Rugby union is a
full contact team sport, a form
of
football which originated in England in
the early 19th century. One of the codes of
rugby football, it is based on running with
the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped
ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a
grass surface, up to 100 m long and 70 m wide. At each end of the
field is an H-shaped goal.
William Webb Ellis is often credited with
the invention of running with the ball in hand in 1823 at Rugby School
when he allegedly caught the ball while playing
football and ran towards the opposition goal. Although the
evidence to support it is doubtful, the Ellis story was
immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895. In 1848,
the first rules were written by pupils - this was one of recognized
events in the early development of rugby; others include the
Blackheath Club's refusal to adopt
the rule revisions of
The
Football Association in 1863 and their resultant decision to
leave this organisation of which they were founding members, and in
1895, the split between rugby union and
rugby league.
Rugby union has been governed by the
International Rugby Board since
its formation in 1886 and currently has a membership of 115
national unions. In 1995, the IRB removed restrictions on payments
to players, making the game openly professional at the highest
level for the first time.
The
Rugby World Cup, first held in
1987, takes place every four years, with the winner of the
tournament receiving the
Webb Ellis
Cup. The
Six Nations in
Europe and the
Tri Nations
in the southern hemisphere are major international competitions
held annually. Major domestic competitions include the
Top 14 in France, the
Guinness Premiership in England, the
Currie Cup in South Africa, and the
Air New Zealand Cup in New
Zealand. Other
transnational competitions include the
Magners League (which is essentially
a domestic competition throughout the
Celtic Nations), involving Irish, Scottish
and Welsh teams; the
Super 14, involving
South African, Australian and New Zealand teams; and the
Heineken Cup, involving the top European based
teams of their respective domestic competitions.
History
box
The origin
of rugby is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football
at Rugby
School, Rugby
, England, in 1823 when William Webb-Ellis picked up
the ball and ran with it. Although this tale is apocryphal,
the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after him.
Rugby football stems
from a game played at Rugby School, Rugby, which old pupils initially took to university;
with Cambridge believing that Old Rugbeian Albert Pell was the first student to form a
'football' team. During this early period different schools
used different rules, with former pupils from Rugby and Eton
attempting to carry their preferred rules through
to their universities.
Significant events in the early development
of rugby were the production of the first set of written laws at
Rugby
School in 1845, the Blackheath Club's decision to leave
The Football Association in 1863 and the formation of the Rugby
Football Union in 1871. The code was originally known simply
as "rugby football"; it was not until after a schism in 1895, which
resulted in the separate code of
rugby
league, that the name "rugby union" came to be used for the
game itself. Supporters of both codes will frequently refer to
theirs as merely "rugby", unless they are differentiating between
the two.
The
first rugby
international took place on 27 March 1871, played between
England and Scotland. By 1881 both Ireland and Wales had
representative teams, and in 1883 the first international
competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 also saw
the first rugby sevens tournament at
Melrose
- the
Melrose Sevens, which is still
held annually. Five years later two important overseas tours took
place; a British Isles team visited Australia and New Zealand -
although a private venture, it laid the foundations for future
British and Irish Lions
tours; and the
1888 New
Zealand Native team brought the first overseas team to British
spectators.
From 1905 through to 1907, all three major Southern Hemisphere
rugby countries sent their first touring teams to the Northern
Hemisphere;
Dave Gallaher's
New Zealand in 1905, followed by
Paul Roos' South Africa in 1906
and then
Herbert Moran's
Australia. All
three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics,
and were far more successful than critics at first believed. 1905
also saw the first French internationals.
The years during both World Wars saw an end of international rugby
games and union-sponsored club matches, but competitions continued
with service teams such as the New Zealand Army team.
In 1973 the first officially sanctioned international sevens
tournament took place at Murrayfield, as part of the
Scottish Rugby Union centenary
celebrations. In 1987 the first Rugby World Cup was held in New
Zealand and Australia, and the inaugural winners were New Zealand.
The first World Cup Sevens tournament was held at Murrayfield in
1993.
Rugby union was famously an amateur sport until the IRB declared
the game 'open' in 1995, removing restrictions on payments to
players. However, the pre-1995 period of rugby union was marked by
frequent accusations of "
shamateurism"
in some quarters.
Laws
A rugby tackle: tackles must be low down on the body, with the aim
of impeding or grounding the player with the ball
It is important to distinguish between the
Laws of rugby
union, and its
rules. The Laws are set out by the IRB and
apply to every game of rugby union; to how it is played on the
pitch. The rules differ from competition to competition and are set
out by the competition organiser. It dictates such things as how
many
substitutions a team can make, or
if extra time is played in the event of a draw.
Rugby union is played between two teams; each team starts the match
with 15 players on the field and may make replacements (for injury)
or substitutions (tactical changes). In international matches, up
to seven replacements/substitutes are allowed; in domestic or
cross-border tournaments, at the discretion of the responsible
national union(s), the number may be increased to eight, of whom
three must be sufficiently trained and experienced to provide cover
for the three front row positions. Players in a team are divided
into eight
forwards
(two more than in
rugby league) and
seven
backs. Forwards
are generally bigger and stronger, and take part in the scrum and
lineout, while backs are generally smaller but faster, more agile
and often the main points scorers for the team.
