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To the long list of Wigan legends who grace the Rugby League’s Hall of Fame – Jim Sullivan, Eric Ashton, Boston, Ellery Hanley, Martin Offiah, Mick Sullivan, Shaun Edwards – add the name Andy Gregory. The former Wigan St Patrick’s amateur began his professional career with Widnes, where he won the f…

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On 8 August 1907 a group of leading rugbyside, 1908. Sean Fagan union players and supporters met at Bateman's Hotel, George Street, Sydney, to discuss the creation of the New South Wales Rugby Football League.

A key aspect of the new code was that players would be paid for playing the game.

Adopting the playing rules of the rebel Nortside, 1908. Sean Faganhern Union of England, the new competition began in earnest in Australia on Easter Monday, 20 April 1908.

All golds

A catalyst for the establishment of a breakaway code was the visit to Sydney of a professional New Zealand side in August 1907. Known as the All Golds and led by New Zealand football entrepreneur Albert Henry Baskerville, the New Zealand side was en route to England to play Northern Union teams.

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On 8 August 1907 a group of leading rugbyside, 1908. Sean Fagan union players and supporters met at Bateman's Hotel, George Street, Sydney, to discuss the creation of the New South Wales Rugby Football League. A key aspect of the new code was that players would be paid for playing the game.

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“USA Rugby.” USA Rugby, USA Rugby, 2022, www.usa.rugby/rugby101/.‌

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“USA Rugby.” USA Rugby, USA Rugby, 2022, www.usa.rugby/rugby101/.‌

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HISTORY

In 1823, William Webb Ellis used his hands to pick up a ball in a soccer match and ran with it to the goal. That day, rugby was born. There are two primary forms of rugby union: rugby fifteens and rugby sevens. Touch rugby, beach rugby, rugby tens and rugby twelves are also iterations of the sport often used as a development pathway and feeder into the main forms.

SAFER WITHOUT PADS

Though rugby players don't wear pads or helmets, the techniques and rules of the sport make impact much safer. Rugby players are taught to use their arms and shoulders when making contact with opponents; earning serious repercussions for any contact above the shoulders and other dangerous styles of play. Players caught disregarding these rules receive a yellow card and are forced to sit on the bench for ten minutes in rugby fifteens and two minutes in rugby sevens. Serious offenses can result in a red card, with the chance of suspending the athlete for weeks.

ABOUT RUGBY 15s

Fifteens is played with 15 players on each side of the ball who compete for 80-minutes (two 40 minute halves) in individual matches through the year. Rugby fifteens was an Olympic sport in the early 1900s where the U.S. men won gold medals in 1920 and 1924. The Rugby World Cup is now the main pinnacle event of the sport -- taking place every four years -- and also serves as the third-largest single-sporting event in the world.

RULES OF RUGBY 15s

Two teams of 15 players have 80 minutes to advance the ball past their opponents' side of the field (pitch) and touch it to the ground for a score worth 5 points (try). Participants may only pass the ball backwards or sideways with no blocking allowed; using a variety of phases such as lineouts, mauls, rucks and scrums to retain possession during play. Rugby is unique in that play is continuous even after players are tackled on the field. Kicking is the only method by which both teams may move the ball forward.

After each try, worth 5 points, the scoring team is allowed an opportunity to kick the ball through the posts for an additional 2 points (conversion). Certain penalties also earn the non-offending team a kick through the posts, worth 3 points (penalty) if made. At the conclusion of the match, the team with the most points wins.

ABOUT RUGBY 7s

Rugby sevens is a current Olympic sport, making its first appearance in the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Sevens is played with 7 players on each side of the ball who compete for 14-minutes (two 7-minute halves) in tournaments with up to three matches per competition day. The first day typically consists of pool rounds after which a team's performance qualifies them for the Championship track or Challenge track. The Championship track typically awards the top finishes of the tournament including first, second and third place. The Challenge track consists of consolation rounds. Teams for either track must continue to play through the tournament to earn their final placing.

