History of rugby union in New Zealand
Two years later, a New Zealand team visited New South Wales, wearing blue jerseys with a golden fern.
In 1892 the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was established, to act as the national governing body of the sport.
In 1906, All Black George William Smith, while on his way home, met an Australian entrepreneur, James J. Giltinan to discuss the potential of professional rugby in Australasia.
It is believed that Baskerville first became aware of the profits to be made from such a venture while he was working at the Wellington Post Office in 1906: a colleague had a coughing fit and dropped a British newspaper.
When the All Golds stopped off in Australia, three games were played at the Sydney Showground, against a professional NSW rugby team.
In 1902, the governor of New Zealand, the fifth Earl of Ranfurly presented a trophy shield to the Auckland side, who were undefeated in provincial competition that year.
Three years later, a 1905 New Zealand team, who became known as the "Originals", toured the British Isles and France winning all of their games apart from losing the test against Wales.
As the team swept through Britain, some of the players took note of how rugby (league) was being played in the North of England.
One player, Aucklander George Smith met with Sydney entrepreneur James J. Giltinan on his way home, and discussed the opportunities of such a game.
[6] The 1940 All Black tour of South Africa was one of the first sporting events cancelled due to the Second World War.
The remaining provinces contested a split second division, though South and North teams did not meet each other, instead played their respective Island clubs.
There was a separate relegation system in place for each the North and South, ensuring the number of teams from each island.
Police were divided into Red and Blue riot squads for the tour, and in preparation for possible trouble, all spectators were told to assemble in sports grounds at least an hour before kickoff.
Police, already very worried, pulled the match when they found out a light plane piloted by a protester was headed to fly around the stadium.
During the final test match at Eden Park, a low flying plane dropped flour bombs over the pitch.
In the 1980s, New Zealand provincial sides participated in the South Pacific Championship, along with teams from Australia and Fiji.
As rugby entered the professional era in the mid-1990s, along with South Africa and Australia, New Zealand formed SANZAR, which would see them start a trans-national competition, known as the Super 12.
The 1996 Super 12 season saw the Auckland Blues finished as champions, whilst the Waikato Chiefs 6th, the Otago Highlanders 8th, the Wellington Hurricanes 9th, and the Canterbury Crusaders 12th.
[8] The game at Hamilton in the first week of the tour saw 200 protestors rip down a chain fence, sprinkle tacks all over the pitch and then staged a sit-in on the half way line.
[8] As Rod Chester and Nev McMillan described the scene: The NZRFU constitution contained much high-minded wording about promoting the image of rugby and New Zealand, and generally being a benefit to society.
Until the 1970s this resulted in discrimination against Māori players, since the apartheid political system in South Africa for most of the twentieth century did not allow people of different races to play sport together, and therefore South African officials requested that Māori players not be included in sides which toured their country.