Points can be scored in several ways - a
try,
scored by grounding the ball in the in-goal area, is worth 5 points
and a subsequent conversion kick scores 2 points. A successful
penalty kick or a
drop goal each score 3
points. The values of each of these scoring methods have been
changed over the years. The team which scores more points wins the
game.
At the beginning of the game, the captains and the referee toss a
coin to decide which team will kick off first. Play then starts
with a drop kick, with the players chasing the ball into the
opposition's territory, and the other side trying to retrieve the
ball and advance it back. If the player with the ball is tackled,
frequently a
ruck will
result.
Forward passing (throwing the ball ahead to another player) is not
allowed. The ball tends to be moved forward in three ways - by
kicking, by a player running with it, or within a scrum or a ruck
(formerly also a
maul).
Unlike in American football, "blocking" is not allowed, so only the
player with the ball may be tackled or rucked. When a ball is
knocked forward by a player with his/her arms, a "knock-on" is
committed, and play is restarted with a scrum.
When the ball leaves the side of the field, a lineout is awarded
against the team which last touched the ball. A number of players
from both teams line up, at least 5m from the sideline, and the
ball is thrown in by the hooker. Lineouts are one of the chief
differences between the two rugby codes, as they do not occur in
rugby league.
Games are divided into 40-minute halves, with a break in the
middle. The sides exchange ends of the field after the half-time
break. Stoppages for injury or to allow the referee to take
disciplinary action, do not count as part of the playing time, so
that the elapsed time is usually longer than 80 minutes. Unlike in
many other sports, there are no "
time out".
The referee is responsible for keeping time, even when—as in many
professional tournaments—he is assisted by an official time-keeper;
when time has expired, whether at the end of the first half, or at
the end of the game, the referee will wait until the ball is 'dead'
before blowing for half-time or full-time.
The field of play on a rugby pitch is as near as possible to a
maximum of 100m long, and 70m wide. There are several lines
crossing it, notably the half way line, the goal line/try line (on
which the goal posts are located), the "twenty two", which is 22m
from the goal, and the dead ball line, which is 10m
behind
the goal line. Tries are scored between the goal line, and the dead
ball line. A ball over the dead ball line is out of play. Rugby
goalposts are H-shaped, and consist of two poles, 5.6m apart,
connected by a horizontal crossbar 3m above the ground. Unlike some
other sports, there are no goalkeepers, and the section underneath
the crossbar is not used. The original pitch dimensions were in
imperial units, but have since been
converted to the
metric system.
There are generally three match officials - a referee, and two
touch judges, who indicate that the ball is "in touch" and other
decisions with their flags. In addition, for matches in high level
competitions, there is often a television match offical (TMO;
popularly called the "video referee"), to assist with certain
decisions, linked up to the referee by radio. The referees have a
system of hand signals to indicate their decisions.
Common offences include high tackles, collapsing the scrum, not
releasing the ball when on the ground or being off-side. Penalties
can be taken by the non-offending team in various ways - taking a
short, tap kick then running with the ball, kicking the ball from
hand (punting) for field position, place kicking (for goal) or
choosing a scrum. Players may be sent off (signaled by a red card)
or temporarily "sin-binned" for ten minutes (yellow card) for foul
play, and may not be replaced.
Equipment
The most basic items of equipment for a game of rugby are the ball
itself, a rugby shirt (also known as a "jersey"), shorts, socks,
and boots, which have soles with studs to allow grip on the turf of
the pitch. The studs may be either metal or plastic but must not
have any sharp edges or ridges.
Protective equipment is optional and strictly regulated. The most
common items are
mouth guards, which are
worn by almost all players. Other protective items that are
permitted include
protective head gear,
thin (not more than 10mm thick) non-rigid shoulder pads, and
shin guards, which are worn underneath
socks. Bandages or tape can be worn to support or protect injuries;
some players wear tape around the head to protect the ears in
scrums and rucks. Female players may also wear chest pads.
Fingerless gloves (mitts) are sometimes worn to improve players'
grip on the ball.
It is the responsibility of the match officials to check players'
clothing and equipment before a game to ensure that it conforms to
the laws of the game.
Governing bodies
The international governing body of rugby union (and associated
games such as sevens) is the
International Rugby Board (IRB).
The IRB
headquarters are located in Dublin
, Ireland
.
Six continental associations, which are members of the IRB form the
next level of administration; these are:
SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand and
Australia Rugby) is a joint venture of the
South African Rugby Union, the
New Zealand Rugby Union and
the
Australian Rugby Union,
which operates the
Super 14 and
Tri Nations competitions.
National unions oversee rugby union within individual countries.
These are affiliated both to the IRB and with their respective
regional association.