RULES OF RUGBY SEVENS

A fast, high-scoring version of traditional rugby, sevens is played with two teams of 7 players who have 14 minutes to advance the ball into their opponent's area of the field (pitch) and touch it to the ground for a score worth 5 points (try). As in the 15-a-side version of the sport, participants may only pass the ball backwards or sideways with no blocking allowed; using phases such as lineouts, mauls, rucks and scrums to retain possession during play. Kicking is the only method by which both teams may move the ball forward. Like rugby fifteens, play is also continues in rugby sevens.

After each try, worth 5 points, the scoring team is given an opportunity to kick the ball through the posts for an additional 2 points (conversion). Certain penalties also earn the non-offending team a kick through the posts, worth 3 points (penalty goal) if made. However, penalty goals are rarely seen in sevens.

At the end of regulation, the team with the most points wins. If both teams are tied in a knockout round, a 5-minute overtime period will be played, where the first team to score wins.

COMMONLY USED TERMS

Try - the main objective of the game, to touch the ball down in the opponent's in-goal area (tryzone) for a score worth five points. Unlike American football, the ball must be touched to the ground for the points to be awarded. Tries are the origin of touchdowns in American football.

Tryzone - the in-goal area where tries are scored.

Conversion - a kick worth an additional two points offered to the scoring team immediately after a try. Conversions must be kicked in line with where a try was scored. In rugby sevens, players may not place the ball on a tee and must kick the conversion using a drop-kick (tossing the ball above the feet and kicking it before it hits the ground).

Penalty - a kick worth three points awarded to a non-offending team when their opposition commits a penalty.

Touchline (similar to sideline) - when the ball moves out of bounds or outside the field of play.

Tryline - the goal line the separates the area where a try may be scored and the remaining field of play

Tackle - A tackle occurs when the ball carrier is brought to the ground and held by one or more opponents. A ball carrier must release the ball immediately following the tackle. Unlike American football, play does not stop when tackles are made.

Ruck - A ruck is when the ball is on the ground and at least one player from each team closes around it while on their feet. The ball cannot be handled in the ruck, players must move it until it reaches a teammate's hindmost foot and can be picked up.

Maul - When the ball carrier is held by one or more opponents and one or more of his or her teammates bind on as well. The ball must be off the ground, a minimum of three players must be involved.

Lineout - A means of restarting play after the ball falls out of the field of play (touchline). Forwards assemble in a line on each side where one team's hooker throws the ball straight in the middle. Each team uses various formations to lift players up, retrieve the ball and put it back in play. Which team's hooker throws the ball into the lineout is circumstantial.

Scrum - A means of restarting play after an infringement. Each team's forwards bind together and connect with an opposing team's forwards. The ball is thrown into the middle of the tunnel by the non-offending team's scrumhalf. Both team's hookers use their feet to try and move the ball while also pushing the other team backwards until the ball reaches the hindmost leg of one of their teammates where they can claim possession.

Sin Bin - when a player is removed from the game and forced to sit out for 10 minutes (rugby fifteens) or two minutes (rugby sevens) for dangerous play or serious infringements.

PITCH
The field of play.

WORLD RUGBY

World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union and organizes multiple international competitions including the Rugby World Cup and Rugby World Cup Sevens. Click here for more about World Rugby.

MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY

Major League Rugby is the professional form of men's rugby (15s) in the United States. It began its inaugural season in 2018 where the Seattle Seawolves won the Championship Title. Click here for more about Major League Rugby.

WOMEN'S PREMIER LEAGUE

The Women's Premier League is the top annual competition for women's rugby (15s) in the United States and was established in 2008. The San Diego Surfers are the current reigning Champions. Click here for more about WPL Rugby.

