THE RL1908 BLOG
News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com
| RUGBY LEAGUE AT THE BOER WAR? |
'Breaker' Morant - one of an estimated 16,000 Australian colonials who served the Empire in South Africa from 1899-1902. |
Many New South Wales and Queensland rugby union players enlisted in colonial contingents to fight for the British Empire against the Boers in South Africa (1899-1902).
Men also came from New Zealand, Canada, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India.
Along with the British and South Africans (Cape Colony), many of the men from Australia, New Zealand and Canada became involved in playing rugby games when away from active military action.
Recent suggestions have been made that in 1900 or 1901 a rugby league tournament took place for a Challenge Cup at Zeerust.
|
The Sydney Morning Herald: "In 1901, a year before Morant and Handcock were executed by firing squad, rugby league teams from Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada and South Africa played for a Challenge Cup at Zeerust. The Kiwis claim to have won, and almost a century later brought it up before the first Anzac Test."
The New Zealand Edge: "South African sources say that rugby league was played during the Boer War by Yorkshire regiments and, in that context, in 1900 a New Zealand Field Artillery rugby league team took part in a challenge for the Zeerust Rugby League Trophy. It was won by the New Zealanders. (Source: Kiwis Association Newsletter No 12 August 2000)." |
These references appear to be based on comments provided by a NZRL official in the match guide for the April 1997 Super League Test between Australia and New Zealand.
|
Super League - The Magazine: "It is a little known fact of sporting history that the first international trophy won by a New Zealand rugby league team occurred during the Boer War. The 'Zee Rust Rugby League Challenge Trophy' was won in 1900 by the Fifth Contingent of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles 10th Reinforcements on the battle fields of the Transvaal. The trophy, with the names of those that took part in the final engraved on the side, now rests in the 'Scars of the Heart' section of New Zealand's War Memorial Museum in Auckland. They and the many New Zealand rugby league sides since 1900 are part of the history of our country." |
On the surface, if true, this sounds to be an exciting discovery - to have Australians and New Zealanders playing rugby league seven or so years before the game started in Sydney is remarkable.
Unfortunately it can be said, with more than reasonable certainty, that the football code played was not rugby league.
Despite the reference to "rugby league" on the trophy, the name had not yet become a description (even informally) of the "Northern Union" brand of rugby. The code did not adopt "rugby league" as a name until 1907/08 (in Australia and New Zealand) and 1922 (in England).
With barely five years having past since the "great divide" of 1895, the differences between the RFU and NU playing rules were still minimal. As far as anyone was concerned in 1900 there was just "rugby". Rugby league's signature play-the-ball and 13-a-side were still half-a-decade away in the future.
While some of the British "Yorkshire Regiments" may have been familiar with varations of NU rugby, it can be said the men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa knew nothing other than the RFU's brand of rugby. There is no reason why men of colonial and national military units would even contemplate, let alone agree, to play rugby under the rules of the "professional" NU.
It seems the Zeerust Trophy organisers simply put the words "rugby" and "league" together to give the rugby competition a name. It wasn't the first time this had happened. "League" competitions had been played in rugby in Lancashire and elsewhere from the early 1890s.
In 1888 three rugby union clubs formed the Manitoba Rugby League competition in western Canada. That same country also had the "Saskatchewan Rugby Football League" (1907) and the "Central Alberta Rugby Football League" (1908). None of the clubs were playing the 13-man rugby league code.
For the 1901/02 season, the NU introduced the "Northern Rugby League" club competition - the first time "rugby league" had been directly used by the professional code.
It would be nice to think the Zeerust Trophy matches of 1900 were games of rugby league - unfortunately, they weren't.
|
