HISTORY OF RUGBY

The origins of a Rugby type game can be traced as far back as Roman times and others have argued even China or Norway could have had a game that resembled Rugby. The modern organized version of the game, however, can be traced back mid 19th century England. The main private schools in England were involved in playing football (soccer) but one school the Rugby School (founded in 1567) in Warwickshire, was playing a different form of soccer that allowed for ball handling. The claim of the Rugby school is that a 16 year old rugby student named William Web Ellis (the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after him) in 1823 “with a fine disregard for the rules of football…first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game”. Former students of Rugby went on to promote the game in England notably at Cambridge University. In around 1860 the private schools got together and formed an association and came up with the association rules for its football (soccer abbreviation for association) and the schools that did not adopt the association rules their game became known as Rugby.

In 1871 the English Rugby Union was formed. Interesting the famous club Wasps was absent as it is alleged that their representative missed the meeting allegedly because he got drunk in the wrong pub. The English North Rugby Unions split away from the Rugby Union in the South of England in around 1895 over disagreement over compensation for loss of working hours. The Northern Union developed a Professional game in 1900 with the formation of Rugby League a 13 player game with altered rules developed for the professional game. Rugby Union remained an amateur association. It wasn’t until 1995 that the International Rugby Union allowed for full professionals in the game and the development of professional Rugby Union leagues.

Rugby was in the Olympics in (1900, 1908, 1920 & 1924). The USA won gold in both the 1920 and 1924 Olympics.

The first international game in North America was on May 5, 1874 between Harvard University and Montreal’s McGill University at Cambridge, Mass also being the 1st Rugby game played in the United States.

Several football games are derived from Rugby including Rugby League, Australian Rules Football and Canadian (CFL) and American Football (NFL).

In 1987 the first ever World Cup of Rugby was hosted by New Zealand and Australia. In 1992 tries were increased from four to five points to promote offensive Rugby over the so called boring kicking game.

The following are top televised Rugby tournaments around the world:

· Six Nations – European based competition of the following national teams England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy (admitted only in 2000) and Ireland.

· Tri Nations – Annual Competition between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

· Super 12 - Regional Clubs from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia compete to be known as the top club in the “Southern Hemisphere” in this annual competition, notable clubs are the Crusaders (NZ), Waratahs (Aus), Brumbies (Aus), Highlanders (NZ), Reds (Aus), Blues (NZ), Stormers (SA), Chiefs (NZ), Hurricanes (NZ), Sharks (SA), Cats (SA), Bulls (SA).

· Zurich Premiership – Top English Rugby Union League, well known teams Bath, London Irish, Wasps and the Harlequins.

Rugby has become international game being played by over 80 countries worldwide. It is the 3rd most popular sport worldwide next to soccer and baseball. The Rugby World Cup is the 3rd largest sporting event in the world after the Olympic Games and the World Cup of Soccer. The 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia generated over 150 million dollars in net revenue along with a worldwide viewing audience of over two billion people. Approximately 40 million dollars in profit was left over for the Australian Rugby Union.

Rugby 7s was an official event at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England in 2002. Rugby is slated to be admitted to the next Olympic Games although likely the 7s game and not the full 15 aside game.

Enough of history, let’s look forward as the future is truly bright for Rugby around the world.