On Saturday May 14, 2011, an estimated 120,000 Kiwis ran onto a Rugby field to play a game they love, yet few would have realised they were playing on a day hugely significant to our national game.
141 years ago, on May 14, 1870, at 2pm, 36 enthusiastic young Kiwis played the first game of Rugby in New Zealand. This historic game, held at the Botanics Reserve in Nelson, was played in front of a modest crowd of 200.
The idea for the match came from 19 year old New Zealander Charles Monro, who had learned the new sport whilst at school in England.
On his return to Nelson in 1870, he discovered that the Nelson Football Club, formed in 1868 by Robert Tennent, were playing a hybrid game with the old round Gaelic football but had no agreed rules or regular competition.
Monro assured them of "the great superiority of Rugby" and urged them to try Rugby using the new lighter oval ball. He coached them up to a standard to challenge the local Nelson College football team coached by headmaster, Rev. Frank Simmons, a former pupil of Rugby School.
The club loved the sport so much that they adopted it as their official code on May 12, 1870, becoming New Zealand’s first Rugby Football Club (continuing today).
Two days later, Nelson RFC ('Town') battled for over three hours with Nelson College ('Gown'), 18 a side, in the first game of Rugby in New Zealand under the 1868 rules using the new oval Rugby ball. For the record, the 'Town' won 2 - 0, with NRFC captain Alfred Drew scoring the first point in New Zealand Rugby.
On September 20, 2011, Nelson will celebrate this historic moment and its own place in Rugby history by hosting a re-enactment of the 1870 first game.
The re-enactment will see the players dressed in clothing of the time and off the field the 19th Century Band Rotunda will make a comeback as the stage for local brass bands, quartets and ensembles. Food stalls will serve Devonshire teas, cucumber sandwiches and high teas.
The re-enactment is part of the REAL New Zealand Festival and will be followed by a procession through Nelson to Trafalgar Park.
The event will be a great build-up to the Rugby World Cup 2011 match between Italy v Russia at Trafalgar Park that day and a fitting tribute to the birth of New Zealand Rugby.