Our History
Wellington Rugby's rich history spans more than a century, and as such, has seen a lot of change over that time. Even those who have supported Wellington Rugby more recently (let's say over the past 25 years) have seen huge changes as well.
Rugby made its first appearance in Wellington in 1870, when a match was played between Nelson Club (founded two years earlier) and a team of Wellingtonian "enthusiasts".
The Wellington side was selected from a number of Melbourne Rules players, but numbered only thirteen players in total – including the driver of the vehicle that conveyed the players to the ground. Nelson, however, only had fourteen players in their contingent so the difference in numbers was alleviated slightly. The match took place in Petone on Monday 12 September with Nelson winning by the odd goal in three.
A year later the Wellington Club was founded and the first practice was held on 1 July 1871 with the Wellington Independent reporting:
"The majority of the members seem not to be sufficiently advanced for such scientific play as is entailed by the Rugby rules, and the result on Saturday was that the probability of getting the ball over the bar seemed very remote."
The players persevered, and on 29 September 1871 Wellington played its first representative match against a combined Nelson Clubs side and won by a goal and two tries to nil.
Professionalism has taken over, a necessary move to ensure that rugby would continue to progress in New Zealand.