The stories and clubs at the 1871 founding of the Rugby Football Union in London are legion. But what of the 1874 founding of the New South Wales Rugby Union — what do you know of the stories of those clubs? Can you name them?

Story written & researched by Sean Fagan ©

The first meeting to discuss new rules was held at the Oxford Hotel, on the 5th June, 1874, with … representatives from the following clubs: Wallaroo, Goulburn, Balmain, Waratah, St. Leonards, King’s School, Camden, and Newington Colleges. Later, the University and Mudgee clubs were represented… The rules adopted are those of the Rugby Football Union of London. Consequently, the name of the Southern Rugby Football Union was chosen.
— The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1875

THE BADLANDS DAYS OF RUGBY
By 1874 more than a dozen football clubs were scattered across the NSW colony. All claimed to play Rugby, but on close inspection each had their own unique rules of play. Negotiations between opposing captains were a big part of the pre-game rituals and, you wont be suprised to learn, during and after games as well. Matches often descended into disputes, heated arguments, and even walk-offs.

Though not as many clubs as in London, NSW was following the same path and was just 24 months or so behind. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) was founded on January 26, 1871, when reps from 21 London area clubs met at the Pall Mall Restaurant.

This historic meeting was consequent of a letter to The Times in December 1870 co-signed by Edwin Ash (secretary of Richmond FC) and Benjamin Burns (secretary of Blackheath FC) which urged supporters of the rugby-type game to gather to create a unified code of practice due to conflicting rules between clubs.

Still, even by the end of 1873, the then curious phrase “rugby union” had only ever once appeared in print in NSW’s newspapers. In May 1873, Sydney’s Evening News had published a report from England about the growing popularity there of Rugby.

THE SYDNEY WALLAROO CONNECTION
The initiative in NSW was taken by the Wallaroo FC, who had been founded in 1870 with a club mantra of playing football by Rugby rules or not playing at all. They sent a letter to each NSW city or country football club they knew of, inviting them to attend in five weeks time a football rules conference meeting planned for Friday evening, 5 June 1874, at the Oxford Hotel* in Sydney.

WHERE THE NSWRU WAS BORN – 5 June 1874
At the appointed time and place the Wallaroo delegate (‘Monty’ Arnold) was joined by representatives of seven other clubs. Those pioneers attending this first founding meeting were:

• Wallaroo FC
• Goulburn FC
• Waratah FC
• Balmain FC
• St. Leonards FC
• The King’s School
• Camden College
• Newington College

Chaired by William ‘Gurry’ Burkitt (The King’s School & Wallaroo), this conference initiated the Southern Rugby Football Union—the Southern Hemisphere’s first such governing body in any football code.

However, Sydney University was conspicuous by its absence. In a display of academic lethargy, the scholars waited until the meeting was underway to request a postponement while they organised their own club meeting to select a representative. It was poor form, especially given the month’s notice, the football season was already underway, and a delegate from as far away as Goulburn had managed to attend.

Though the Wallaroo club had prepared the foundational documents and the clubs held every right to form the Union that night, the delegates chose courtesy over haste. Extending greater kindness than London’s clubs famously showed the absent Wasps FC in 1871, they adjourned until 22 June to let the students join.

Yet the historic spark was lit, cementing this Oxford Hotel gathering on 5 June 1874 as the true beginning of organised Rugby Union in NSW.

FULL STEAM AHEAD — 22 June 1874
On June 22, Monty Arnold of the Wallaroo club took the chairman role of a delegates’ meeting, establishing via a vote the “Southern Rugby Football Union” (SRFU) to enforce uniform rules and end local variations.

Following this, Arnold immediately moved to adopt the full RFU playing laws from England, a motion passed unanimously by the delegates. This swift action effectively locked in standardised rules, ensuring that all present and future clubs followed official Rugby Union laws. There would not be a NSW “game of our own,” nor could the clubs use the RFU laws as a canvas for the creation of another rugby-variant game, as the Americans and Canadians would soon do.**

In attendance were all of the clubs at the first meeting (Wallaroo, Goulburn, Waratah, Balmain, The King’s School, Newington College, Camden College and St Leonards), as well as the University.

NUTTING OUT THE DETAILS — 25 June to 6 July 1874
The actions by Arnold meant the role of the other clubs in the founding of the SRFU was limited to working with Wallaroo on drafting explanatory notes for the RFU’s fifty-nine laws. From 25 June through to 6 July the delegates from the nine clubs (Wallaroo, Goulburn, Waratah, Balmain, The King’s School, Newington College, Camden College, St Leonards and University) carefully read through (without amendment) each of the RFU’s 59 laws, adding below where necessary any explanatory notes considered necessary for NSW’s footballers.

RUGBY LAWS CONFIRMED — 24 July 1874
On 24 July, the delegates gathered once more at the Oxford Hotel. Richard Arnold (Wallaroo) chaired the meeting, joined by representatives from Newington, Waratah, Balmain and University. Goulburn sent an apology, while Arnold noted he had also been appointed as delegate for Mudgee. This was a procedural meeting to affirm the SRFU name, by-laws and playing rules.

THE UNION TAKES OFFICE — 28 July 1874
On 28 July, the inaugural general meeting of the SRFU filled the long dining room at the Oxford Hotel. The meeting elected the Union’s first office-bearers. The clubs present were Wallaroo, Goulburn, Waratah, Balmain, The King’s School, Newington College, Camden College, University, Mudgee and Victoria. Even though the football season was well underway, and the agreed playing rules were lengthy, they were implemented immediately.

AN UNDISPUTED TRIUMPH — 1876
In a measure of the success of the SRFU and the new laws, two years later there had still not been any request by a club to change a single line. Other than for the perennial question of “Why is it called ‘Southern’ RFU?”, it was all an undisputed triumph.

