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.
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]
2023: Hamiltons was selected to represent South Africa in the Amateur Rugby World Cup in France. Hamiltons won the inaugural competition beating Cobs and Cogs from Chile [4] in the Final.[5]
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.[6]
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.[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.[10]
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.[11]
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[12]
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.[13]
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).[14]
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.[15]
^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.
