Nelson Football Club was formed in 1868 and changed to Rugby rules in 1870, this becoming the first Rugby club in New Zealand (currently under debate). The first match was Nelson Club v Nelson College at the Botanical Reserve on Saturday, May 14, 1870. Club won by two goals to nil. Later that year, Nelson travelled to Wellington to play against the newly founded Wellington club, followed by a second visit that same year. This started the formation of clubs throughout New Zealand and in 1877, the Dunedin club made a six-match tour of New Zealand.
Many of these clubs produced historical booklets to commemorate anniversaries or successful seasons and these histories are recorded in this section. These include rugby clubs, referee’s associations, and schools.
The clubs are recorded by the name of the club at the time of the publication, not its future name or amalgamated name. The clubs are listed by province, being the current province (such as Tasman RFU) rather than its province at the time of publication (such as Marlborough RFU). This enables a sort by function to list all the club histories published in a current province, and also by year published.