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In 1823, William Webb Ellis used his hands to pick up a ball in a soccer match and ran with it to the goal. That day, rugby was born. There are two primary forms of rugby union: rugby fifteens and rugby sevens.

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The origins of the game, now known across the world simply as rugby, can be traced back over 2000 years...

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Learn about the history and ethos of the game of rugby union.

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“Rugby | History & Rules | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2022, www.britannica.com/sports/rugby.‌

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“Rugby | History & Rules | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2022, www.britannica.com/sports/rugby.‌

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rugby, football game played with an oval ball by two teams of 15 players (in rugby union play) or 13 players (in rugby league play). Both rugby union and rugby league have their origins in the style of football played at Rugby School in England. According to the sport's lore, in 1823 William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, defied the conventions of the day (that the ball may only be kicked forward) to pick up the ball and run with it in a game, thus creating the distinct handling game of rugby football. This "historical" basis of the game was well established by the early 1900s, about the same time that foundation myths were invented for baseball and Australian rules football. While it is known that Webb Ellis was a student at Rugby School at the time, there is no direct evidence of the actual event's having taken place, though it was cited by the Old Rugbeian Society in an 1897 report on the origins of the game. Nevertheless, Rugby School, whose name has been given to the sport, was pivotal in the development of rugby football, and the first rules of the game that became rugby union football were established there in 1845.

Rugby is now a popular sport in many countries of the world, with clubs and national teams found in places as diverse as Japan, Côte d'Ivoire, Georgia, Uruguay, and Spain. Rugby among women is one of the world's fastest-growing sports. At the turn of the 21st century, the International Rugby Board (IRB; founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board), headquartered in Dublin, boasted more than 100 affiliated national unions, though at the top level the sport was still dominated by the traditional rugby powers of Australia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales.

History

Origins

Different forms of football have existed for centuries. (For more on the development of football sports, see football.) In Britain, football games may have been played as early as the time of Roman occupation in the 1st century bce. During the 14th and 15th centuries ce, Shrove Tuesday football matches became annual traditions in local communities, and many of these games continued well into the 19th century. These localized versions of folk football (a violent sport distinctive for its large teams and lack of rules) gradually found favour within the English public (independent) schools, where they were modified and adapted into one of two forms: a dribbling game, played primarily with the feet, that was promoted at Eton and Harrow, and a handling game favoured by Rugby, Marlborough, and Cheltenham.

Game playing, particularly football, was encouraged at Rugby School by influential headmaster Thomas Arnold (1828-42), and many boys educated at this time were instrumental in the expansion of the game. Rugby football soon became one of the most significant sports in the promotion of English and, later, British imperial manliness. The game's virtues were promoted by books such as Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days (1857). The cult of manliness that resulted centred on the public schools and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where boys were sent to learn how to become young gentlemen. Part of the schoolboy's training was a commitment to arduous physical activity, and, by the late 19th century, rugby and cricket had become the leading sports that developed the "civilized" manly behaviour of the elite. It was believed that rugby football instilled in the "muscular Christian" gentleman the values of unselfishness, fearlessness, teamwork, and self-control. Graduates of these public schools and of Oxford and Cambridge formed the first football clubs, which led to the institutionalization of rugby.

Once they had left school, many young men wanted to continue playing the game of their youth, and the early annual matches between alumni and current senior students were not enough to satisfy these players. Football clubs were formed in the mid-19th century, with one of the very first rugby clubs appearing at Blackheath in 1858. Rugby enthusiasm also spread rapidly to Ireland and Scotland, with a club founded at the University of Dublin in 1854 and the formation by the Old Boys of Edinburgh of the Edinburgh Academicals Rugby Football Club in 1858. In 1863 the tradition of club matches began in England with Blackheath playing Richmond.

