Rugby in the Colony of Tasmania

Sean Fagan - ColonialRugby.com.au

The first colony to be established outside of New South Wales' Sydney settlement, Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) has many historical links and landmarks connecting it to England. Outside of the Port Arthur penal colony, the first half of the 1800s saw the establishment of two of Australia's now oldest cities of Hobart and Launceston.

In both townships, especially Hobart, newspapers report of the playing and watching of common English sports, including cricket (1820s) and wilder "entertainments" such as cock fighting.

Also common place are holiday fairs and celebrations following the traditional calendar of England. Hobart in particular was a lively city, being regularly visited by English navy vessels, American whaling ships, and home to former convicts, free settlers, and soldiers stationed at the local barracks.

As in Sydney, where folk football was played at festivals and amongst the barracked soldiers since (at least) 1829, documented reports of the old English game begin in Tasmania's major centres and townships from the 1830s onwards.

Mentions of football in local newspapers in the ensuing decades though offer little information on the development and type of football in Hobart and Launceston, and the path towards club football and adopting codified football laws in Tasmania is unknown.

With a large proportion of the colony's population migrating from Britain through the middle decades of the 19th century, it is likely that some local debate about the form football should take presumably took place.

The emergence of Melbourne as a major city in the 1850s saw Tasmania forging a closer economic and cultural connection to its rapidly growing neighbour colony, and less from NSW and Sydney.

In 1867 social games of Victorian (Australian) rules football (or a variant thereof) were reportedly being played in Launceston. The first known football club to be formed in Tasmania was the Launceston FC in 1875. The "Tasmanian Football Association" was founded amongst clubs in Hobart in 1879, and Launceston's "Northern Tasmanian Football Association" in 1882 (re-established in 1886).

While convention records that these Associations and their clubs were playing Australian rules football, this is not entirely accurate.

As in Brisbane and Adelaide, locally devised forms of football (which had elements of rugby) were being played in Tasmania's major centres before eventually giving way to Victorian rules.

In reference to the first season of the Launceston FC, The Mercury wrote on 19th August 1875 that since the "football club had been established it has flourished apace" and that its members were "determined to make all their rules perfect" - a process that would not have been undertaken if they were slavishly adopting Victorian rules.

In an 1879 match between New Town (a Hobart suburb) and the city's Cricket Club, The Mercury (on 26 May) mentioned that New Town's rules were close to those of Victorian rules, while the Cricket Club's were those of the Tasmanian Football Association. The reporter went on make it clear that the two sets of rules were so different that "each club will be victorious when playing under its own rules."

The match that day was played under New Town's rules (i.e. Victorian rules), meaning "that dribbling, the most telling feature of the (Tasmanian Football) Association game was almost out of the question in the absence of any rules as to off-side" - dribbling of the football by forwards being a prominent feature of the rugby game at that time, while the reference to "the absence of any rules as to off-side" confirms the Tasmanian Football Association's laws included off-side rules.

Reports of other matches in The Mercury through the late 1870s refer to the two goal posts having a cross-bar, goals not counting unless clearing over the cross-bar, unrestricted running with the ball, on-side rules, "scrimmages (that) ensued for some time," kick-offs from half-way, and place kick "tries at goal," amidst other matches that included mentions of the awarding of a mark from a team mate's kick, bouncing of the ball while running, no off-side laws, and "a drawback to the early matches in town has been the variety of rules" between the clubs.

Meanwhile club meetings refer to lengthy debates about existing and proposed rules, discarding their local club rules in favour of the adoption of Victorian rules in part or in whole, and of clubs playing matches where their "rules were not closely adhered to."

Only uniformity in rules could provide a means for football in Tasmania to progress, and with an eye towards playing inter-colonial matches with the neighbouring colonies, the obvious answer was to fully adopt the Victorian rules.

However, news of a proposed visit of an English team in 1879 looked to have given rugby union the greater sway.

Amidst great enthusiasm. The Mercury reported in March 1879 that the Tasmanian FA was in negotiations with the NSWRU for the Englishmen to play two games in Hobart and another in Launceston.

One of the members "was of opinion that if the English men would come to Tasmania it would revive football in Tasmania."

Unfortunately for rugby union in Tasmania the tour proposal collapsed when the NSWRU couldn't raise the necessary financial guarantees, and the Englishmen never came.

The Sydney Mail reported on 19 May 1883 that a meeting of the Tasmanian Football Association had replaced its former playing rules after it "decided that the new laws, particularly the abolition of the cross-bar and the assimilation of the laws to those of Victoria".

How strong an influence rugby had been in football in Tasmania in the 1870s and early 1880s remains questionable. While its sports fields were, at least for a time, graced with rugby posts with a cross-bar, once the firm decision to adopt Victorian rules was made, it had immediate and permanent effect, with The Sydney Mail (9 June 1883) recording the changeover as complete: "It may be stated the Victorian game is played everywhere in the 'tight little island'."

When the first British rugby team finally sailed from Plymouth in 1888, their initial stop-over in Australia was at Hobart. Arriving in the early evening, the tourists were entertained at a lavish dinner put on by the (Southern) Tasmanian Football Association.

Relations between the two codes were more than cordial, but there was never any prospect of a rugby match being arranged.

Unfortunately for rugby union in Tasmania, the tour had come a decade too late.

References.
Contemporary newspapers as mentioned.
Fullpoints Footy

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