UWA RUGBY CLUB SONG

 The song has its origins in the early 1980's and should be sung after each match win, lose or draw.

UWA Rugby Club
Club Song

Background
As with many traditions the origins are lost in the mist of time and the originators no longer around.  The UWA Rugby Club song suffers that fate also.  To the best recollections of many around 1980 Neil Munro started singing “We don’t play” in pubs/taverns eg at the Chelsea Tavern late on Saturday nights.   I’d guess it was mid 80s when it started being sung post games.  Lachlan Crawford was also recognised for seeking to introduce “sweet Molly Malone” in the change rooms after the match as opposed to singing it out on the field.   It was about then that someone came up with Bread of Heaven. Lachy pushed back against this as he preferred Molly Malone.

One year Munners got back from a trip to Qld and was enthusiastic about us having a club song – he had the start of an alternative song “Swing, swing the ball out wide we are the boys of Uni …” but not a second or subsequent line, despite our best (11pm ish on Saturday nights) efforts.

There was a game at Rockingham, maybe 1988, where we were all in the bar afterwards and Rockingham had won.  Their players staring singing the unisong. I think they liked thesong. They didn’t quite know it and the uni players (3rds and 4ths) took over and the whole bar was singing quite loud.

There was also another song that he used to sing sometimes, on a similar theme, something like

We are the boys of the red hot knob
We play rugger to fight the mob
Some are weak, others are puny
We play rugger for the honour of Uni

CHORUS

Give the Uni boys a go
Up you, stuff you, here’s to ho
Let the ball swing to and fro
We’ll win this bloody comp you know

And when the season is all done
And the competition we have won
We’ll drink more piss, and have more fun
And give the mutton gun a run

CHORUS

But we settled on the following words.  The tune is to the hymn known as "Bread of Heaven" (more properly known as "Cwm Rhondda", or "Guide Me, oh Thou Great Jehovah").Unsure of the tune? It seems that many players in the club are!

“We don’t play for adoration,
We don’t play for victory,
We just play for recreation,
Merry gentlemen are we.

Balls to (opponent),
Balls to (opponent),
We won’t play you anymore,
We won’t play you anymore.”

Attached is the The Old Grosvenorians' version of We Don’t Play for Adoration (rip-off)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtNMi0anrM