SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RUGBY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 486, 15 October 1948, Page 15

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RUGBY

HISTORY .OF NEW ZEALAND RUGBY FOOTBALL, 1870-1945. By A. C. Swan, A.\H. and A. W. Reed. HIS book, which appears with the official sanction of the New Zealand Rugby Union, is something unique in Rugby literature. It represents a lifetime of painstaking research by a man who would sooner go without a meal than write’'a name without verification. It is the history of the game in New Zealand from its modest beginning in Nelson in 1870 to the time of the resumption of’ full-time representative matches after the War. , It is not generally known that our national game might easily have been Association Football or Victorian Rules. In fact both of these games were’ played in Nelson before a trial was given to the "new" game, Rugby. It was a success; so much of a success in fact that in the same year, 1870, teams from Nelson and Wellington played the first interProvincial. match at Petone. Nelson (continued on next page) we We O88 eS hg OR AR YS Oe OPW Pe ee Ps Ce a ea ee ae eae

BOOK REVIEWS (Cont'd)

(continued from previous page) won. The game was not properly organised in Wellington until the following year, when a Préss' notice read: "We remind sporting friends that a meeting of gentlemen interested in foot ball, paper hunts, and other good old English sports, will be held at ‘he Branch Hotel to-morrow evening." Each year from 1870 onwards is treated separately by Mr. Swan. whose aim is to show the growth of the game as it was adopted in various céntres. So each chapter is interspersed with Press reports, minutes of meetings, and so on. It is all very interesting and some of it very amusing. Here is a passage from a report in the Wellington paper The New Zealander, written in 1878: Football’ is becoming suci: a dangerous pastime that something should be done to stop it. There is nothing artistic, scientific, or graceful about the game) and judging from the frequency of casualties connected with it, it can hardly be said to be a healthy pursuit. Bull-baiting and cockfighting have more to recommend" them as recreations than the rough-and-tumble hoodlum amusement yclept football which our youths seem to take so much delight in. I also like this one: While the steamer Phoebe was in port last night, we were favoured with a visit from some youths calling themselves the Nelson Foot-bali players, who, we understand, were returning from a match in Wellington. If their talents are on a par with their impertinence, it must worth a trifle to see them play. We hope they reached home in safety, for they are a precious lot.-(The Mariborough Press, 1870). But it is by no means just a collection of resurrected tit-bits. All tours by New Zealand teams overseas, and by teams in New Zealand, are fully covered. It is in fact a complete history, an invaluable addition to any sporting library.

Winston

McCarthy