As a Springbok fan who has long wondered about the cock-eyed history of rugby union in the Southern Hemisphere and has been annoyed by claims from Aussies and Kiwis of pre-dating South African rugby, I'm happy to have stumbled on an important 'missing link'.

If you're at all interested in rugby, then the entire package of the game eventually becomes relevant – the image, the philosophy, the players, the statistics and the history form and shape one's appreciation of international rugby union.

I'll admit it's not everyone's cup of tea, but to me, as a Springbok fan living in South Africa within a rapidly changing social environment, the history of the game is as important as its future. They say, 'If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know were you're going', and both the New Zealand and Aussie rugby fraternities have gone to town in a void (left by South African neglect) in this rugby history department.

I'm not going to go into Kiwi and Aussie claims in rugby history, but will say they pre-date South African rugby by as much as 25 years. Nelson in New Zealand claim rugby union roots in 1870 and the Aussies use this same date very lavishly in their Wallaby history. (This is why the RWC finals whistle is an old All Black whistle, for example.)

My starting point for South Africa is based on logic and annecdotal evidence. Using logic, I've reasoned South Africa, as a colony founded in 1652, must have been fast asleep to have been overtaken by newer colonies in terms of rugby.

Using England and Rugby School (the starting point of the game in 1823) as the epicentre of rugby, a quick glance at the globe would certainly leave a mysterious void in South Africa if rugby skipped by to Oz and New Zealand.

The critically relevant period seems to be between 1845 and 1870 as rugby rules were only written in 1845 and, if you believe the Aussies and Kiwis, they were spread round a sail transport world to its furtherest reaches within 25 years (skipping South Africa).

On Saturday, I sat at Crusaders Rugby Club in Port Elizabeth (watching the Boks slaughter the Aussies 53-8) and spotted the 'missing link'. Crusaders is one of the oldest clubs in the Southern Hemisphere but officially was founded in only 1887. This leaves a 17-year deficit in favour of our South Pacific friends. I then looked at the club's history itself and noticed it was a sports club from at least 1840 and herein lies the missing link.

Sports clubs in South Africa were playing tennis, cricket, bowls, football, cycling (Port Elizabeth even had the Southern Hemisphere's first ice skating rink) AND rugby. To make matters more complex, there is evidence that both Winchester and Rugby School rules were being played!

South Africa, as a colony, had a population of 20,000 settlers before Australia and New Zealand existed and the Zeerust Rugby League Champions Trophy (played in 1900 between Canada, Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand – as the first international tournament) is confirmation of the complexity of South Africa's rugby union history.

For Pete's sake, the school I attended in South Africa, Gill College, was playing rugby when the NZRU was founded!

HB vs CB (home-born vs colonial-born) rugby games organised by the FAS (Frontier Acclimatisation Society) for newly-arriving settlers, games between legions and legions of soldiers prior and during the Boer War and eight independent rugby unions (WPRU, GRFU, TRFU, EPRFU, NRFU, FSRFU, CCRFU, BKRFU) overwhelmingly support a theory that rugby was not born (or miraculously superior) in New Zealand or Australia.

The cherry on the cake for Springbok fans is that a review of the statistics with all these inter-colonial games (and adding Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, South West Africa, Bechuanaland) puts the Springboks well ahead of the All Blacks as the most dominant team in rugby history and that these South Pacific claims of greatness are as spurious as their claims to the history of rugby.

Anyone looking for the TRUE greatest rugby union in history need not sail past Cape Town (don't pass Australia and don't go to the edge of the planet); South African rugby dominates the almost 200 years of the game. (That includes its lulls during wars and revolutions!)

The marketing battle has, however, been won by New Zealand, but thankfully some understand the difference between true quality and these packaged brands.

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