Rugby football
General description
Rugby football is a catch-all term which may refer to two related but separate sports: Rugby League and Rugby Union. Both forms of the game are very popular in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand. Rugby Union is the national sport of Wales, New Zealand and Pacific countries such as Tonga, Fiji, Samoa. Rugby Union is also played in South Africa,Ireland,Italy,Romania,Argentina, Japan,Russia and many other countries. Rugby League is the national sport of Papua New Guinea and is also played in most of the above countries.
Argentina-France Rugby Union match
Set pieces of the Union game include the scrum, where packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the line out where lines of players attempt to catch the ball thrown from the sidelines.
In the League game, the scrum still exists, but is of greatly reduced importance, and there are no line-outs.
The main difference between the two games, besides League having thirteen players and Union fifteen, is that possession following the tackle is contested in Union and uncontested in League.
Scoring in both games is by either grounding the ball at the opponents' end of the field, or kicking it between upright posts.
The high level of contact and lack of protective padding make both codes of Rugby an extremely physical game. Touch Rugby offers a variation on the same theme without injury or some of the complications of traditional rugby.
It is argued that rugby football can claim the world's first "football club", formed at Guy's Hospital Football Club, London in 1843, by Rugby School old boys. A number of other clubs were formed to play games based on the Rugby School rules. Blackheath, founded in 1858 is regarded as the world's oldest surviving rugby club. (See Football.)
The rules of Rugby football were first recorded in written form in 1845 by pupils of the school. In October of 1863, The Football Association was formed with the intention of standardising the various forms of football that were being played at the time. During a series of six meetings, held at the Freemason's Tavern in London, representatives of the public schools and Universities along with a number of prominent independent clubs met to establish a single code of football. The first draft included rules that allowed features that are now part of Rugby football such as running forward with the ball to be charged, held, tripped etc. These rules were gradually dropped and a variety of the "Cambridge Rules" were adopted. In the final meeting the representative from Blackheath withdrew his club from the association over the removal of a rule allowing hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins). and a number of other clubs continued to play games based on the Rugby School rules.
On January 26, 1871, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was formed, leading to the standardisation of the rules for all clubs that played a variety of the Rugby School laws.
The 1890s saw a clash of cultures within the game, between working men's rugby clubs of northern England and Scotland and the southern clubs of gentleman, a dispute revolving around the nature of professionalism within the game. On August 29, 1895 21 clubs split from the RFU and met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield, forming the Northern Rugby Football Union. Their rules gradually diverged from Rugby Union, although the name "Rugby League" was not officially used until the Northern Rugby League was formed in 1901. The name Rugby Football League was adopted in 1922.
In Australia and New Zealand, Rugby Union is generally known as "Rugby", whereas Rugby League is called "League", to differentiate them. On the east coast of Australia, Rugby League is also widely called "footy" (which is extremely confusing for other Australians, for whom the term refers to Australian Rules Football).
Rules
The distinctive features common to both rugby games are the ovoid ball and the fact that passing the ball forwards is illegal, so that ground can be gained only by running with the ball or kicking it. History (see also Football)
The most famous story about the origins of Rugby football, whereby a young man named William Webb Ellis "picked up the ball and ran", while playing football at Rugby School is a matter of controversy among historians. There were no standard rules for football during Webb Ellis's time at Rugby (1816-1825), the school already had its own rules, many varieties of football involved carrying the ball, and the story first appeared in 1876, some four years after his death. However, the trophy for the Rugby Union World Cup is named Webb Ellis in his honour and a plaque at the school 'commemorates' the 'achievement'.Culture and humour
An alternative, "posh" name for the sport (though not often heard nowadays, and mainly referring to the Union code) is "rugger". Those heavily into the rugby lifestyle (heavy drinking, striped jumpers, girlfriends called Kay etc.) are sometimes referred to as "rugger buggers". Retired players who still turn up to watch, drink and serve on committees are known as "alickadoos", or less kindly as "old Farts" (see W. Carling).See also