ABSTRACT
Football, under a variety of conditions and rules, was played from the 1820s in Australia, while Rugby Union in an embryonic form was
discernible some 40 years later. Dissension remains over the pioneer club, but Tom Hickie has clearly established that Union was played on a continuing basis in Sydney from 1865. This was a sluggish start in comparison to the unique code that began in Melbourne almost a decade earlier. Union's first advocates in Sydney were local cricketers, members of gentlemen's clubs and boys and teachers from educational institutions of the wealthier classes. Their enthusiasm was dampened by the lack of available open spaces. Eventually grounds supplied by the University of Sydney and the private schools, and the pressure applied by influential patrons, enabled the game to have basic facilities necessary for survival. Another problem facing the emerging code were challenges to the rules. From within its own ranks and from advocates of the other codes, Union authorities were under pressure to modify the game. This issue was a contributing factor in the establishment of the Southern Rugby Football Union (SRFU) in 1874. Even though the inauguration of the SRFU did not signal a boom in the game, the ensuing period was one of consolidation; it certainly helped ward off threats from Victorian football and soccer. Union's first 15 years were uncertain ones but by acquiring grounds, quashing insurgents and repelling challenges it had established itself as the premier code in Sydney and rural areas of New South Wales.2 During this turbulent period, two elements did not change: the game was class bound and gender bound: it was patronized by the wealthy classes and remained exclusively male.
