merhistonians) D. P. Turner (Richmond) F. Robertson (West of Scotland) H. J. C. Turner (Manchester) W. Thomson (St. Andrews University)
No fewer than 10 of the English 20 were old Rugbeians.
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The first England international side - 1871 |
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The first Scotland international side - 1871 |
England got their revenge in the return fixture the following year at the Oval.
Along with the founding of the Rugby Football Union a committee was formed, and three ex-Rugby School pupils (Rutter, Holmes and L.J. Maton), all lawyers, were invited to help formulate a set of rules, being lawyers they formulated 'laws' not 'rules'. Most of the work was done by Maton as he broke his leg playing rugby and was laid up so he attempted the first draft. He did this in Holmes' law chambers. This task was completed and the laws were accepted by the full committee on 22 June 1871, and brought into force by a Special General Meeting 2 days later. The laws outlawed the practice of hacking and tripping.
President 1871-74
(Richmond)
(Richmond)
President 1875-76
(Wimbledon Hornets)
The laws have changed a great deal since then and spawned other games, notably American Football and Australian Rules Football.
Streatham club formed.
Neath, the first Welsh club, formed by a Scotsman, Dr T P Whittington who also became the first international coming from a Welsh club when he played for Scotland in 1873.
In New Zealand, the game became organized in Wellington and it had spread to Wanganui by the following year.
Langholm Rugby Football Club formed, reputed to be the oldest Rugby Club in the Borders of Scotland.
1872 - The first rugby club formed in France by British residents, Le Havre.
The first club was founded in Germany by Students under the guidance of the teacher Edward Hill Ullrich at the Heidelberg Rowing Club - Neuenheim College - now called Heidelberg College (with Rugby Football in the winter time and rowing on the Neckar River in the summer time). Heidelberger Ruderklub von 1872 (HRK 1872) is the oldest German rugby club.
Cambridge, Llanelli (Wales), Swansea (Wales), Leicester, Clifton, Landsdown (Ireland) and Exeter clubs formed.
William Webb Ellis dies a bachelor in Menton, France (see 1959) leaving 9,000 pounds to charitable causes incl. the society for the rescue of young women and children; and the residue to the widow of his brother Thomas.
His tomb was rediscovered in 1958 by a local journalist and former rugby player Roger Dries and an Englishman Ross McWhirter
The first Oxford - Cambridge game played on 10th February. Oxford wins by 1 goal to nil. This fixture will become known as the 'Varsity' match.
1873 - Moseley, Gloucester, Rugby, Bedford Britannia, Carlisle, Carlow (Ireland), Dungannon (Ireland), Gala (Scotland) and Lansdowne (Ireland) formed.
Scottish RFU formed.
Auckland, New Zealand adopted Rugby.
On October 19, 1873, representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York to thrash out the first set of intercollegiate rules in America. By eliminating carrying and the use of hands they defined a game which was soccer in nature. Harvard, although invited, chose not to attend. This was notable since Harvard still needed someone to play against who permitted use of the hands (see 1874).
1874 - UCC, Ireland founded. From 1874 to 1879 there were two Unions in Ireland. The Irish Football Union had jurisdiction over Clubs in Leinster, Munster and parts of Ulster; the Northern Football Union of Ireland controlled the Belfast area.
In 1874 a Coventry rugby fifteen comprising several members of Stoke Cricket Club played Allesley Park College at Allesley. This appears to have been the origin of the Coventry (Rugby) Football Club, with headquarters at Bull Fields, later the Butts. The Butts ground was lost in 1911 to a Northern Union club which did not survive the First World War, and the Coventry rugby club eventually moved to a new ground at Coundon in 1921. From: 'The City of Coventry: Social history from 1700', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 8: The City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick (1969).
