A Workingman's game? NSW's State of Origin rugby league colours have their roots in the elitist English public school system, says SEAN FAGAN

This article was published in The Daily Telegraph on July 16, 2003 in conjunction with the 3rd State of Origin game of the 2003 series.

Some of the 52,000 spectators at Suncorp Stadium and many of the millions at home watching tonight's State of Origin game between NSW and Queensland will be cheering the Blues to victory.

Many will even adorn themselves in the light and dark blue colours of their home state - even paint their faces - as they yell: Go the Blues! But when and why did NSW come to be the Blues?

The two shades of blue are synonymous across most of the state's sporting teams and public institutions but where did it begin? And what is the significance of these two blue colours?

In 1908 when rugby league first played interstate matches between NSW and Queensland, both states continued to wear the colours that the states had worn in their rugby union days. Of course today both the Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs continue to wear maroon and blue respectively.

Before the split between the two rugby codes, the first clashes between the states, or more correctly the colonies, took place in 1882.

In those early years NSW wore jerseys of "heather green", which was the official colour of the Southern Rugby Football Union (later the NSW Rugby Union). The jersey also included a white southern cross emblazoned across the chest. By 1887 the NSW team was wearing red scarlet jerseys, which it continued to use until 1891.

The Queenslanders, meanwhile, had taken the field in black, then chocolate, before settling on a dark blue jersey in 1886 - a sight most modern maroon fans probably can't begin to consider! The blue jersey included a large N and U intertwined over the chest, representing the Northern Rugby Football Union (later becoming the Queensland Rugby Union).

And in a strange twist, the late 1880s saw the NSW side as the Reds and the Queensianders as the Blues!

However, in 1892 NSW took the decision to change to the light-blue jersey for which they are now famous. This resulted in the clashes between 1892 and 1894 being battles of two blue teams!

But in a two team competition, why would both states find it acceptable to be wearing variations of the same colour? Surely NSW should have kept red or have changed to anything but blue?

Recent research at the Australian Rugby Union archives has uncovered a note from the NSWRU minute book of early 1892 that sheds some light.

When NSW ordered their jerseys they specifically requested the colour as "Cambridge blue". This pointed to another annual rugby match where both teams wear blue - Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Oxford and Cambridge are England's two oldest and most famous universities. They have a strong rugby tradition and have been meeting in an annual on-field clash since 1872. In fact more than half the players in that 1872 match came from the famous Rugby School where the game originated.

And in this annual match the two sides take the field in blue - Oxford in dark blue, Cambridge in light blue and white hoops.

The "blues" concept between the universities originated as far back as 1836 in the famous boat races held on the Thames. It is thought that the Oxford stroke at the rear of the boat was dressed in a blue top, the colour representing his college, Christ Church. Seeing this, a supporter of the Cambridge team is thought to have pinned a light duck-egg blue ribbon (of Eton College) to their boat.

The colours became a tradition, and anyone who represented their university in a full-blue sport against the other university was awarded a blue jacket in their university's shade of blue. In the late part of the 19th century many of the men of influence in the NSW and Queensland rugby unions would have attended one of these universities.

Continuing the "blue" tradition in their playing colours in the colonies would have made perfect sense. The exporting of the blue colours from Cambridge and Oxford to sporting bodies, schools and institutions across the world in the late, 1800s created a blue legion - the legacy of which remains with us today.

When Queensland played in dark blue in 1886 they may have adopted "Oxford blue". Did their use of the dark blue force NSW into their now traditional light blue? Or did they prefer to follow Cambridge?

This inter-colony light and dark blue contest appears to have been in Honour of Oxford and Cambridge.

The NSWRU was very specific when ordering the"Cambridge blue" jerseys for 1892. They had to be imported from England (as all were at the time) so errors were to be avoided if time were to be saved. Wouldn't it have been easier to have simply ordered "light blue" or any non-blue colour?

For three seasons the NSW and Queensland sides battled in these colours. Queensland may not have done so deliberately but it seems NSW almost certainly did.

For some reason Queensland changed to a deep red or maroon jersey in 1895 - though it seems the use of navy blue shorts continued. Was Queensland tired of NSW's insistence on also wearing blue? Was there some criticism that copying an English university tradition did not belong in Queensland or the soon-to be federated Australia?

And is there any significance to Queensland's decision to switch to maroon? Purple or maroon are cited as the colour of English royalty (King or Queen).

By 1897 the NSW playing strip was a combination of the two blues of Oxford and Cambridge. It was specified in the NSWRU Annual Report as: "light-blue jersey and stockings (socks) and navy-blue pants".

Tonight the pride of the NSW Rugby League - The Blues - and their supporters will be unwittingly paying their respects to two universities on the far side of the world. A rather ironic twist for the workingman's game.

The NSW Blues play Oueensland Maroons in the final State of Origin game at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, tonight. Sean Fagan is the managing editor of RL1908 - The Rugby League Hall Of Fame. Go to www.RL1908.com