Rugby developed through an infraction of the rules by a Rugby School boy, William Webb Ellis, during a soccer (or association football, as it is known outside the United States) match in 1823. The ball-carrying play by Ellis spread to a number of other English public schools, and in 1839 students at Cambridge University gave it a trial during an intramural game, which they called "Rugby's game." In 1848 the first code of the game was formulated and Rugby soon acquired wide recognition. By the 1860's two distinct types of football had developed--handling and no handling. In 1863 supporters of the no handling game formed the Football Association (association football or soccer). In 1871, 21 amateur clubs established the Rugby Football Union and drew up the original laws of the game.
Toward the end of the 19th century many Rugby players were taking pay for their efforts, although the practice was not generally accepted. The Northern Rugby Union, a professional organization, was formed in 1895 by a group of clubs that wanted to recompense their players for time taken from their jobs while fulfilling playing engagements. This organization was renamed the Rugby Football League in 1922.
The Rugby (amateur) code is followed throughout most countries in the world where Rugby is played. Introduced in the United States about 1875, Rugby was the precursor of American football. Rugby has had its longest popularity in the San Francisco Bay region. It has never become immensely popular in the United States.
RUGBY SCHOOL, one of the first public schools in England, located at the village of Rugby about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of London. It was founded and endowed by the will of Laurence Sheriff of Rugby, who died in September 1567. Originally local in character, Rugby became one of the most famous schools in England. Its reputation grew during the headmastership of Thomas Arnold from 1828 to 1841, when the school achieved scholastic distinction. The first beginnings of the game that became known as Rugby football are traced to a game played by a school team in 1823.
THE BALL
Richard Lindon (seen in 1880) is believed to have invented the first footballs with rubber bladders.
Until the late 1860s rugby was played with a leather ball with an inner-bladder made of a pig's bladder. The shape of the bladder imparted a vaguely oval shape to the ball but they were far more spherical in shape than they are today. A quote from Tom Brown's Schooldays written by Thomas Hughes (who attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842) shows that the ball was not a complete sphere:
“ | the new ball you may see lie there, quite by itself, in the middle, pointing towards the school goal | ” |
In 1851 a football of the kind used at Rugby School was exhibited at the first World's Fair, the Great Exhibition in London, this ball can still be seen at the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum and it has a definite ovoid shape. In 1862 Richard Lindon introduced rubber bladders and because of the pliability of the rubber, balls could be manufactured with a more pronounced shape and, because an oval ball was easier to handle, a gradual flattening of the ball continued over the years as the emphasis of the game moved towards handling and away from dribbling. In 1892 the RFU included compulsory dimensions for the ball in the Laws of the Game for the first time. In the 1980s leather-encased balls, which were prone to water-logging, were replaced with balls encased in synthetic waterproof materials.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL GAME
The first international rugby football game resulted from a challenge issued in the sporting weekly Bell’s Weekly on 8 December 1870 and signed by the captains of five Scottish clubs, inviting any team "selected from the whole of England" to a 20-a-side game to be played under the Rugby rules. The game was played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, the home ground of Edinburgh Academical, on 27 March 1871. The English team wore all white with a red rose on their shirts and the Scots brown shirts with a thistle and white cricket flannels. Three international matches played according to Association Football rules had already taken place at the Oval, London, in 1870 and 1871.
THE RUGBY WORLD CUP
The first Rugby World Cup was played in 1987. New Zealand hosted the tournament, with some games, including both semi-finals, being played in Australia. The All Blacks defeated France in the final to record their only World Cup success.
In 1991, England hosted the second tournament, losing to Australia in the final.
The World Cup of 1995 proved to be a turning point for the game. The competition was held in South Africa, newly readmitted from international exile. Giant wing Jonah Lomu scored four tries for the All Blacks against England. South Africa, who had not been allowed to compete in the first two tournaments, won the final, beating the All Blacks 15-12, the winning score coming from a drop-goal by Joel Stransky. The tournament became a point of reconciliation for the new South Africa, as South African President Nelson Mandela, dressed in a Springbok jersey, which was long a symbol of apartheid, bearing the name and number six of South Africa's captain Francois Pienaar, handed him the William Webb Ellis Trophy.
The 1999 Rugby World Cup was held in Wales and was won by Australia, who defeated France in the final after the latter had come from behind to record a shock win against tournament favourites, the All Blacks, at the semi-final stage.