On May 14, Harvard University hosted Montreal’s McGill University at Cambridge, Mass., in the first recorded rugby game on American soil. In fact it was a series of three games. The first game was played to Harvard's rules using a round ball and Harvard won 3 goals to nil. The next day they played again to McGill's rules and used an oval ball, the game ended a scoreless draw. After this Harvard adopted largely the rugby rules and the third game of the series was played at McGill Uni. in the fall where Harvard won.
Here is an extract from a very well written article produced by the Professional footballers researchers association
"Harvard-McGill: 1874
Harvard's funeral for Football Fightum turned out to be premature, to say the least. By 1871, only ten years after the burial, they were playing at Cambridge once more. The Boston Game, developed by the Oneidas, was favored by the Crimson for its class games. This, remember, was a combination of both soccer and rugby. The emphasis seems to have been on kicking, but the ball could be caught and run if the catcher was pursued. That made it just different enough to cut off Harvard from competition with other schools, all of whom played the strict kicking game.
When the invitation came to attend the 1873 meeting [meeting , Harvard had a tough decision to make: should they keep running by themselves or kick with the pack?
They decided to stay home and keep running. Some people have called it the most momentous decision in the history of American football. Some people exaggerate. Football lends itself to hyperbole -- the greatest, the best, the most, etc. Harvard's decision was important. Let it go at that.
The reason it was important is that Harvard began to look high and low for someone to play their precious Boston Game against. No other U.S. school would touch it.
Finally, in the spring of 1874, McGill University of Montreal, Canada, issued a challenge to the Crimson. Captain Harry Grant happily accepted. It turned out Harvard got more than it bargained for. McGill agreed to come to Cambridge for a session of Boston Game if Harvard would then have a go at a game by McGill's rules. McGill played rugby. The two teams met on May 14. Played under Harvard's rules, the game was such a rout they called it off after only 22 minutes with the home team in front 3-0.
"Just wait until tomorrow when we play rugby!" warned the McGill men.
The Harvard team laughed, but when the McGill players were out of earshot they asked each other nervously, "What's a rugby?"
Years later, a member of the Harvard class of 1874 said, "There were many points of difference [in the Boston Game] from the Rugby game. It was eminently a kicking, as distinguished from a running and tackling, game. The rules ... existed only in tradition. We went to work to learn the Rugby game, but I should question if there were three men in college who had ever seen the egg-shaped ball. A drop kick was an unknown and incredible feat, and the intricacies of `off side,' `free kick,' `put out,' and such commonplaces of the game seemed inextricable mysteries to novices like us."
The game played the next day, May 15, was the first rugby game on U.S. soil. Harvard acquitted itself very well and struggled to a scoreless tie. More importantly, they fell head over heels in love with rugby and all thoughts of the once-cherished Boston Game disappeared. Harvard couldn't wait until the next fall. When it came, they raced up to Montreal to play some more rugby. In addition to kicked goals, the Canadian version of the game allowed touchdowns to count in the scoring. Harvard scored three of them to win.
Flushed with success, the Crimson came home and, the next year, challenged Yale to a rugby match. The sons of Eli thought it over and decided it might be fun. The two schools scheduled a game for November 13, at Hamilton Park in New Haven, to be played under what were called the "Concessionary Rules". These had nothing to do with selling beer, hot dogs, or crackerjacks, but were instead a special set of rules agreed to in which each side gave up a little.
Harvard sacrificed counting touchdowns in the scoring. The only thing a TD gained was the right to try for a goal. Yale agreed to play with 15 men instead of the eleven they preferred. They had been won over to the smaller group two years earlier when they played soccer against a traveling team of eleven Englishmen from Eton. Yale found it made for a more open, exciting game. From then on they kept pushing for eleven on a side until everybody was sick to death from hearing about it. For Yale to agree to put four extra men on the field was a major concession and showed real sportsmanship.
In their first rugby game, Yale's nice guys finished last. Harvard ran all over them, and the poor sons of Eli, knowing nothing about tackling, let them. The final stood 4-0 Harvard, with one of the goals coming after a touchdown. Despite the one-sided defeat, Yale was completely captivated by rugby. Forthwith, they decided, they would play it themselves. "
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Newport (Wales), Weston-super-Mare and Trojans formed. Universities reduced their sides from 20 to 15-a-side.
