The New England Rugby Union, or NERU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the District of New England (New South Wales) in Australia. It is a member of the New South Wales Country Rugby Union.
It supports three men's competitions and a women's 10s competition.
History - 1880 to 1900
The nearest clubs were located in the Newcastle district, so matches were organised on an ad-hoc basis. The Main North Railway was extended to West Tamworth in 1878 and Armidale in 1883. Its construction no doubt aided the development of the rugby code simply because teams could travel with speed and comfort. Inter district competition assisted with the promotion of the game as did the promotion of a shorter working week so workers could enjoy recreational activities. Saturday afternoons became available for sports and, for our region as for others, the rugby code took hold as a result.
On 12 May 1880, the Armidale Football Club was formed to play games rugby rules An article in the Armidale Express refers to a meeting to form the New England Rugby Union at the St Kilda Hotel on 4 March 1893. However, an unaffiliated competition had commenced the previous year with the Armidale, Albion, Deepwater, West End, Armidale Holiday Association, Inverell, Glen Innes and West Hillgrove clubs. Another club was later formed at Hillgrove.
The NERU's listed member clubs in 1894 were Uralla, Armidale, Gunnedah, Hillgrove, Quirindi, Tamworth and Walcha. The games were haphazard and by arrangement. The seniors cup competition of 1895 included Hillgrove and Armidale-based clubs Albion, Arforma and Armidale whilst the Tamworth-based teams were Acme, Tamworth and Royal Standard. The latter was no doubt associated with the Royal Standard Brewery which was located at the end of Jewry Street in Peel Street. A juniors competition also existed.
There was success in the 1890s. The year 1894 saw the Acme Rugby Club of Tamworth lose to the Albion Club of Armidale 12 points to nil whilst the Tamworth Rugby Club lost to the Federals Rugby Club of Armidale 14–7 in the 1899 final and West Tamworth defeated Albions 8–0 in 1900 for the New England Rugby Football Union Trophy. The NERFU Cup was donated by the late Mr. Thomas Danshey in 1892.
Representative football saw a 1893 New England team led by George Bliss lose to the NSW state team at the Sydney Cricket Ground 6–5. The state team only winning near the end of the game with a late try.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193201779?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union
1901 - 1919 & The Sawers Shield The mood to move away from the NERU by some of the clubs in the southern part of the Union is expressed in an article from 1900 where the Tamworth Football Club, at its annual meeting, passed the following resolution:
"That the secretary communicate with the Tamworth West, Werris Creek and Manilla Football Clubs as to the advisability of not joining the New England Rugby Football Union unless it was guaranteed that the final match be played in Tamworth."
It was felt that the local clubs had supported the NERU for a number of years, but that a final match had never been played in Tamworth. Central North (Tamworth) was subsequently formed and applied to affiliate with the NSW Rugby Union in 1903.
The Central Northern Rugby Union Cup was won by the North Tamworth club in 1903, 1904 and 1905. It was presented by CM Oliphant Esq to the club's captain W Jones. The 1904 Central North competition was composed of the North Tamworth, East Tamworth, West Tamworth, Manilla, “our Boys” (Moonbi) and Quirindi clubs.
The Sawers Shield was donated by William Sawers MHR for the best team in Central North and New England Rugby Unions. Sawers was one of the few non-Armidale residents to hold a position on the NERFU committee. He was president of the Tamworth Rugby Club in 1896 and a vice-president of the NERFU. He was the inaugural member of the new New England electorate in the first Federal parliament.
Between 1902 and 1914, the winner from both competitions would play-off for the right to hold the shield.
The East Tamworth club won both the Observer Cup in the Central North competition and the Sawers Shield by winning against South Armidale.
In 1913, in spite of the smallpox epidemic, which was then raging, the New Zealand Maoris played the Northern Districts team at Tamworth winning 29–8. All players had to have smallpox vaccinations prior to playing.
Prior to the outbreak of World War 1, two New South Wales country matches were played by the visiting All Blacks, the last for six long years as the New South Wales Rugby Union decided to discontinue all senior games for the duration and to give maximum support to the war effort. In contrast, the professional game continued to be played at all levels.
The advent of World War 1 saw many rugby union competitions dissolve for patriotic reasons and lack of numbers. An Inverell Times report of 24 April 1915 stated that the Northwest Rugby Football Union took the view that anyone who was able to train for football should enlist and resolved to abandon all competition games. Numbers were lost to the war effort or to the rival league code.
The 1920s to 1940s Sawers Shield was not contested from 1915 until 1948, when its status changed from an inter-district one to being for the winner of the New England seniors competition.
