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M
eanwhile, before the arrival of Europeans, Maori had
their traditional ball game:
ki-o-rahi
, complete with
tribal rivalries. It is a fast running contact sport, played on a
circular field, involving imaginative handling and swift inter
passing of a
ki
(flax ball shown). Often different tribes would
play different adaptations of the game.
When English rugby arrived, they immediately took to the sport, and early strong
international teams featured Maori players. The game has been revived in recent years.
See history-nz.org/kiorahi.html.
We believe this photo was taken in the early 1920s. We’re missing a few names,
so if you can help us fill in the blanks, let us know! Back L-R Ebb Lowe, ?, ?, Bert
Hamilton, ?, ?, Tony thompson, Lige Green, Mr Harold Cory-Wright (in white). Front
L-R Ronald Petley, Micky Lennan, Colin Lowe, Innis Lopes, Chook Thompson, ?, ?,
Tommy Webb (uncle of Heaths’).
Maori rugby in the
round... Ki-o-Rahi
Claire Fitzjames approached us last year looking for
some journalism experience. Good thing she enjoys
research, because these rugby articles needed some
deep digging, and she was up to the challenge–
participating in every piece. Claire has completed a
degree in Communication Studies and is now half way
through her honours in sociology at the University of
Auckland. She is especially interested in politics and
environmental issues...and in case writing doesn’t work
out, she has candle making as a backup plan.
T
he round shape of the rugby ball was
originally determined by the shape
of its internal “balloon”, a pig bladder.
To make this ball more durable, it was
covered in stitched leather by shoemaker
William Gilbert in his shop near Rugby
School. Generally credited for the first
rugby balls, Gilbert’s earlier rounder
ones date from the early 1800’s. In 1851,
a more oval shaped rugby ball (pictured)
was created by William’s nephew James
Gilbert and displayed at the London
Exposition.
Although it was believed the new shape
may have been used as early as 1835 in
games at the Rugby School, the size and
shape of the ball was not written into the
rules until 1892.
Richard Lindon (lived near Gilbert’s
shop when young then later opened his
own shop in town), developed a rubber
bladder for the balls after his wife (his
official pig-bladder-blower-upper) died
from an infection believed to have come
from infected pigs bladders. He then
invented the brass hand pump as rubber
bladders were tough to inflate by mouth.
Even Balls
Have History
A Bit of History...
The Evolution of Ball Running
A
lmost any culture, from ancient Rome and Greece to China,
have played some version of ball-n-brawl-to-goal. European
ball running games played during the middle ages, were referred
to as folk, mob, or Shrovetide football. Village rivalries involved
an unlimited number of players who battled to move an inflated
pig’s bladder to markers at each end of a town. With no rules,
they were brutal games.
Some form of “football” was played at
schools in England near Eaton and Rugby
since the 1800’s. Legend has it that rugby
was born in 1823 when William Webb
Ellis “with fine disregard for the rules of
football first took the ball in his arms and
ran with it”. Gradually, running the ball
became its own game, but it took many
years for the clubs and schools to agree
on set rules. Early rule writers played at
Rugby School and their 1845 written rules
tended to stick, hence the game became
“rugby”, nicknamed "rugger".
The break from "no ball running" of
football was complete. The rugby rules
were further standardized, though not
without some fierce debates, and in 1871,
the Rugby Union was formed. (Associa-
tion Football or
soccer
, which got its name
from the abbreviation of Association,
with the slang “er” added, standardized
their game in the 1860s.)
Rubgy goes Kiwi!
The first New Zealand “club” game was
played in Nelson in 1870 by 36 enthusias-
tic young Kiwis. This historic game was
played in front of a modest crowd of 200,
by the rules laid down at England’s Rugby
School.
The man credited with introducing rug-
by to New Zealand is Nelson-born
Charles Monro. Only 19 years old at the
time, he had learned rugby whilst at
school in England. On his return that year,
he discovered that the Nelson Football
Club (formed in 1868) was playing a hy-
brid game with the old round Gaelic foot-
ball. They had no agreed upon rules nor
regular competition.
Monro assured them of “the great supe-
riority of rugby” and urged them to try it
using the lighter oval ball. The club loved
the sport and with his coaching they
played their first game against the local
Nelson College football team coached by
headmaster, Rev. Frank Simmons, a for-
mer pupil of Rugby School. Rubgy was
adopted as the team’s official code on
May 12, just 2 days before the game. They
became New Zealand’s first Rugby Foot-
ball Club, which continues to this day.
This is the earliest team photo found so far, thanks to Eva (Beach) Darrah & daughter
Jan Collier. We believe it was taken before 1920–notice the variety of jerseys. Can you
help us identify the year and/or any of the players?
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