History of Rugby Union

The beginnings of rugby

Rugby is believed to have been started at Rugby School, England, where a pupil named William Webb Ellis was playing football (known as soccer in some places) and picked up the ball, and ran with it. This happened in 1823.

There were many different rules of football in those days, so it was decided that the game which involved picking up the ball should be called Rugby football. The game spread across public schools and universities in England, and after 23 years, the first standardized set of rules were drawn up at Rugby School, in 1846.

In 1848, the Cambridge Rules were drawn up, and became the basis of the Association game, when the FA (Football Association) was set up in 1863. In 1851, the first specific Rugby School football, with its distinctive oval shape, was used.

By the 1860's, there were several clubs formed, such as Blackheath, Liverpool, Richmond, and Sale. In 1863, Richmond and Sale played each other for the first time in what has become rugby's longest surviving regular fixture.

Britain wasted no time in introducing the sport to the colonies. Canada formulated its first set of Rugby rules in 1864, and soon after that, the game was taken to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Rugby matches

The first meeting of the first governing body, the Rugby Football Union, was held in the Pall Mall Restaurant, in London, on 26 January 1871. Twenty clubs attended. The first fixture the RFU organised was a twenty-a-side match between England and Scotland on 27 March 1871, at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh.

The next year was the first 'Varsity Match' between Cambridge and Oxford. England played Ireland for the first time in 1875, and also in 1875, the Hospitals' Cup was started. In 1877 Scotland played Ireland for the first time, and by 1883, Wales appeared on the international rugby scene, and played England, Scotland and Ireland.

Rugby Union has always been strongly amateur, although it was professionalised in 1995. In 1879, it allowed players one shilling (5 British pennies) expenses for playing in international matches.

However, some clubs in the north of England had players who were losing wages by playing Rugby on Saturdays, but the Rugby Football Union refused to allow a pay system, and in 1895, several clubs broke away from the Union. They formed the Northern Rugby Union, which became Rugby League.

The amateur code of Rugby Union was unharmed, and in 1890, the International Rugby Board was set up. In later years, it became the sport's international governing body.

International matches

A team of New Zealand Maoris visited Britain in 1888, and between March and November that year, there was the first British rugby tour to Australia and New Zealand. The British team lost only 2 of 35 matches.

In Europe, the main international rugby competition is called the Six Nations. It was first contested in 1884 by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. England won the first championship, then called the International Championship.

In 1910, France were admitted. British students had taken the game to France in around 1870. In 2000, the competition was expanded again to allow Italy to join.

In 1905, the New Zealand All Blacks were the first fully representative international team to tour Great Britain. They lost only one of 32 matches. They also scored 55 points against Devon, the County Champions. The county championship had been started in 1889.

When the second All Blacks tour came to Britain in 1924, they won all 24 matches and scored a total of more than 650 points.

The British Lions (name for the British touring team) went on tours to South Africa in 1903, 1910, and 1924. The South Africans gave the Lions a hard time, and when the Springboks (name for the South African touring team) came to Britain in 1906-07 and in 1912-13, they lost only 5 of their 54 matches.

Club competitions

In England, the John Player Cup (Pilkington Cup between 1988-89) was introduced in the 1971-72 season, as a knock-out competition for club sides. In the same year, Wales started the Schweppes Welsh Cup.

In England, teams like Coventry, Gosforth, Leicester and Bath have been very successful. In Wales, Neath, Llanelli, Newport, Swansea, Cardiff, and Bridgend.

Also in England, the English County Championship was introduced in 1889. Counties play in divisions, with promotion and relegation and the end of each season, with the upper and lower teams going up and down respectively. The top four teams play each other off and meet at Twickenham, England's main rugby stadium.

Other popular English competitions are the Services competitions, with the Army, Navy and Air Force playing each other on a rotating basis, and the Middlesex Sevens, a knock-out competition for seven-a-side teams played at the end of the season, and the Hospitals' Cup, with teams representing hospitals up and down the country.

In Scotland, the Club Championship was begun in 1974 and has been popular. It is a league system which was introduced to England in 1985, with three divisions, open to all clubs with membership. The Courage Clubs Championship has around 1160 clubs playing in 108 leagues, each with promotion and relegation. It is probably the largest league competition in the world.

Australia has the Sydney Premiership, which has been won many times by University, and New Zealand has the Ranfurly Cup, and inter-provincial challenge competition, first held in 1904.

The state which wins the shield accepts challenges from other states. Auckland defended the title twenty-six times between 1960 and 1963, and Canterbury who also defended it twenty-six times between 1982 and 1985.

Australia and New Zealand play each other for the Bledisloe Cup, donated in 1931 by Lord Bledisloe, the former governor-general of New Zealand.

In South Africa, where rugby was first played in 1862, their main competition is the Currie Cup, an inter-provincial tournament which was first held in 1889. Western Province have been one of the most successful teams.

International rugby

The first World Cup for rugby was staged in 1987, with New Zealand winning the first competition in the final against Australia. Since then it has been held every four years, with Australia winning against England in 1991, South Africa winning against New Zealand in 1995, and Australia winning against France in 1999.

The eight major rugby-playing nations are Australia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The game is also played in Argentina, Canada, Fiji, Italy, Japan, Romania, Tonga, the United States, and Western Samoa.

Rugby Union

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