The 1914-18 war years were hard on the rugby code. An example of the effect the league movement was having on rugby is the AGM notice for the New England Football Union of 1919 where consideration would be made as to whether the union should cease its activities in favour of the league game. The NERU rallied, and with Walcha changing zones, Armidale continued to play rugby whilst many other district centres made the switch. 1921 saw Manilla club convert to league. Thus, all of the Tamworth district had converted.
It was a different story at the top of the Great Divide. Despite efforts, Walcha refused to budge and stuck with the rugby code. In addition, the GPS schools wished to maintain the ethos of amateur sport. As such, The Armidale School's membership of the GPS system prevented the adoption of the professional code. These factors assisted with the survival of the rugby code in the New England where elsewhere saw its disappearance.
The Armidale Express of the 1920s and 1930s mentions teams such as Armidale Teachers College, New England University College, Armidale FC, GPS Old Boys, Bundarra, Uralla and The Armidale School (TAS). TAS, Armidale High and De la Salle College provided schoolboy games. In 1924, the NERU saw rugby being played by The Armidale School (TAS), St Johns College and Veterans FC with combined Armidale playing against Walcha.
In 1925, the teams were Tingha, Bundarra, GPS Old Boys, TAS1 & TAS2
The 1930s saw the Armidale City Club reformed with the Bruxner Cup the main competition in New England.
The Bruxner Cup
A report about the 31st annual meeting of the New England Rugby Union in 1925 mentioned the donation of a cup by Colonel Michael Bruxner in 1925.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/192065096?searchTerm=Bruxner%20Cup
A number of articles un the Armidale Express of 1929 refers to a number of meetings where the issue of Union v League was discussed.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193918001?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union At a meeting between the organisers of the two rugby codes, a view was aired that Armidale did not have the population to sustain both and that one should be adopted. It was suggested that as rugby union was the code played in the schools, then rugby union should be the code adopted by the senior teams. Moreover, it is a game played in far more centres across the world compared to the north of England and parts of Australia and New Zealand. Lastly, that league was dominated by Tamworth so Armidale would not gain any advantage in being a league centre. The contrary argument was that Armidale was isolated from other rugby playing centres and there was not a town or village in NSW or Qld that did not have a leagues club. It was suggested the league game was better for the player and for the spectator and that public opinion was in favour of the code. Needless to say, no agreement was reached.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193918417?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union
The New Zealand All Blacks played against a combined New England/North West team in 1929 with the All Black team winning 27–8.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193008469?searchTerm=Bruxner%20Cup Walcha's Bill Laycock captained the side.
The NSW team stayed in Armidale after a tour of Queensland.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193171620?searchTerm=Rugby The last time this occurred was some 16 or 17 years earlier.
The Great Depression It seems there was a hiatus in the rugby union code from the early 1930s caused by the severe economic depression. Clubs folded due to players struggling to find work. Yet there were games and the schools continued to play. For example, Armidale, TAS and Teachers College played in 1932.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/192865715?searchTerm=Rugbyhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/192865414?searchTerm=Rugby
1935 saw an Armidale team play Inverell in a game won by Armidale 20–15.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193178146?searchTerm=Rugby It may have been a scratch game. Another was an invitation game also in 1935 between Teachers College and the Merewether-Carlton Club from Newcastle. The game was won by the College 19–10. The Newcastle team had won the Newcastle premiership but struggled with the overnight car travel.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/192850144?searchTerm=Rugbyhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/192850401?searchTerm=Rugby
In June 1938. a meeting to revive rugby in Armidale saw a new committee formed under Mr E Yule a former vice president of the Newcastle Rugby.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194158599?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union
It wasn't until 1939 that the competition got full underway The Armidale Club held a reformation meeting in April 1939.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193660295?searchTerm=Rugby The newly formed University College joined the competition and played against the De La Salle high school team.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193660569?searchTerm=Rugby Other teams included Teachers College, TAS and Armidale.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193660648?searchTerm=Rugbyhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193661317?searchTerm=Rugby
Another hiatus occurred until 1943 when GA Fisher, headmaster of The Armidale School, became president of the reconstituted union. Teams in 1943 competition were restricted to the university, Teachers College and secondary schools. Mr Fisher remained president of the NERU for seven years and was instrumental in the revitalisation of rugby in the New England region.
As the demands of World War 2 drew to a close, 1945 saw visiting teams from Sydney University, St Andrews College, Newcastle and Randwick and playing games against Armidale representative teams.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194316967?searchTerm=Rugby%20Unionhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194315788?searchTerm=Rugby%20Unionhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194317785?searchTerm=Rugby%20Unionhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194317974?searchTerm=Rugby%20Unionhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194317871?searchTerm=Rugby%20Unionhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194319856?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union
Post WW2 The 1946 competition included Armidale City, Teachers College and the university in A Grade. These clubs also fielded teams in the B Grade competition along with TAS, South Kentucky, Armidale High and De La Salle School.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/194305126?searchTerm=Rugby%20Union