Hamilton RFC, Sea Point

Hamilton Rugby Football Club was founded in March 1875 in Cape Town, and states that it is the oldest rugby union club in South Africa. Hamilton RFC played in the first official match at Newlands Stadium on 31 May 1890.

For the Scottish rugby union team, see Hamilton RFC.

Hamilton RFC
Full nameHamilton Rugby Football Club
UnionWestern Province Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)Hammies
Founded1875
LocationSea Point, Cape Town, South Africa
PresidentDavid Kagan
Coach(es)Niekkie Viljoen
Captain(s)Louis Nel
League(s)WP Super League A
2[1]
Official website
www.hamiltonsrfc.co.za

Origins

The club's inception occurred when a Mr. W. Nightingale called together a meeting of football enthusiasts at the offices of Messrs. Hamilton Ross & Co.[2] The meeting took the name of their club from a Hamilton Football Club (est. 1868) in Scotland of which Nightingale had been a member. The club merged with Sea Point Rugby Football Club in 1910 and in 1914 adopted its current jersey colours of three wide bands of red, black and yellow.[3]

Club honours
  • 2013: Hamiltons qualified to participate in the 2014 national club competition, the SARU Community Cup, by ending at the top of non-university sides in the 2013 edition of Western Province's Super League A.[4]
  • 1883–2011: Hamilton RFC won WP's Grand Challenge Cup 15 times, in 2009, 1936, 1929, 1927, 1908, 1906, 1900, 1898, 1895, 1890, 1889, 1887, 1886, 1885 and 1883.[5]
  • 2010: Hamilton RFC's sevens team won the 120th international Melrose Sevens competition in Scotland, and were runners up in 2011 to Melrose RFC.[6][7]
  • 2009: Hamiltons won WP's Super League A and went on to beat Pukke 36-34 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium to claim the SAA national club championships.[8]
  • 2009–14: Hamiltons hosted the inaugural Cape Town Tens rugby tournament, "the biggest ten-a-side tournament in world rugby", and will do so again for the 6th time in February 2014. The event was launched by former Springboks Robbie Fleck and Bob Skinstad in 2009, and organizers anticipated "more than 2,000 players and 12,000 spectators" to participate.[9]

Notable members
  • Loftus Versfeld - played for Hamiltons "for five or six years"; won the inaugural Western Province Grand Challenge Cup with Hamilton RFC (1883); founder member, Eastern Province Rugby Union; won Eastern Province Grand Challenge Cup with Union RFC (1888); founder, Pretoria Rugby Club; won Transvaal Grand Challenge Cup with Pretoria RFC (1889); played for a Country XV against W.E. McLagan's touring British side (1891); founder member, Pretoria Rugby Subunion (1908) which in 1938 became Northern Transvaal; established Pretoria rugby headquarters at Eastern Sports Grounds; introduced grass playing fields to the Transvaal[10]
  • W.V. ('Billy') Simkins - first president of Hamiltons; first referee to supervise a match at Newlands Stadium (31 May 1890); chairperson of the South African Rugby Board; chairperson of the Western Province Rugby Union; chairperson of the Western Province Cricket Union.[11]
  • Bennie Osler, captain of Hamiltons (1927–1928 & 1930), Springbok (17 tests, 46 points); captain on tour to British Isles & Ireland (1931–32); joint record-holder, most consecutive test appearances at flyhalf (17).[12]

Springboks

Several players represented South Africa while members of Hamiltons but did not necessarily make their debut for South Africa as such. The following players made their test debut for the Springboks while being members of Hamiltons.[13]

# Name Year
1.Ben Duff1891
2.Oupa Versfeld1891
3.Hasie Versfeld1891
4.Charlie Brown1903
5.Tommy Hobson1903
6.Tommy Hepburn1903
  
7.Alec Reid1903
8.Joe Anderson1903
9.Arthur Burmeister1906
10.Jackie Tindall1924
11.SP van Wyk1928
12.Gerry Brand1928
13.Jan Pickard1953
  
14.Roy Dryburgh1955
15.Wang Wyness1962
16.Tiny Naudé1963
17.Kobus Burger1989
18.Toks van der Linde1995

See also
  • Hamilton RFC, Sea Point players

References
  1. "2013 logs - Super League A". Western Province Club Rugby. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  2. Hamilton Ross (1774-1853) was a wealthy Irish merchant who had married a Dutch South African, served in the British Army, and helped found the Cape Town Turf Club as well as the Cape of Good Hope Bank (1826) in Cape Town.
  3. "Hamilton RFC - History of the club". hamiltonsrfc.co.za. Hamilton RFC. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  4. Moses, Liam (28 November 2013). "Hammies eye Community Cup triumph". Die Burger. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  5. "WP Grand Challenge". MatiesRugby.co.za. Maties Rugby. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  6. Bjornestad, Chris (4 May 2011). "Exclusive Interview with Hamilton Rugby Club Head Coach, Anton Moolman". Blogspotrugby.com. Blogspot Rugby. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  7. "Former Winners". Melrose7s.com. Melrose 7s. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  8. "National Clubs: SAA Club Champs Draw Announced". RugbyMatters.co.za. Rugby Matters. 30 August 2010. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  9. "Big boost for Cape Town Tens". Sport24.co.za. Sport 24. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  10. Coetzee, N.A. (March 1993). "Herdenking van Loftus Versfeld op 20 Junie 1992" (PDF). Pretoriana - Journal of the Old Pretoria Society. 102–105: 35–46. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  11. "Spelers het self geblaas [Players themselves refereed]". Die Burger. 29 May 1990. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  12. "SA Rugby Player Profile – Bennie Ostler". South African Rugby Union. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  13. Baumgarten, Cecil (1983). W. P. Annual/Jaarboek 1983. Mowbray, Cape Town: C Baumgarten. p. 20.
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