Hamilton (New Zealand) adopted Rugby.
Rugby first played in Cape town, South Africa. South RFU formed in NSW Australia.
Queen's College club, called "Cork", had played before, in 1872 was also formed in 1874.
First governing body formed in Australia. NSWRU (The Southern RU). Of the original clubs which took part in the very first club competition of 1874, Sydney University, Balmain (now called Drummoyne), Newington College and The King's School are still in existence.
Wellington, Somerset were founded by Harry Fox. Over the years several Wellington players were selected to play for England:
Francis Hugh Fox ( 2 caps ) 1890
Percy John Ebdon ( 2 caps ) 1897
Reginald Forrest ( 5 caps ) 1899-1904
Herbert Temlett Gamlin "The Octopus" ( 15 caps ) 1899-1904
1875 - Ballinasloe (Ireland) founded. Ballinasloe and Athlone amalgamated in 1994 to form Buccaneers. Pontypridd (Wales) & London Welsh formed. Mountain Ash, Wales founded.
The first International between England and Ireland was watched by 3000 spectators on 15th February 1875. The teams were twenty a side and the Irish team included 12 players from Leinster and eight from Ulster. England won by 1 goal, 1 drop goal and a try to nil.
The game had become established all over New Zealand and a team representing Auckland clubs undertook a two-week southern tour. Matches were played (and lost) against teams from Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson and Taranaki.
Matches were decided by the number of tries scored if both had the same number of goals.
Rugby is introduced to South Africa by British troops garrisoned in Cape Town. Various clubs formed but Hamilton RFC probably has the strongest clain at being the first, disputed by Villagers RFC.
13 December - Oxford and Cambridge are the first to reduce their teams from 20 to 15-a-side.
In the US Harvard played Yale with an oval ball and with 15 men a side and also saw the first uniforms worn in an American football game. Yale wore dark trousers, blue shirts, and yellow caps. Not to be outdone , Harvard showed up in crimson shirts, stockings, and knee breeches. Two fellows who watched the game were W. Earle Dodge and Jotham Potter, both of Princeton. They rushed back home singing rugby's praises to high heaven and to any Princetonians who would listen. So rugby was the up and coming game on at least three American college campuses.
1875-6
From 1875 many matches were played as 15-a-side but the alignments varied a good deal. At that time there were ten forwards, two attacking half-backs, and three backs who were largely defensive. A major change was to move up a defensive back to play with the half-backs (this was the first three-quarter).
1876 - London Scottish, Abervon, Cardiff, Bedford Football and Athletics Club (who changed their name in 1878 to Bedford Rovers) and Saracens formed.
Players in international teams reduced from twenty to fifteen.
In the US various colleges met to form an intercollegiate football association they adopted the makeshift rugby game which was played at that time but this organization was disbanded in 1895. Walter Camp enrolled at Yale the same year.
First rugby game at Lansdowne Road.
First game between the Royal Military Academy (RMA) Woolwich and the Royal Military College (as it was then) Sandhurst (Woolwich won).
1877 - The first fifteen a side international match between Ireland and England on February 5th at the Oval. England wins by 2 goals & 2 tries to nil. England then played Scotland on March 5th at Raeburn place.
The Calcutta cup presented to the RFU.
Melrose RFC founded.
Scotland's HH Johnson is the first to play as a single full-back.
1878 - At Cardiff, Wales, they developed a short pass to one of the half backs who would then go charging ahead with the ball. He became known as the flying half back which over time got shortened to the fly half.
