Rugby

Rugby football (commonly referred to as rugby) is a contact team sport played with an oval ball, which originated in England in the 19th century and is played worldwide nowadays. The name rugby refers to Rugby School, a very prestigious boarding school in Rugby, Warwickshire, where the game was first played.

History

According to a legend, rugby football was invented by William Webb Ellis, "who with a fine disregard of the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game. AD 1823"[1] Although Webb Ellis certainly existed, there is no evidence that the incident described above really took place. During the early and mid-19th century no set rules for neither football nor rugby existed. Many public schools, where the games were mainly played, had their own set of rules, which was passed on orally. The first written set of rules was compiled in 1845 at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire. Rugby rules allowed handling the ball and types of tackling, which were outlawed at other schools. The pupils of the different schools brought widely differing rules to university, which caused discord and led to the evolvement of two different codes of football, rugby football and association football. The Football Association (FA), which used the rules played at Cambridge University, was formed in 1863. Eight years later, on 26 January 1871, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was founded by 21 clubs which disagreed with the rules of association football. Since then, several new sports such as American Football, Canadian Football, Australian Football, Gaelic Football and Rugby League have evolved.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/sport_01.shtml

Main Rules

A game of rugby, according to the rules of the Rugby Football Union, consists of two teams of 15 players each. A game is played over 80 mins in two 40 mins halves. The main aim of the game is to score points, which can be done through several ways. Five points are awarded for a try, which is scored by carrying the oval rugby ball into the opponent's in-goal area and grounding it there. A try is followed by a conversion, which means the attempt of kicking the ball through the goal posts. A conversion is worth two points. Other ways of scoring include penalty kicks and drop goals, which are worth three points each. In rugby, the ball can only be carried or kicked forward. Forward passing is not allowed. A tackle is made by holding the ball carrier and taking him to the ground safely. Once the ball carrier is off his feet, he must release the ball and the opposing teams can contest for possession.

Codes

There are two types of rugby nowadays, rugby union and rugby league. Rugby union is the more popular of the two codes. The rugby union world cup is one of the largest sporting events in the world. Rugby league evolved as an own sport from 1895 onwards, when northern English rugby clubs resigned from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Union which became the Rugby Football League in 1922. The northern clubs, which consisted mainly of working class players, were dissatisfied with the RFU's rejection of professionalism. This disagreement has led to the existence of two different codes of rugby football with different sets of rules. Other variants of rugby include rugby sevens, rugby tens, beach rugby, tag rugby, touch rugby, flag rugby (all variations of rugby union) and many more variations of rugby league.

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/sport_01.shtml

Richards, Huw. A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2006