International rugby comes to Queensland (1888 and 1889): two tours and their impact on the development of the code

Abstract

The history of Rugby union football in Queensland, Australia, officially began in 1882, when the first formal game was played. The match was played, as an addendum, to a game of Melbourne rules football between teams from the Brisbane Football Club and the Wallaroos (both primarily played the Victorian game) on 27 May 1882, in the same year Queensland and New South Wales contested the first intercolonial matches. Seven years later Queensland had hosted two international touring teams, the pan-Britannic team and the New Zealand Natives, and Rugby had become the premier football code in Queensland, usurping the previously dominant Australian football code. This historiographical analysis, drawing largely from the reflections and data from the newspapers of the time, offers insights into the contemporary rugby culture, sporting ethos and the administration of the sport in Queensland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The contests generated displays of parochial support, some ambivalent colonial loyalties and illustrated a pragmatic and unfettered attitude to the game's management in the colonies. Both tours symbolised matters beyond sport and each was beset with controversies stemming from social and racial issues that were of considerable historical moment and in many ways are still not reconciled.