In 2003, Australia hosted the tournament and reached the final for the third time. In a closely-fought game, which went into extra time, Australia narrowly lost to England, thanks to a last-minute drop goal by Jonny Wilkinson.
France was the host nation for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, though several games were played in Edinburgh and Cardiff, and France played its quarter-final in Wales, against the All Blacks, who had started the tournament as odds-on favorites. In a repeat of 1999, France gained a shock win, consigning the favorites to their worst result in World Cup history. France went on to lose against England at the semi-final stage. England, in turn, lost in the final to the Springboks, who equaled Australia's record of two World Cup wins.
PROFESSIONALISM
On 26 August 1995 the International Rugby Board declared rugby union an "open" game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. It did this because of a committee conclusion that to do so was the only way to end the hypocrisy of shamateurism and to keep control of rugby union.
Professionalization brought mixed responses, with some predicting the demise of the game, or even the demise of its rival rugby league. In the end this did not happen, and both rugby codes proved resilient, although not without a few scars to prove it.
The threat to amateur rugby union was especially large in Australia where Super League was threatening to entice players to rugby league with large salaries. SANZAR was formed in 1995 by the New Zealand, Australian and South African Rugby Unions to try to counter the Super League threat. SANZAR proposed a provincial competition with teams from all three countries. This competition became the Super 12 and later the Super 14 before adopting its current identity as Super Rugby. The SANZAR proposals also included an annual competition between each country's Test teams, the Tri Nations Series. They were eventually able to get backing for the competition from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, with a contract totaling $US 550 million for ten years of exclusive TV and radio broadcasting rights. The deal was signed during the 1995 Rugby World Cup and revealed at a press conference on the eve of World Cup final.
SANZAR's proposals were under serious threat from a Sydney-based group called the World Rugby Corporation (WRC). WRC was formed by lawyer Geoff Levy and former Wallaby Ross Turnbull. At one point the WRC had a majority of the All Blacks and Wallaby teams signed up to their competition. In addition to this the Springboks had also signed the WRC contracts but had decided not to hand them over and instead signed up with the South African Rugby Union. The players had been told they would never play for their country again if they committed to the WRC. Most of the All Blacks then followed their Springbok counterparts by signing with their Union. The Australians, realizing that without the New Zealanders and South Africans WRC's proposal could not succeed, relented and signed for the Australian Rugby Union.
The Heineken Cup was formed in 1995 as a competition for 12 European clubs. Today the competition includes teams from England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.
Professionalism opened the door for the emergence of a new rugby generation in Italy. The Italian domestic leagues had attracted a degree of tax relief in the 1990s, and were able to attract both strong corporate sponsorship and also high quality coaches and players with recent Italian heritage from Australia and Argentina. These improvements led to a national team capable of competing with the national teams of the British Isles, proven by a famous victory against Ireland in 1995. Lobbying was successful to have Italy included in the century-old tournament for the top European rugby nations which became the Six Nations championship in 2000.
A key benefit that professionalism brought to rugby union as a whole was the elimination of the constant defection of union players who were attracted to the money of rugby league. The rugby union authorities of the time also hoped that as players could now play in either code, in the long term most of the sponsorship and interest would gravitate away from league to the more international game of union. However, rugby union has not managed to lure away more than a handful of elite players from rugby league, as the two codes have become quite different over the decades of separation in both culture and in aspects of play. The preferred body type and skill sets of players differ, especially in the play of the forwards. With access to players of different types, some more suited to one code and some to the other, some English rugby union clubs have even formed partnerships with a rugby league club which plays in the premier rugby league competitions - the most notable example being Harlequins with the former London Broncos, now Harlequins Rugby League.
The many smaller unions across the globe have struggled both financially and in playing terms to compete with the major nations since the start of the open era. In England whilst some teams flourished in the professional era others such as Richmond, Wakefield, Orrell, Waterloo and London Scottish found the going much harder and have either folded or dropped down to minor leagues. In the other Home Nations, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the professional era had a traumatic effect on the traditional structure of the sport, which had been based around local clubs. Professional rugby in these three countries is now regionally based. In Ireland, each of the four traditional provinces supports one professional team. Scotland currently has two regional teams, each based in one of the country's two largest cities. Wales adopted a regional franchise model, originally with five teams but now with four. These three countries have a joint professional competition, known as the Celtic League or its current sponsored name of Rabo Direct Pro12. In 2010, two Italian super-regional teams joined that league.
