HISTORY OF N.Z. RUGBY COMPILED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 98, 22 September 1948, Page 5

HISTORY OF N.Z. RUGBY COMPILED

Few people may appreciate that the Victorian rules game may have supplanted Rugby in New Zealand, or that the honour of having the first Rugby union football club in. this country belongs to Nelson. These facts emerge from a wealth, of interesting information in the “History of New Zealand Rugby Football” compiled by Mr A. C. Swann, who has given a lifetime of study and research to the national game. His book covers a period of f 70 yearp, and has been compiled under sanction of the New Zealand Rugby Union and published by A. H. and A. W. Reed, Wellington. Founded in 1868 by Mr R. C. Tennent to provide winter sports for its members, the Nelson Club played Victorian rules and association foot- - ball till it changed to Rugby in 1870. The change was brought about, by the arrival back in New Zealand of Mr C. J. Munro, a son of Sir David / Munro, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, who had been to England to attend Sherborne School. 1 : Mr Munro suggested that the club should try out the Rugby rules under his tuition. The new game proved so attractive to members that Rugby was soon adopted as their sport. In 1871, the Wellington Club, which had also been playing Victorian rules football, made a similar change.