THE FOUNDING CLUBS
at first meeting 5 June 1874

Wallaroo FC
Initiators of the movement and attended every meeting.
The club played its final competition game in 1899 consequent of the adoption of the new districts club scheme in 1900. Wallaroo captured thirteen Sydney premiership titles between 1870 and 1899.

Waratah FC
Attended all of the meetings.
Named after the well-known flower that was subsequently taken up by the NSW team, this once powerful club, in the late 1870s its members were entangled in “code war” disputes over divided loyalties. In 1882 the club moved to the NSW Football Association (Victorian rules). The club and the code disappeared in the early 1890s.

Balmain FC
Attended all of the meetings.
The local rivalry over Rugby in Balmain was so strong by 1890 that it split the original club into a plethora of ‘Balmain’ clubs, including ‘Balmain Ormonde’, ‘Balmain Wellington’ and ‘Balmain Elvira’. The later founded district clubs of Balmain (1900) and Glebe-Balmain/Drummoyne (1915) are not a continuation of the original Balmain FC. In 2005 a new Balmain RC was established.

Newington College
Attended all of the meetings.
Gradually withdrew in the early 1880s onwards to compete solely at the schoolboy level. The Newington College 1st XV Rugby team continues to play today, with its competitive matches part of the prestigious AAGPS NSW (Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools) competition.

Goulburn FC
Attended all but one meeting, for which it submitted an apology beforehand.
The town was divided into many clubs in the decades either side of 1900. If the original club survived this era, it was certainly defunct after WW1, as until the early 1950s the town’s allegiance was solely to rugby league. The present day Goulburn RUFC was founded in 1957.

The King’s School
Attended all of the meetings except the second last.
Gradually withdrew in the early 1880s onwards to compete solely at the schoolboy level. The King’s School 1st XV Rugby team continues to play today, with its competitive matches part of the prestigious AAGPS NSW competition.

Camden College
Attended all of the meetings except the second last.
Based in Newtown, the college ceased operating as a boarding school in 1877.

St. Leonards FC
Attended all of the meetings except the final two.
Founded in 1871 this was a club based on the north side of Sydney Harbour, holding club meetings at North Sydney, Milsons Point, St Leonards and other centres. The well-familiar North Sydney Oval is situated within St Leonards Park. The club was last heard of in the mid 1880s with the void briefly met by Cammeray FC and then Pirates FC (formed in 1889 as “The Pirate Football Club of St Leonards”).

THE ASSOCIATED CLUBS
at subsequent meeting/s June-July 1894

Sydney University FC
Attended all of the subsequent meetings.
Survived the 1900 district scheme provided its teams were confined to current and former students only. It is now an open club and a member of the Sydney Rugby Union (an affiliate of the NSWRU), competing in the Shute Shield first grade competition and lower grades.

Mudgee FC
Attended the final meeting.
The club was founded in early July 1874. By choice or by extinction the club left the SRFU after 1876. The original or a new Mudgee club joined the SRFU in 1886. The town was soon divided into multiple clubs and while the combined representative team was called Mudgee, in 1907 none of the clubs had that name. In April 1908 an unequivocally new “Mudgee Club” held its “inaugural meeting”.*** During the 1920s-50s the town’s loyalty was solely to rugby league, and the present day Mudgee RC was founded in 1961.

Victoria FC
Attended the final meeting.
Per contemporary newspapers the Victoria club did not come into existence until 23 June 1874. Founded at a meeting in inner-city Darlington with a view to serving the South Sydney area. The club withdrew in May 1876.

——————

A NEW NAME — 1892
At the SRFU annual meeting of 1892, with the now veteran official Monty Arnold in the chair and in the presence of representatives of 130 clubs, with no fanfare, objection or even discussion, it was voted to change the body’s name to the “New South Wales Rugby Football Union”.

“The adjourned annual meeting of the Southern Rugby Football Union, which will in future be more appropriately known as the New South Wales Rugby Union, was held last night in Aaron’s Exchange Hotel…About the wisdom of this step there were no two opinions.”
— The Australian Star, 27 April 1892

© Sean Fagan.

* Gannon’s Oxford Hotel was situated “at the eastern corner of Phillip and King Streets” in the city, per The Sunday Herald (Sydney, of 23 August 1953.

** This had begun on 15 May 1874, when Canada’s McGill University and the USA’s Harvard University first met in a football game played under McGill’s Rugby rules—McGill having adopted the RFU’s 1871 laws with some variations. Harvard quickly embraced these rules, as did Yale and other Eastern colleges (later known as the “Ivy League”). While football in North America began with RFU laws—the first Intercollegiate Football Association’s rules in 1876 were near verbatim those of the RFU—there was no reason administrators could not shape the game as they saw fit. Indeed, under Walter Camp in the 1880s and 1890s, they did so. By contrast, NSW adopted and kept the RFU laws without alteration. This was driven not only by the influence of Rugby School old boys such as the Arnolds, but also by a strong desire to mirror cricket and exchange tours with England (and, soon, New Zealand).

*** See the Mudgee Guardian 9 & 13 April 1908.

NOTE 1: The NSWRU is no longer a club-based members body. Instead its members are affiliated Rugby Unions such as the Sydney Rugby Union, NSW Country and NSW Suburban.

NOTE 2: When Queensland footballers established their own Rugby body in 1883, they took their cue from the ‘Southern’ RFU and named themselves the Northern RFU (invariably NRU or NU). Once the SRFU renamed as the NSWRFU (NSWRU) in 1892, the NRFU followed suit, becoming the QRFU (QRU) in 1893. Which was much to the relief of many parts of Queensland, particularly those such as the “Central Queensland RU”, which were situated north of the Brisbane-based Northern RFU.