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Rugby the
National Game
IN
the absence of official census figures,
attempt to determine the relative popularity of
different winter sports in New Zealand would
outside the bounds of ordinary prudence. It
sufficient to say that
winter sport in New Zealand
can no longer be grouped under any simple
classifications, but is divided into many activities.
Rugby football is still the ‘national game’that no other is
capable of attracting such a
crowd as the 58,000 who attended
the final
match between All Blacks
and Springboks
1937. In no other game
than rugby is the New
Zealander so jealous of
his prestige or so sensitive
to defeat. Yet the days
when rugby was almost
the sole winter
preoccupation of the entire male
population have passed. Now there
are rival football codes, capably and vigorously managed, and
there are other games,
notably golf, but ranging
right through to
basketball and table tennis,
which compete for the
patronage of both the
active sportsman and the
knowledgeable spectator.
In
addition to rugby, the more vigorous winter
games are Association football
(soccer), Rugby League football, and hockey. Both the New Zealand
Rugby Union and the New Zealand Football
Association were formed in
1891, but whereas rugby had by that time been flourishing as
interprovincial sport for more
than ten years, soccer
was just making a diffident and tentative
beginning.
A
third code of football came into existence in
1909, when Rugby League was
organised following a successful
tour of England by the ‘All
Golds,’ a professional team which
consisted in the main of
prominent ex-Union players, none off whom had previously played
the League game.
Hockey was apparently first played in the nineties by a
number of enthusiasts at Kaiapoi
near
Christchurch. Golf, first played at Dunedin
in
1872, also took a firm hold in the nineties, the first championships
were held in 1893. The
were for a long time the principal outdoor game
with rugby of paramount interest, particularly
when the successful tour of the 1905 All Blacks demonstrated that New
Zealand standards compared more than favourably with those of the
United Kingdom. Lacrosse was introduced but did not last, nor did
Australian Rules football.
Such
games as badminton, squash rackets, and table tennis (no longer referred
to with unbecoming levity as ‘ping pong’) did not come until years
later. Squash rackets, requiring
special courts, still has only a limited number of adherents, but
badminton and table tennis have grown vastly
in popularity. Basketball is
another game of
comparatively recent development. Women’s
basketball has won a large
following, and a national men’s basketball tournament was held at
Wellington in 1939.
It is
impossible within limited compass to
devote detailed consideration
to all these games, but in the
succeeding pages we may well find some reward in examining
broadly the evolution of New Zealand winter sport, studying in
particular that fascinating period
when the invigorating charm of competitive team-games first
brought its influence to bear on the national physique and
character.
England beat New Zealand 13
to nil at Twickenham in 1935. The English in this photograph have
adopted the traditional loose game of the All Blacks.
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The All Blacks of
1905-5 whose tour of the United Kingdom set new standards for
international football. The team was captained by D. Gallaher.
Game shooting is popular with
New Zealand sports men. This photograph shows three Cabinet Ministers.
P.C. Webb, W.E. Parry, and R. Semple returning from a shoot.
Competetive table tennis was
first played in New Zealand in 1925, but the formation of a New
Zealand Association nine years later led to a marked increase in the
number of players in this country. 'Ping Pong,' as it is called, was
introduced in England at the end of the 19th century; now in 1940, 700
teams play in organised competition in New Zealand. This photograph
shows a match when England played New Zealand in 1933.
Runners in a cross country
race. Since the first New Zealand cross country championship were held
at Christchurch in 1903, harrier racing has taken an important place
in New Zealand. Road races and modified marathons are held, as well as
races over fields and hills. Urban harrier clubs have given most races
an inter club teams bias, but runners who are not inclined to
competition may still enjoy less strenuous runs on Saturday
afternoons.
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