News - AU Rugby
No sign of Webb Ellis but Australia's Rugby still rich in history
Greg Growden
May 1, 2016
© Angus Growden

On the wish list of anyone with an interest in the 15-man game is a pilgrimage to the British city where it was all supposed to have begun.

Rugby, near Birmingham, richly celebrates the game, centring on the playing fields at its famed school, where in 1823 one of its students, William Webb Ellis, was supposed to have started the game when during a game of football, he picked up the ball and ran towards the opposition.

It is a contentious story, passed off by many rugby historians as a silly tale, especially as it didn't surface until several years after Webb Ellis had died. Even if the Webb Ellis running with the ball tale sounds more fiction than fact, that hasn't stopped the city and its school from stressing its importance in the history of modern sport.

In its streets are endless reminders of its deep connection with the game, which was named after the Rugby School.

At the end of Rugby School's impressive playing fields, a plaque set in a brick wall says: "This stone commemorates the exploits of William Webb Ellis who, with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus organising the distinctive feature of the Rugby game."

Thousands of rugby teams and 15-man obsessives have been photographed next to that plaque. Even lost scribes such as myself have pictures boasting they found that location.

On the other side of the world is another town called Rugby. The contrast is stark. There are no plaques celebrating schoolboys, nothing commemorating the Rugby game, and certainly no spruikers or museums. Instead it is little more than a speck.

Unlike the England version, the Australian version takes some finding. You need a pretty intricate road map of New South Wales. If you look really, really hard and peer at the area between Boorowa and Crookwell, near Goulburn, there it is.

© Angus Growden

This little country village is no shrine to the game. The football field, more like a paddock has been recently mown, but its most dominant feature is an old concrete cricket pitch. There are no goalposts. Understandable, considering the last footballers to play here threw out their boots with the garbage many years ago.

I accidentally discovered this town more than 20 years ago, when accompanied by photographer Steve Christo, was involved in a sporting trek through rural NSW, tracking down bush yarns for The Sydney Morning Herald. On our way back from Orange where we had found an illustrious boxer we were on a roundabout trip heading back to Sydney when we stumbled into Rugby.

That day, we headed to the general store to find out something of the background of a town in a noted wool and beef cattle area, which boasted 50 locals, an Anglican church, a general store, a hall, a public school, soldier memorial, several houses and little more.

It was picturesque, charming, but out of the way. Cars, trucks, caravans only passed through every 15 minutes or so. This was no busy highway, just a sneaky backway to somewhere else.

As for being called Rugby, was it named to celebrate the football code or the feats of Webb Ellis? Unlikely.

The then proprietor of the Rugby General Store, Christine Lynch told us:

"I don't know how the town got its name. Then again I may not the best person to ask. After all, I'm only a newcomer, I've lived in the town for about seven years, and you don't really become a resident of Rugby until you've lived here for about 50 years."

No-one could then recall if rugby union had even been played at the town, but the Rugby rugby league team had hit its peak in 1954, winning the prestigious Goldsworth Cup in the Crookwell competition, two years after nearby town Grabben Gullen were the premiers.

How did we discover this gem of trivia? Christo found the obviously long forgotten and now dusty Cup while fossicking around in a quiet corner of the general store. Yes indeed Rugby League was the winner in 1954.

I went back to Rugby a few weeks ago, and the general store is now closed, up for sale, and yours if you have a spare several hundred thousand.

The town population has pushed its way up to 60, but there was nothing doing this morning. There was no mobile phone coverage, so it was quiet, oh so quiet- probably something to do with school holidays.

© Angus Growden

The little public school has been under threat of being closed down for some time, but is thankfully surviving. ABC News reported in 2010 that a school where students had been graduating from for more than 120 years was about to close its doors. It was then down to four students. The concern then was that if the school disappeared, the tiny town 'might die out completely.'

Even though in 2016 the Rugby Public School, which boasts the motto of 'Learning is Living', still only has a handful of students, it is clearly a vibrant place- and treated with pride by all those involved. It is well kept, and produces an excellent school newsletter, explaining the goings-on of a small class who are doing everything they can to provide a heart to this town. The latest newsletter explains how it recently won the ribbon for the Best Schools Display at the Boorowa Show.

And in the interim we have discovered a few new insights about this town.

The presumption remains that it was probably named after the Rugby School in England by homesick pioneers from the Mother Country. After all, numerous cattle, sheep and stud properties in the area have titles straight out of a Great Britain namebook.

The argument gathers strength as the town's schoolchildren sent their English counterparts a flag in 1911. Rugby in England reciprocated, sending a Union Jack to the NSW hamlet. The area, originally inhabited by the Windguri tribe, was first settled in 1843 and received the name Rugby around 1865, several decades before two locals split up about 18 hectares for residential blocks.

It was also a tough area, with a lack of resources.

Down the road towards Crookwell you are reminded of the hardships of a pioneering area which had few facilities. In one row at the local cemetery, a mother had in 1918 buried her 13-month daughter Daphne, two years later her nine-month daughter Edna and five years on, her 13-month daughter Nada.

At least it appears Rugby, NSW, postcode 2583, had its glowing sporting moments. Like all small country communities, the townsfolk and the outlying farmers relied on cricket, tennis, football and basketball competitions to keep communication and friendship alive. Back in the 1920s, the town even had its own racecourse.

And after the First World War, Rugby did actually boast its own Rugby team. The Burrowa News reported in July 1919 on a match between Rye Park and Rugby at Rugby, which was 'hard and clean' with 'flashes of really first-class play.'

"The barrackers were numerous and wildly enthusiastic," the Burrowa News said. "A fault noticeable was a tendency on the part of some players to hang on to the ball too much. Tis good leather slinging that begets trys and success.

© Angus Growden

"Peace once more, and we return to pleasure and gaiety. Now, more than ever, is felt the need of an entertainment hall in our centre. What about it Rugby? Cooperation and an interest in the welfare and progress of our district is needed to ensure healthy pleasure and recreation at home, instead of seeking them elsewhere."

It took a while for that message to sink through. The still standing Rugby Community Hall was built in 1935.

It also appears sledging was a problem among the Rugby players in 1919. The Burrowa News commented in August that year that during the match against Boorowa that while the game was 'hard and fast, too much talking was indulged in. Back-chat on the football field and debates with the referee are not to be commended."

The Rugby Rugby team must have then faded, as the Burrowa News reported in 1950 that after a 'lapse of several years' they were playing in the third grade competition.

There also must have been a few useful cricketers in the hills as the Rugby team won the Boorowa competition in 1959. Nowadays it looks as if the cricket pitch hasn't been used on a regular basis for quite a while. Maybe the occasional school game.

Our only colleagues this time around as we wandered around the town were a few horses and cows, who watched curiously before deciding there was far better things to do, including grazing. Again there were was silence.

Then we were off, soon long gone from a small dot, a classic village with a special name.

© Greg Growden

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