NZ’s oldest rugby club kicks on
For rugby or mateship, through epic victories and long bus rides, New Zealand’s oldest rugby club had 150 reasons to share 1000 yarns over Queen’s Birthday Weekend.
Nelson Rugby Club players past and present joined those who had worked behind the scenes to mark its 150th anniversary. The celebrations culminated at the clubrooms on Saturday evening with a dinner and guest speaker, commentator John McBeth.
President Shane Graham said 140 people attended the event, which packed out the venue adjacent to Trafalgar Park. Some had enjoyed close to 70 years’ involvement with the club.
Graham’s own association began 35 years ago. He said the club’s proud history and emphasis on belonging had kept him and many others coming back each season.
The club’s establishment took place with a meeting at a pub – the Royal Hotel, on May 30, 1868. It was the brainchild of sportsminded 19-year-old British immigrant Robert Collings Tennent, a Rio de Janeiro-born descendant of the family behind the Tennent’s brewing company.
Graham said the founding principles of the club – fairness, contribution, and a sense of belonging as a result of those values – had served it well.
The club initially played a hybrid of Association and Australian rules football until 1870, when Charles John Munro introduced players to a new style of play that he’d picked up from his English schooling.
On May 14, 1870, the country’s first interclub fixture was played between Nelson RFC and Nelson College at the Botanics, with a 2-0 scoreline in favour of the club. A re-enactment of that game took place in 2011 as part of the Rugby World Cup festivities.