Melbourne Rugby Club
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| Full name | Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club |
|---|---|
| Union | Australian Rugby Union |
| Branch | Victorian Rugby Union |
| Nickname(s) | Unicorns |
| Founded | 1909 |
| Location | Charles Lux Pavilion, Toorak Park, 580 Orrong Rd, Armadale, Victoria |
| Ground(s) | Romanis Reserve, Orrong Park, Orrong Rd, Prahran, Victoria |
| 2011 | Premiers (17th title) |
| Official website | |
| www |
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The Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club, is a rugby union football club based in Melbourne, Australia. Nicknamed the Unicorns, the club plays at Romanis Reserve in Prahran and was founded in 1926. The club's colours are green, blue and gold.
Melbourne rugby union football club is one of the two oldest clubs in Victoria (the oldest being Melbourne University Rugby Football Club). Officially established in 1926, some 38 years after the first game of rugby was played in Victoria, under the 'Melbourne Rugby Union' banner. The first rugby union games were played in Victoria were in 1888. Three games are recorded as being played that year:- one against a British touring team and two against a New Zealand Natives side. The match against the British was lost, but the second Natives' games was a draw; the game they play in heaven had arrived in Victoria.
Until the establishment of Melbourne Rugby club, Victorian rugby was a somewhat stop start affair, due in no small part to World War I. The Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) was established in early 1926 when Melbourne and the five other clubs then playing Rugby League, St Kilda, Melbourne University, Kiwis, RAAF and Navy agreed to wind up the Victorian Rugby League.
During the period 1930-35, Dave Cowper became the club's and Victoria's first Australian international representative and, in 1933, captained Australia against the Springboks in South Africa.
In the early days of the late 1920s and 1930s, Melbourne Rugby Club's motto of that era was "Praemia Post Habeas Ludo" (loosely translated as "After the Battle, Enjoy the Prize"). Following the club's amalgamation in 1939 with Old Boys Rugby Club and prior to his departure, that year, to military duties in World War II, the club accepted the recommendation of club member Weary Dunlop, that the rampant unicorn become the club emblem along with his suggested new club motto "Never a step backward"
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