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Rugby Union
Rugby Union was introduced to Australia by the British in the mid 19th Century and became the main football code played. By the 1860s the first football clubs were formed. The players generally wore strides that ended below the knees and caps in the club's colour with a tassel hanging at the back.
By the turn of the century rugby was a major winter sport and became a very popular spectator sport. The first Australian representative team, the Wallabies, toured the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America for 9 months in 1908. The tour coincided with the London Olympic Games, where three local boys - Bede Smith, Chris McKivat and Charles McMurtrie - represented Great Britain against Cornwall winning an Olympic gold medal.
Rugby Union came under a lot of criticism for its rules and regulations and in 1907/1908 a competition of the new code, Rugby League, was being played. At the end of the tour Chris McKivat and ten other Wallabies defected to Rugby League.
During World War I, rugby all but closed down because players enlisted in the armed forces. After the war, Rugby Union was adopted in state schools, ensuring participation from a variety of backgrounds.
Orange City Council made provisions for the local community and improved Wade Park in Orange in 1925 to include a new football oval.
The 1950s saw unrivalled growth of Rugby Union with the formation of local Rugby Clubs, Orange Emus, Orange City and later Orange Ag College and Waratahs, and important matches being played in the area. Wade Park has been privileged to hold matches between Western Districts v. the Fijians in June 1954, Central West v. Maoris in June 1958, NSW Country v. South African Springboks in May 1971 and again in 1993 and Argentina v. NSW B in 1995.
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Christopher McKivat
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