Representatives of several leading football clubs met in 1863 to try to devise a common set of rules for football. Disputes arose over handling the ball and "hacking," the term given to the tactics of tripping an opponent and kicking his shins. Both handling and hacking were allowed under rugby's rules but disallowed in other forms of football. Led by F.W. Campbell of Blackheath, the rugby men refused to budge over hacking, calling those against the practice "unmanly." Though Campbell's group was in the minority, it refused to agree to the rules established for the new Football Association (FA) even though many elements of rugby rules were included in early compromises. Ultimately, rugby was left outside the FA. Despite the initial reluctance to abandon hacking, rugby clubs began to abolish the practice during the late 1860s. Blackheath banned it in 1865, and Richmond supported a similar prohibition in 1866.

Rugby received bad publicity after a Richmond player was killed in a practice match in 1871, prompting leading clubs to respond to Richmond and Blackheath's call for an organizational meeting. Thus, in 1871 members of leading rugby clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU), which became the governing body for the sport. By this time, hacking had largely disappeared from club rugby, though it remained a part of the game's "character building" qualities at Rugby School. As a result of its continued adherence to the practice, Rugby School did not join the RFU until 1890.

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Rugby, tackle football game played with an oval ball by teams of either 15 or 13 players.

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Where does rugby come from?

Rugby is said to have originated at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, in 1823 when during a game of football, William Webb Ellis decided to pick up a ball and go with it. Although there is very little evidence to support this theory, the Rugby World Cup Trophy is now named after William Webb Ellis.
In 1863 a collection of boarding schools and clubs decided upon a rule set and 1871 Rugby Football Union was officially formed. That same year, the first ever international match was played between England and Scotland with Scotland taking the win 1-0.

England in white and Scotland in brown, for the first ever internat ional game in 1871

By 1908 all three major Southern Hemisphere nations (New Zealand, Australia and South Africa) had formed teams and sent them on international trips to play against the Northern Hemisphere nations. As a side fact, the first time the Haka was performed by New Zealand prior to a match was in 1905, which the Welsh responded to by having Teddy Morgan sing the Welsh national anthem. Soon enough the crowd joined in, which was the first time a national anthem was sung prior to a sporting event.

The first Rugby World Cup was played in 1987 and was held in Australia and New Zealand - both semi-finals were played in Australia while the final was played in New Zealand, with the All Blacks defeating France in the final.

First Rugby World Cup 1987

1991
England hosted the second world cup, losing to Australia in the final .

1995
By the 3rd rugby world cup, South Africa were back from international exile, and were able to not only host the tournament, but also beat the All Blacks in the final. The tournament became a turning point for South Africa as well, as then President Nelson Mandela, was able to hand over the William Webb Ellis trophy, to Francois Pienaar, dressed in a Springbok jersey which had long been a symbol of apartheid.

1999 The 4th world cup was held in Wales. Australia won the tournament by defeating France in the final after France had made a massive come back by defeating the All Blacks in the semi-finals.

Australia hosted the 5th tournament, and for the 3rd time in world cup history made it to the finals. Most rugby fans will remember this final game, as it was extremely closely fought, going in to extra time, and England ultimately winning after an epic last minute drop goal by Johnny Wilkinson.

Johnny Wilkinson's winning kick 2003.

2007
This rugby world cup was hosted by France, however some matches were also played in Wales and Scotland. South Africa ended up claiming their second win, by defeating England in the finals.

2011
The All Blacks hosted the 2011 rugby world, and claimed the William Webb Ellis trophy after a very close game, defeating France 8-7 in the finals.

Re-introduction to the Olympics
In 2009 the International Olympic Committee voted to return a form of rugby to the Olympics and Rugby Sevens was officially back on the scene, in the 2016 Rio Janeiro games.

Fiji won gold for the men's tournament

Australia won gold for the women's tournament

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Where does rugby come from? Rugby is said to have originated at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, in 1823 when during a game of football, William Webb Ellis decided to pick up a ball and go with it. Although there is very little evidence to support this theory, the Rugby World Cup Trophy is now named after William Webb Ellis.