On the night of August 8, 1907, the most celebrated sportsman in Australia stepped off a tram in Sydney’s George Street. He pulled up his collar against the cool breeze and, satisfied he wasn’t being followed by the press, walked briskly towards the four-storey brick hotel in front of him. As he approached, the door was opened from within and with a final furtive glance behind him he hurried inside. George Bateman, the licensee of the hotel shook the man’s hand and said, “Good evening, Mr Trumper.”

Victor Trumper scanned the room and noticed with satisfaction that his fellow partners in this venture, Harry Hoyle and James Giltinan, were already there.

Over the next hour or so, athletic young men in groups of twos and threes made their way to the hotel, all with that edgy look of people thinking they might have been followed. Happy to be out of the cold, they lit cigars, took some refreshments and made themselves comfortable. Before long, a haze of blue tobacco smoke hovered above the patrons. There were the smells of cooking from the kitchen, whisky and beer from the bar, but overpowering them all was the heady scent of rebellion.

The sport of rugby, which only a few weeks before was at its absolute zenith of popularity with a claim to being the most popular sport in Australia, was about to split in two.

The men at the secret meeting at Bateman’s Crystal Hotel were players from the ranks of Sydney’s district rugby union clubs.

The Sydney district competition had come into being in 1900. Championed by Lewis Abrams, who would earn the moniker of ‘the father of district football’, it was supposed that by representing districts instead of the old social clubs, interest in the game would grow beyond its traditional boundaries.

The old clubs such as the Pirates and Wallaroo gave way to the new district entities which were created in raucous civic meetings across Sydney in March 1900. They were referred to simply as football clubs, such was the pre-eminence of rugby at the time. Glebe Football Club, with Abrams as secretary, was the first club formed on 15 March at a meeting at the Glebe Town Hall. Eastern Suburbs Football Club was formed at a meeting at Paddington Town Hall on 22 March. The last of the original eight clubs was South Sydney FC, formed at meeting at the Redfern Town Hall on 26 March 1900. South Sydney would take the field in a curious strip of cardinal and myrtle horizontal bars – colours still worn by South Sydney in the NRL today.

By 1907, under the control of the Metropolitan Rugby Union (MRU), the competition had expanded to 11 teams, and rugby was the only football code in Sydney that could draw crowds of up to 15,000 for club matches.

Leaning over the picket fence at Rushcutter’s Bay Oval on 27 April 1907, a supporter of the Eastern Suburbs club had good reason to believe that all was well with the world.

It was the opening day of the rugby season and his team were expected to be among the competition front runners. Easts had a strong roster of players who would no doubt feature in the representative matches later in the year. But no player excited the fans more than their diminutive centre three-quarter, Herbert ‘Dally’ Messenger, whose pace, agility and goal kicking prowess had turned him into rugby’s brightest star.

The jerseys of the two clubs playing on that first day of the season served as a reminder as to why rugby was king of the football codes in Sydney. Eastern Suburbs had fashioned their jersey on the red white and blue strip of the touring 1899 British team. Their opponents, Sydney FC, were decked out in black, reminiscent of the New Zealand All Blacks.

The sport of rugby, which only a few weeks before was at its absolute zenith of popularity, was about to split in two.

The sporting public of Sydney craved international competition, something Australian Rules and Association Football could not offer.

The one faint cloud on rugby’s horizon was that of professionalism. Under amateur rules, club players had to pay for their uniforms and fares to get to games. The expenses payment of three shillings a day for representative players on tour was miserly. Injured players were not compensated for time off work, which particularly affected men from the working classes.

Still, these issues had been around for as long as rugby had been played in Sydney, and there was no reason to suspect this year would be any different.

Then, on the Wednesday before the opening round of matches, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Star both published a rehashed article from an English paper, the Manchester Athletic News. It said the Northern Union clubs in England – rugby league clubs – were in talks with promoters for a tour by a New Zealand professional rugby team. The article was a short one and easily missed. Even those who did read it would have probably just shrugged it off, since the focus of the entire rugby community in Australia in 1907 was on one thing and one thing only: the upcoming tour by the New Zealand All Blacks.

The unprecedented interest was due to the remarkable tour of the British Isles by New Zealand in 1905. With a record of 35 wins from 36 matches, the tour established New Zealand’s reputation as the leading rugby nation in the world.

The All Blacks brought back a big fat profit for the New Zealand Rugby Union. Of this, the players only received the standard three shillings per day allowance.

A relatively unknown quantity at the start of the 1905 tour, the Kiwis caused a sensation when they thrashed Devon 55-4 in their opening match. As they continued to rack up victories, the crowds flocked to their games in ever-increasing numbers. By the time they made their way to London to play England at the Crystal Palace, a crowd of 50,000 paying customers turned out to watch. It is estimated that if the non-paying customers standing on the grass slopes surrounding the ground were counted, the crowd could have been as high as 100,000.

When the team returned to New Zealand in 1906 they brought with them a new moniker: the term ‘All Blacks.’ They also brought back a big fat profit for the New Zealand Rugby Union. Of this, the players only received the standard three shillings per day allowance.

The financial success of the All Blacks tour caught the attention of many observers, including the professional Northern Union in England. Over in New Zealand, it also made an impression on one Albert Baskerville, a 24-year-old postal clerk and handy club rugby player from Wellington.

Baskerville had followed the progress of the tour and was aware of the claims arguing that New Zealand had not beaten the best of England since they hadn’t played against any Northern Union teams.

