The Birth of Rugby Football

Add This To Del.icio.us Tweet/ReTweet This Share on Facebook StumbleUpon This Add to Technorati Digg This

The story of the birth of rugby football is a fascinating one and goes back to the early part of the 19th century. Various football games were played in England before this time but it was around the middle of the 19th century that rules began to be formulated.

• The first set of rules are believed to have originated at Rugby School in 1845 but it was prior to that, that William Webb Ellis, a pupil at the school from 1816 - 25, "who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it". Whilst probably a myth Webb Ellis is credited with starting the game and the Rugby World Cup trophy is now named after him.
• The formation of the Football Association (FA) was actually just a critical in the formalisation of the game of Rugby. Upon formation, the FA drew up a set of rules which in particular precluded 'running with the ball' and 'hacking' (kicking an opponent in the shins). The introduction of these rules led to the Blackheath Club's withdrawal from the FA in 1863. Other clubs followed claiming the new rules would "do away with all the courage and pluck from the game".
• In 1870 Blackheath and Richmond teamed up with 19 other clubs to determine a code of practice for the game of rugby and they then went on to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the first laws of the game which were approved in June 1871.
• Since then changes to the laws of the game have been made at various times and this process still continues today. The number of players was reduced from 20 to 15 a side in 1877.

Historically, no points at all were awarded for a try, the reward being to "try" to score a goal (to kick the ball over the cross bar and between the posts). The number of points from a try increased to five in 1992.
Rugby is now a major international sport played across the globe and is a huge draw for legions of sports fans.