While Rugby Football was started by Whanganui Collegiate School (WCS) Old Boys and the School in the 1870s, the earliest records of games were reported in issue No1 of the Collegian in April of 1883 when a committee was established and a captain elected. 

Early games were between Boarders and Dayboys and other local teams. One of the very first Inter-School matches recorded was the WCS versus Wellington College match in August of 1885, won by Wellington College 24 – 0. 

A few years later in 1889 the forerunner of our present-day Quadrangular tournament started as a triangular tournament between WCS, Wellington College and Christs College with Nelson College eventually joining in 1925 to form the current Quadrangular tournament. 

In 1889 the XV started playing in the Wanganui men’s competition and in 1893 the plain white strip, now synonymous with WCS First XV, was introduced to avoid confusion with the black and blue of the Whanganui and Old Boys Club.

1897 saw the start of WCS playing Te Aute College. The games being played for many years in Palmerston North forming part of the A&P Show. These matches are the longest standing fixtures with the 100th game being celebrated in 1997 and are still very much part of our fixture list today.  

In the early 1920’s WCS expanded its fixtures list to include Kings College of Auckland, New Plymouth Boys High School and 3 years later Palmerston North Boys High School. 

These Traditional fixtures continued for many years and it was not until some years later that a number of new fixtures were added. These included inter school exchanges with Rathkeale College in 1977, St Pauls Collegiate in 1985 and Lindisfarne in 1989, all greatly valued and still very much part of our current First XV fixture list.

The remaining fixtures were made up of strong local Wanganui schools including Wanganui Technical College, today known as City College and Wanganui High School. In the mid 1980’s the XV entered the Wanganui Rugby Unions U21 grade for a few years before reverting back to a completely inter school competition. 

As the school underwent changes, changing from a boy’s school to a co-educational school, with the obvious result of fewer boys, rugby remained an important part of WCS school life. With fewer boys the challenge of playing big boys schools increased. The old fixture list remained. The Quadrangular tournament, as a calendared event, increased in profile and is still regarded very much as the highlight of the XV’s season. WCS Rugby has a good record in this tournament in the early years last won it in 1992 and has run reasonably close in the latter years. 

The school boasts 16 players who represented the All Blacks from as early as John Blair in the 1890’s through to more recently, Sam Strahan, Andrew Jefferd, Andrew Donald and All Black and World Cup winning captain David Kirk in the 1980’s, with Stephen Perofeta being our most recent All Black.

The establishment of the Central North Island First XV Competition (CNI) in 2012 is  the latest change creating a new and important era in the life of WCS Rugby as we continue to strive to provide a school environment that is balanced and a rugby fixture list for our players that is both educational and competitive.