Short History of Newton Abbot RFC

Newton Abbot RFC was established in 1873 and originally wore green and red hoops and changed to Red, Black and Amber in 1897. In 1903 they changed their colours to all white and have been known as The All Whites ever since. In 1905, 1924 and 1935 the first 3 All Blacks to tour England made their first base at Newton Abbot after sailing in to Plymouth. In 1907 the South African Springboks also made Newton Abbot their base as did the 1908 Australian team after hearing good reports of the Newton hospitality from the All Blacks. It was a time for nicknames and pressed by a local reporter with the Mid Devon Advertiser to choose from several being used, the Captain, McMahon took a vote and the majority of the team chose the Wallabies which they have been known ever since. Newton had a purple patch in the 1920’s and the 1st XV won the Devon Senior Cup in 1924, 1925 & 1927, and the 2nd team won the Devon Junior Cup in 1921 & 1925

Newton have 2 international, H B Tristram, Full Back 1887 & D D Dobson, Forward 1902.

After many good seasons in the 50’s and 60’s Newton’s fortunes took a downturn and in 1987 when the leagues started they were placed in the Devon & Cornwall league from which they were promptly relegated. It took 10 years for Newton to get out of Devon 1 and over the next 10 years they gradually worked themselves up to National 3 South West winning the Devon Senior Cup in 2004, beating league higher Brixham in the final, on the way up.

In October 2007 Newton hit the world rugby news as their 2nd XV who were playing Barnstaple 2nds at home in a Devon Merit 1 match where amazed when All Black Jerry Collins turned up to play for Barnstaple. He was in holiday in Barnstaple just after New Zealand had got knocked out of the World Cup and wanted a game before he played for The Barbarians at Twickenham the following week.