page_title: Rugby union in Australia
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Rugby union in Australia / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Australian rugby union team, wearing the light blue jersey.
context_page_description: Rugby union is a football code within Australia with a history dating back to 1864. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.
  The principal competition in Australian rugby is Super Rugby, which is a multi-regional competition across the southern hemisphere. Australia enters four teams: the Reds of Queensland, the Waratahs of New South Wales, the Brumbies of the Australian Capital Territory, and the Melbourne Rebels of Victoria.
  The National Rugby Championship was launched as the next level below Super Rugby in August 2014. The NRC consists of nine teams – two from Queensland, two from New South Wales, one each from the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Western Australia, plus the Fijian Drua, effectively a developmental side for that country's national team. Below the NRC are traditional capital city competitions, such as the Shute Shield of Sydney, Queensland Premier Rugby of Brisbane and Pindan Premier Grade of Perth which formed the highest level of domestic competition for much of the sport's history in Australia.
context_section_description: The first rugby union club to be established in Australia was Sydney University's in 1864. In 1869, Newington College was the first Australian school to play rugby in a match against the University of Sydney. A decade after the first club was formed, a body called the Southern Rugby Union was formed as a result of a meeting at the Oxford Hotel in Sydney, a Sydney competition was established, which was administered from the England Rugby headquarters at Twickenham. The first competition commenced the following year in 1865 with 6 teams.
  The earliest record of rugby games being played in Queensland was in 1876.
  The 'Waratah' Rugby Club invited Australian rules football club, the Carlton Football Club to play two matches, one under rugby rules and one under Australian rules. On Saturday 23 June, 3,000 spectators watched Waratah beat Carlton at rugby at the Albert Cricket Ground in Redfern. In the return leg, Carlton defeated Waratah under Australian rules. 
  The first inter-colonial game occurred on 12 August 1882, when players from the four Queensland clubs (who played both rugby and Australian rules football) travelled to NSW. NSW won by 28 points to 4 at the Association Ground (later to be renamed the Sydney Cricket Ground) in front of 4,000 spectators. Later that same year, the Southern Rugby Union undertook its inaugural tour of New Zealand, winning four of its seven matches.
  On 2 November, in 1883, the Northern Rugby Union was formed as the rugby body in Queensland after a meeting at the Exchange Hotel. As a result of the formation of the new body, several prominent grammar schools took up rugby as opposed to Melbourne Rules. The following year, a New Zealand party went to Australia and the first club competition was held in Queensland. In 1888 the Melbourne Rugby Union was formed in Victoria. In 1892, the rugby bodies in Australia dropped Southern and Northern from their titles, adopting New South Wales and Queensland respectively. That year the first British and Irish Lions tour was carried out. Although unsanctioned by official bodies in Europe, the 21-man squad went to both Australia and New Zealand.
  In 1899, the national team of Australia played their first match, and the Hospital's Cup became an annual competition in Queensland.
caption: The Australia national team in 1899.
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