Rugby Union, History of

I

Introduction

Rugby Union, History of, development of a football game, which according to tradition, was “invented” by a schoolboy named William Webb Ellis at Rugby School, Warwickshire, England. In November 1823 he is believed to have cheated technically during a game of the then crude mob football played at the school, when, “with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, [he] first took the ball in his arms and ran with it”. In fact, there were other forms of handling games long before Webb Ellis’s alleged infringement, for example, camp, played in East Anglia in the 15th century; hurling (without sticks) played in Ireland and Cornwall (this was a form of handball); Shrovetide football; and the traditional Scottish game of Jethart Ba’ (Ball).

Once the idea of rugby caught on it spread quite rapidly in schools in rudimentary forms with miscellaneous codes of rules (see Rugby Union, Rules of). It was played at Cambridge University in 1839, and in 1843 Guy’s Hospital Rugby Football Club was founded (the oldest rugby union club in existence). Over the next 30 years many other clubs were founded in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. In 1871 the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was created and a code of rules drawn up. In the same year the first international match was played (England vs. Scotland, 20-a-side). In 1872 the first Oxford vs. Cambridge match took place. This became an annual fixture (except during World War I) which, from 1922, was held at Twickenham, London. The two universities had a considerable influence on the game and many of their students have become international players.

II

Spread of Rugby Union

Meanwhile the game was introduced in New Zealand, Australia (where Australian rules football was already established), and South Africa. In France the first club was formed at Le Havre. In Argentina the game was first played in 1880, in Fiji in about 1884. In 1899 the game was introduced in Japan. By this stage the International Championship involving the four “home countries” was well established (it had begun in 1884) and in 1910 France was to make it a Five Nations tournament (see Six Nations Rugby Championship). The English County Championship was introduced in 1889, when Yorkshire were champions.

In Australia the first administrative body was the Southern Union, formed in 1874. In 1892 it was renamed the New South Wales Rugby Union. The first Australian club was Sydney University (formed in 1864). Rugby was introduced in New Zealand about 1870. The first provincial union was that of Canterbury in 1879, and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union was formed in 1892. The Ranfurly Shield was first held in 1904. The New Zealand National Championship was inaugurated in 1976. In South Africa, rugby was first played between civilian and military teams in 1862 at Green Point Common, Cape Town. The first union to be formed was Western Province in 1883 and the South African Rugby Board was founded in 1889. The Currie Cup, the inter-provincial tournament, was first held in that year. It was mostly biennial up to 1968, and thereafter annual.

In France a club championship was established by 1900 and the game developed strongly in the south and south-west. By 1904 there were enough clubs in Fiji to form a regular competition and in 1913 the Fijian Rugby Union was founded. It was also developing in Romania, where the Romanian Rugby Federation was founded in 1912. In 1882 the game was introduced to Canada, at Ontario; and there was a small following in the United States at that time. There was also a regular club championship in Argentina.

By the turn of the 19th century the game was very well established in England, Scotland, and Ireland—mostly through the influence of public schools and universities—and in south Wales where it was taken up by miners and thereafter became almost a surrogate religion. In 1881 the Welsh Rugby Union was formed.

Tours were also becoming a feature of rugby football. In 1888 a British Isles team toured Australia and New Zealand. They toured South Africa in 1891 and 1896, and again in 1903 and 1910. In 1902-1903 the first Canadian team toured Britain. In 1905-1906 a famous New Zealand All Blacks side toured the British Isles and in the following season the first South African Springboks also toured. They were followed in 1908-1909 by the Australian Wallabies on their first visit. After 1924 the British touring team was called the British Lions.

From 1875 most matches were played 15-a-side but the alignments varied a good deal. At that time there were ten forwards, two attacking half-backs, and three backs who were largely defensive. A major change was to move up a defensive back to play with the half-backs (this was the first three-quarter). By about 1880 it was usual to have nine forwards, two half-backs, three three-quarters (often called “threes”) and one back. Later, a fourth three-quarter was introduced, and the scrum was settled at eight forwards. However, the make-up of a scrum still varied; as late as 1930 the New Zealanders were playing a 2-3-2 formation with only two men in the front row.

III

Modern Developments

A major event in the 1890s was the breakaway movement of northern clubs, which resulted in the creation of rugby league football. This came about because of a dispute over compensation for loss of wages to players incurred when they were representing their club in a match. In 1907 the RFU bought a site at Twickenham, Middlesex, and this was to become the headquarters of the rugby union. It was known as the Cabbage Patch and provided good grazing for cavalry horses during World War I. The first international at Twickenham was held in 1910 and has since been the venue for internationals played by England. It has its counterparts at Murrayfield (Edinburgh, Scotland), Cardiff Arms Park (Wales)—and since 1999 the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff—and Lansdowne Road (Dublin, Ireland).

Rugby was included in the 1900 and 1908 Olympic Games, and again in 1920 and 1924. But very few teams entered and Britain showed little interest in the events. In 1920 and 1924 teams from the United States took the gold medal.

Between the world wars the game burgeoned in all those countries where it had taken root and the pattern of overseas tours between the British Isles teams, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia continued. Tonga founded its RFU in 1923; Japan did likewise in 1926; and the Apia RU was formed in Western Samoa (now Samoa) in 1927. In 1934 the Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) had its first meeting.

Since World War II the game has developed greatly in many parts of the world though the balance of power has stayed with the New Zealanders, South Africans, and Australians in the Southern hemisphere and with the teams that make up the Six Nations Championship in the northern hemisphere. From the 1950s onwards, owing to the advent of easy air travel, there was an ever-increasing number of tours, which involved the main rugby-playing nations (though South Africa were much restricted for many years because of worldwide condemnation of the nation’s policy of apartheid), and also Japan, Canada, Fiji, Argentina, and Western Samoa. France began to produce extremely strong teams and the game burgeoned in Italy, where it is mostly played in the north. Spain, Denmark, and Zimbabwe also developed it.

A

Domestic Competitions

The 1970s brought three new competitions in Britain. The RFU Knockout Competition for English club sides was inaugurated in the 1971-1972 season and thereafter held annually. It was first sponsored by John Player and then by Pilkington. In the 1971-1972 season the Welsh Rugby Union Challenge Cup was instituted and thereafter contested annually, Llanelli and Cardiff being the most successful clubs. In 1974 the Scottish Club Championship was begun. The RFU established a rugby union league in the 1986-1987 season.