-
Rugby is born
Legend has it thst a school boy called Wiliam Webb Ellis was playing football at Rugby School in England. Suddenly he picked up the ball and ran with it. No one had ever done that before. -
Rugby comes to New Zealand
Charles Monro gets credit for bringing rugby to out nation. Monro was born near Nelson, but his parnets sent him to a school in England, where he played an early form of rugby. When he came home to NZ Monro told the local football club to give rugby a go. They did- and they loved it. In 1870, NZ's first official rugby match was played in Nelson. -
New Zealand is repersented by a rugby team for the first time.
The team toured New South Wales, Australia. years later they would become known as the first All Blacks -
The NZ natives travel to Britain.
The natives were the first NZ rugby team to go to Britain. Twenty-one of the 26 players were maori. During the 6 week boat trip, the team kept fit by shovlling coal and jogging round the deck.[ lots of other passengers grumbled about this.] In Britain, they played 107 games on a 14 month tour . They won nearly all their games. They were the first team to wear a black uniform with a silver fern and the first to perform the haka before each game. -
Rugby jerseys
Numbered rugby jerseys are introducded.