First game of rugby played in NZ?

The first game of football in New Zealand played under Rugby rules may have been a match between Whanganui Town and Country at suburban Aramoho on Saturday 19 June 1869. There was still no score when darkness fell after ‘two hours hard kicking’, so the game was completed the following Saturday.

In signs of things to come, a scheduled foot race ‘did not come off as both competitors were disabled in the foot-ball match’, while a game later that winter was marred by frequent ‘oaths and bad language’ uttered by ‘boys of fifteen and sixteen’.

Until recently, Charles Monro was credited with introducing Rugby School rules to New Zealand in a match between Nelson College and Nelson Town on 14 May 1870. In 2020, historian Ron Palenski discovered the 1869 Whanganui matches. Earlier rugby matches may yet come to light – at the time adherence to rules was haphazard and press reporting could be ambiguous.