NSW Rugby Union Media Release
Wednesday August 14, 2013
Sydney Uni and Newington to stage 150-year rugbyre-enactment
Sydney University Rugby Club will celebrate 150 years of Australian rugby with a historic re-enactment at Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup match.
The exhibition match against Newington will be played under the rugby laws of 1863 and will take place at half-time during Saturday’s first Bledisloe Cup Test match at ANZ Stadium.
The spectacle will be tribute to the groundwork laid by both teams for the growth of Australian and trans-Tasman rugby.Founded in 1863, Sydney University Rugby Club is Australia’s oldest rugby club and this year celebrates its sesquicentenary, a feat only achieved by seven northern hemisphere clubs.
Their opponent in the exhibition match, Newington College this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of the school’s establishment, with rugby played there for over a century. The match against the Students is a repeat of Newington’s first official rugby match.
Event organiser Steve Anthony will be one of the exhibition umpires and says he hopes the spectacle will be enjoyable. “We hope it’s entertaining and also educational.”
Anthony conducted a similar re-enactment in 1974 when NSW rugby celebrated its century. “I think people find it interesting to see how things were different in the past and how they evolved, hopefully we will be able to demonstrate it in a way that amuses people.
“What we’re going to do during the six-and-a-half minutes is show how the game has evolved over the 20 years between 1863 and 1883, when the modern style really started to evolve.”
Back in the nineteenth century, Anthony says the game more closely resembled soccer, although there were still traces of modern day rugby.
“The things that were similar were the offside in general play and that you couldn’t pass the ball forward. It was really more like soccer was in those days, rather than as rugby is now.
To illustrate the game’s development during the period that followed, the exhibition match will feature the introduction of referees and ‘the running backline’, mapping the sport’s progression towards the modern game, and all explained throughout by an announcer.
Reflective of the game back in 1883, the re-enactment teams will each feature 20 players, 13 forwards and seven backs. Players will be wearing hooped jerseys and ‘longs’, trousers that finished midway between the knee and ankle. They will use a leather ball and create a divot on halfway to hoick it to their opposition for the kick-off.
A strong feature of nineteenth century rugby, scrums could last as long as ten minutes, as teams tried to drive through their opposition with the ball on the ground. During a maul, players were able to hack the player below the knees, while he was in possession.
Tries were nonexistent and were known as ‘run ins’, their only benefit being to give the player a shot at goal. A goal was worth one point, with the teams changing ends as a result. The first team to score two points won the game. If no team had scored two points in five days, the match was declared a draw.
Penalty goals didn’t exist until 1890 and players who kicked the ball out were jeered, with players having to ‘touch’ the ball down in the field of play to regain possession from the stoppage. It was one of the options to get the ball back into play that resulted in the modern game’s lineout.
In the absence of referees, the management of the early game fell to the captains, as Anthony explained. “The captains would agree on the rules before the game started and they managed to control the game between them during the course of the match. It was assumed the game was played in a sporting spirit.”
Taking place in the middle of one of rugby’s fiercest rugby rivalries, the exhibition will serve as a reminder of the sporting spirit that still remains one of rugby’s core values.
Wednesday August 14, 2013
Sydney Uni and Newington to stage 150-year rugbyre-enactment
Sydney University Rugby Club will celebrate 150 years of Australian rugby with a historic re-enactment at Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup match.
The exhibition match against Newington will be played under the rugby laws of 1863 and will take place at half-time during Saturday’s first Bledisloe Cup Test match at ANZ Stadium.
The spectacle will be tribute to the groundwork laid by both teams for the growth of Australian and trans-Tasman rugby.Founded in 1863, Sydney University Rugby Club is Australia’s oldest rugby club and this year celebrates its sesquicentenary, a feat only achieved by seven northern hemisphere clubs.
Their opponent in the exhibition match, Newington College this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of the school’s establishment, with rugby played there for over a century. The match against the Students is a repeat of Newington’s first official rugby match.
Event organiser Steve Anthony will be one of the exhibition umpires and says he hopes the spectacle will be enjoyable. “We hope it’s entertaining and also educational.”
Anthony conducted a similar re-enactment in 1974 when NSW rugby celebrated its century. “I think people find it interesting to see how things were different in the past and how they evolved, hopefully we will be able to demonstrate it in a way that amuses people.
“What we’re going to do during the six-and-a-half minutes is show how the game has evolved over the 20 years between 1863 and 1883, when the modern style really started to evolve.”
Back in the nineteenth century, Anthony says the game more closely resembled soccer, although there were still traces of modern day rugby.
“The things that were similar were the offside in general play and that you couldn’t pass the ball forward. It was really more like soccer was in those days, rather than as rugby is now.
To illustrate the game’s development during the period that followed, the exhibition match will feature the introduction of referees and ‘the running backline’, mapping the sport’s progression towards the modern game, and all explained throughout by an announcer.
Reflective of the game back in 1883, the re-enactment teams will each feature 20 players, 13 forwards and seven backs. Players will be wearing hooped jerseys and ‘longs’, trousers that finished midway between the knee and ankle. They will use a leather ball and create a divot on halfway to hoick it to their opposition for the kick-off.
A strong feature of nineteenth century rugby, scrums could last as long as ten minutes, as teams tried to drive through their opposition with the ball on the ground. During a maul, players were able to hack the player below the knees, while he was in possession.
Tries were nonexistent and were known as ‘run ins’, their only benefit being to give the player a shot at goal. A goal was worth one point, with the teams changing ends as a result. The first team to score two points won the game. If no team had scored two points in five days, the match was declared a draw.
Penalty goals didn’t exist until 1890 and players who kicked the ball out were jeered, with players having to ‘touch’ the ball down in the field of play to regain possession from the stoppage. It was one of the options to get the ball back into play that resulted in the modern game’s lineout.
In the absence of referees, the management of the early game fell to the captains, as Anthony explained. “The captains would agree on the rules before the game started and they managed to control the game between them during the course of the match. It was assumed the game was played in a sporting spirit.”
Taking place in the middle of one of rugby’s fiercest rugby rivalries, the exhibition will serve as a reminder of the sporting spirit that still remains one of rugby’s core values.