One day while at work, a colleague dropped a British newspaper on the floor. Baskerville picked it up and read a report about a crowd of 40,000 attending a Northern Union match. This inspired the postal clerk to come up with the idea of taking a New Zealand team to England in the latter half of 1907, with the players taking a share of the profits. The Northern Union proved to be a receptive audience to the notion.

Baskerville began to sound out New Zealand players for the proposed tour. To help select the team he was able to secure the services of George Smith, a leading player on the All Blacks’ 1905 tour. However, Baskerville’s activities soon came to the attention of New Zealand rugby authorities and he was banned from any involvement with the game.

New Zealand cabled the England Rugby Union warning them about a possible professional tour, and players in the North Island versus South Island trial match were required to sign statutory declarations saying they wouldn’t take part in any professional matches. In Sydney, the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU) publicly backed New Zealand’s stance.

Baskerville might have been banned from setting foot on a rugby ground but that didn’t stop him from watching the North Island versus South Island match. He saw the action from his perch in an apple tree in the front yard of a friend’s house.

Despite the efforts of the New Zealand Rugby Union, intermittent cable reports from Wellington appeared in the Sydney press indicating that progress was being made on the professional tour. On June 1, 1907, it was announced that the Northern Union had finalised arrangements for a 27-match tour by New Zealand.

Towards the end of June came another cable that raised the eyebrows of Sydney rugby supporters, which suggested that an Australian player may be recruited to strengthen the New Zealand back line. What Australian player would a New Zealand team possibly want? Messenger?

In Sydney’s offices, factory floors, shops, trams and bars, it seemed every conversation was about the upcoming All Black tour of Australia. On Thursday 11 July 1907, the New Zealanders arrived in Sydney aboard the steamer Warrimoo after a rough voyage. At their base at the Oxford Hotel in King Street, the manager of the All Blacks, Edgar Wylie, told a reporter from the Evening News that he was quietly confident of winning the upcoming match against New South Wales.

Inevitably the questions turned to the proposed professional tour. When asked as to why George Smith wasn’t in the touring party, Wylie deadpanned. “All I can say is the selectors did not ask him to make the trip.”

The reporter then asked, “Then there is no truth in the rumour that ten or 12 of your team will be going to England?”

“As far as I know you can give that an absolute denial,” replied Wylie.

Later that evening, a grand reception was held for the All Blacks at the Sydney Town Hall. The team was given a tumultuous welcome and a hearty three cheers. The New South Wales Attorney-General was so thrilled by the prospect of the games that in his speech he said he “only hoped Victoria would catch the rugby craze.”

The Sydney public were having no such issues becoming infected. They were counting down the hours to the first game.

The weather on Saturday, July 13, for the opening tour match between New Zealand and New South Wales was perfect for rugby. People began to arrive at the Sydney Cricket Ground just after mid-day for the 3.00pm kickoff. In Sydney, where people usually turned up at the last minute, this was unheard of. Before long it was impossible to get on a tram such was the rush of people going to the game. By the time the players ran on to the field, spectators had taken up every vantage point, including some on the roof of the grandstand.

New South Wales started the game well, taking an early three-point lead. When the Governor-General, Lord Northcote, arrived fashionably late, the game was halted while the players went across to the pavilion to give him three cheers. New Zealand came back to record a hard fought 11-5 victory.

Rugby authorities were gobsmacked by the turnout. The crowd of 52,000 was the largest to attend a football match of any code in Australia, surpassing the previous mark of 45,000 at the VFL premiership decider in Melbourne in 1906.

A second game on Wednesday, July 17, was watched by a midweek record crowd of 23,000. This time, NSW defeated a depleted New Zealand team 14-0.

On Saturday, July 20, New Zealand played Australia in the first Test match. Messenger was injured and didn’t take part. Queensland players were included in the team, which took the field in jerseys featuring maroon and blue horizontal bars with a kangaroo emblem over the left breast.

New Zealand, back to full strength, scored within three minutes and won the match easily, 26 points to 6. Pundits from New South Wales blamed the lack of cohesion on the inclusion of the Queensland players.

Another huge crowd of 49,000 watched the game although at least two newspapers claimed the figure was closer to 55,000. Rugby now boasted the two highest football attendances in Australia and could genuinely claim to be the most popular sport in the country.

The exhilaration of rugby fans was tempered somewhat by the release of another cable from Wellington on the day of the Test match. It listed the names of the players on the professional tour. Six of the current All-Blacks were on it.

The tour now moved north to Queensland, and New Zealand took the overnight train to Brisbane. When it stopped briefly at Newcastle, a reporter asked Wylie about the names on the list. Wylie “was not disposed to talk of it.” Perhaps he just said something that wasn’t printable.

The All-Blacks defeated Queensland in two matches before facing Australia in the second Test at the Gabba. The match drew a Brisbane record crowd of 20,000. Australia led 5-0 at halftime and the crowd were in high spirits. When a dog dashed across the field with a mounted trooper in hot pursuit, it was greeted by laughter and a chorus of whistles from the crowd, and when a New Zealand player dropped an easy pass a spectator called out, “‘E ain’t got enough brains to make ‘is ‘ed ache.” It’s not known what that spectator said after New Zealand’s inspired second half performance gave them a 14-5 victory.

But the game itself, indeed the whole weekend, had been overshadowed by events off the field, which began with another cable from Wellington.