The first recorded rugby match under floodlights took place when Broughton played Swinton on 22nd October 1878 at Broughton's Yew Street ground in Salford, Greater Manchester. Two Gramme's lights were used suspended from 30 foot poles. "At the call of "no side" the score stood at; Broughton two-goals, three tries, three touchdowns; Swinton, nil. C.Sawyer kicked one of the goals from the field of play. Mudie the other from a fine try by J.Sawyer, while the three unsuccessful tries were secured by Riley, A.Bowam and Shut". "Probably 8,000 to 10,000 persons were present when the time for kick-off arrived." The above quotations are taken from the Salford Weekly News dated the 2nd November 1878.
Another match took place in Liverpool later that month and the practice became very popular as the electric companies attempted to overturn the gas companies monopoly.
In November a white ball was used in a match staged at Old Deer Park between Surrey & Middlesex. Surrey won the match which was enlightened by four lamps driven by a couple of Siemens electro-dynamo machines.
Lansdowne Road, Dublin, held its first international rugby fixture, Ireland vs. England (15-a-side).
The the Yorkshire Challenge Cup competition was founded (now known as the Yorkshire Cup), the first knock-out competition in the UK. It was open to all clubs in the Yorkshire area . The proceeds from the final were distributed among local charities. In the first season, 16 teams competed for the T'owd Tin Pot, with Halifax beating York in the final by1 goal, 1 try and 9 minor points to nil. Results
Bridgend, Wales formed.
The first Army vs. Navy game was played February 13th, 1878 at the Kennington Oval in England but the match fell into abeyance until resuscitated in 1906/7. The Navy won the game by a goal and a try to a goal.
The Corps of Royal Engineers had started a football club in 1870 playing FA rules but in 1878 they played their first recorded rugby game against Royal Military Academy (RMA) ('The shop') played at Chatham on October 24th and resulted in a draw, the Academy scoring 1 try, four touches against 1 try. This was the only annual fixture played under rugby rules until 1885.
1878/9 Mr G. A. J. Rothney, one of the founder members of the Calcutta club brought the Calcutta cup over to England. The Calcutta cup was presented to the RFU to be awarded for the winner of the annual England Scotland international. The trophy originated in India. The Calcutta football club which had been started by former students of rugby school 4 years earlier had been wound up and the remaining rupees in the club's funds were melted down to be re-worked into the trophy.
1879 - Rosslyn Park, Ipswich, Penarth (Wales) and Ebbw Vale (Wales) formed.
The two Irish Unions agreed to amalgamate and become the Irish Rugby Football Union on the following terms:
(i) A Union to be known as the Irish Rugby Football Union was to be formed for the whole country.
(ii) Branches were to be formed in Leinster, Munster and Ulster.
(iii) The Union was to be run by a Council of eighteen, made up of six from each province.
The Council was to meet annually. The Council of the Union still meets annually, but the day to day affairs are managed by a Committee comprising a President, two Vice-Presidents, the immediate Past President, the Honorary Treasurer and nineteen members.
Extracts from Charles Dickens (jr) - A dictionary of London:
"Football is by far the most popular out-door game of the winter months. The Association matches have 11 players, the Union 15 players on each side The leading Union clubs in London and the suburbs are Blackheath, head-quarters, Richardson’s field, Blackheath; Richmond, Richmond Old Deer-pk; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; Royal Naval College, Greenwich-park; Wimbledon, Wimbledon-common; Clapham Rovers, Wandsworth; West Kent, Chislehurst; Queen’s House, and Clevedon, Blackheath; Flamingoes, Battersea-park; Gipsies, Peckham; Guys Hospital, Blackheath; King’s College, Battersea-park; Lausanne, Dulwich; Old Cheltonians, Mitcham; Old Marlburians, Blackheath; Walthamstow, Walthamstow; Wasps Putney."
The first floodlit game of rugby played in Scotland at Hawick in their local derby vs. Melrose, whom they defeated by a goal to nil, attracted a healthy crowd of 5000 and a gate of 63 pounds sterling (as there was only one gate man present, many poured into the ground through a hole in the fence. (see also 1878).
The first unions in New Zealand were formed in Canterbury and Wellington.
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