Piece about the Shanghai Rugby club
The Shanghai Rugby Football Club
The origins of the Shanghai Rugby Football Club can be traced back to 1867 when the very first Shanghai Football Club was founded, playing a hybrid of rugby and soccer on a field on the racecourse which became today's People's Square.
The first true rugby game (although a different form from the game played today) according to the club's website, was played in November 1875, five years after the first Shanghai Football Club had disbanded. Rugby player and historian Simon Drakeford observes that in those early days it seemed that the game to be played depended on the number of players who turned up. If enough turned up they would play rugby otherwise they would play association football.
However, as time went on, there was some friction between the adherents of the soccer and rugger codes and consequently, the Shanghai Rugby Football Club was born in September 1904. A surge of enthusiasm for rugby among expats (mainly Britons) in Shanghai at the time created an important sports tradition - the interport fixture.
The club's first interport match took place in Shanghai in February 1907 against a team from Tianjin and the teams met another seven times up to 1924. That year also marked the start of the most important and most enthusiastically attended interport annual fixture when Shanghai traveled to Hong Kong. The two teams played each other 15 times between 1924 and 1949.
In Shanghai, the club also welcomed the appearance of American, French and Japanese teams from the 1920s and the city's rugby scene flourished from then on until the liberation of Shanghai in 1949 when many players left Shanghai to return to their home countries.
The club struggled on and saw its final game of rugby played between club team and a "Retired Gentlemen" team in March 1950. Simon Drakeford notes: "At the request of the retirees the game was limited to two 20-minute halves. The result was not recorded but we do know that hot water would be provided but the players had to bring their own towel and soap."
Shanghai's rugby scene halted for some 45 years till the mid-1990s when games were played between groups of enthusiasts and the club was reborn. Today's Shanghai Rugby Football Club has evolved into a diverse sports club offering a dozen recreational and sporting activities including rugby, soccer, cricket, tennis and Frisbee involving the city's expats and local Chinese.
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