Global reach
Rugby union has established itself as a popular sport for both
spectators and participants, particularly in
Australia,
Argentina,
Cook Islands,
England,
Fiji,
France,
Georgia,
Ireland,
Italy,
Japan,
Madagascar,
New Zealand,
Niue,
Namibia,
Romania,
Samoa,
Scotland,
South Africa,
Tonga, and
Wales.
Other places with lasting traditions in rugby, as a minority sport
in most cases, include
Andorra,
Barbados,
Belgium,
Bermuda,
Brazil,
Canada,
Chile,
Côte d'Ivoire,
Czech Republic,
Germany,
Hong Kong,
India,
Kenya,
Malaysia,
Moldova,
Morocco,
The Netherlands,
Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay,
Poland,
Portugal,
Russia,
Singapore,
South Korea,
Spain,
Sri Lanka,
Tunisia,
Uganda,
Ukraine,
Uruguay,
United States,
Zambia, and
Zimbabwe.
The United States are the most recent Olympic gold medalists,
winning the event at the Paris Olympics in
1924, which was the
last year rugby was played at the games. Large numbers of players
are active in North America, and the national teams of Canada and
the USA regularly qualify for World Cups.
Japan, also a country with many registered players, will host the
2019 World Cup. It will be the
first country outside of traditional playing areas to host the
event, and is viewed by some fans of the game as an opportunity for
rugby union to extend its reach, particularly in Asia.
Previously, Japan
unsuccessfully bid to host the 2011
tournament, narrowly losing to selected host New Zealand
.
The
International Rugby
Board (IRB), founded in 1886, governs the sport worldwide and
also publishes the game's
laws and
rankings.
There are currently 95 full members and eight associate member
countries. According to IRB figures, rugby union is played in over
100 countries spanning six continents by men and women of all ages.
The IRB controls the
Rugby World
Cup, the
Women's Rugby World
Cup,
Rugby World Cup
Sevens,
IRB Sevens World
Series,
Junior World
Championship,
Junior
World Trophy,
Nations Cup and
the
Pacific Nations Cup. It
holds votes to decide where all of these events shall be held,
except in the case of the Sevens World Series. For that
competition, the IRB contracts with several national unions to hold
individual events.
Women's Rugby
US women's rugby: NC Hustlers vs. Midwest II
Records of women's rugby go back over 100 years - the first
mentions of the game being in New Zealand in 1891 and France ten
years later. In the past 30 years the game has grown in popularity
among female athletes, and, according to England's RFU, is now
played in over 80 countries.
The English
Rugby
Football Union for Women (RFUW) was founded in 1983, and is the
oldest formally organised national governing body for women's
rugby.
Major international competitions
The most important tournament in rugby union is the
Rugby World Cup, a men's tournament that
takes place every four years among the elite national rugby union
teams.
South
Africa is the current holder, winning the
2007 tournament held in France. They
beat 2003 winners England in the final; no World Cup winner has yet
retained the trophy. England were the first team from the Northern
Hemisphere to win, the previous champions being New Zealand (1987),
Australia (1991 and 1999), South Africa (1995). Major international
competitions are the
Six
Nations Championship and the
Tri Nations Series, held in the
northern and southern hemispheres respectively.
The
Six Nations is an
annual competition involving the
European
teams , , , , and . Each country plays the other five once. After
the initial internationals between England and Scotland, the 1880s
saw Ireland and Wales begin competing, forming the
Home
International Championships. France joined the tournament in
the 1900s and in 1910 the term
Five Nations first
appeared. However, the
Home Nations
(England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) excluded France in 1931
amid a run of poor results, allegations of professionalism (rugby
union was officially amateur until 1995) and concerns over on-field
violence. France then rejoined in 1939-1940, though
World War II halted proceedings for a further
eight years. France has played in all the tournaments since WWII,
the first of which was played in 1947.
In 2000, Italy became
the sixth nation in the contest and Rome
's Stadio Flaminio
, where their games are played, is the smallest
venue in the tournament. Ireland are the reigning Six
Nations champions, having won their first Grand Slam in 61 years by
beating Wales in Cardiff on March 21, 2009.
The
Tri Nations is an
annual international series held between the southern hemisphere
teams of , and . The Tri Nations was initially played on a home and
away basis with the three nations playing each other twice. In 2006
a new system was introduced where each nation plays the others
three times, though in 2007 the teams played each other only twice,
as it was a World Cup year.Especially since 's strong performances
in the 2007 World Cup, a number of commentators believed they
should join the Tri-Nations. This was first seriously proposed for
the 2008 tournament, then for 2010, but came much closer to reality
after the 2009 Tri Nations tournament, when SANZAR (South Africa,
New Zealand and Australian Rugby) extended an official invitation
to the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) to join an expanded Four
Nations tournament in 2012. This move has generally been met with
great approval from all parties involved. The invitation is subject
to certain conditions, like the guaranteed availability of
Argentina's top players, most of whom play professional club rugby
in Europe at present.
Amidst all the international competitions there are also various
Test matches and series, often as part of tours by national teams,
which generally take place from September to December and from June
to August.
Olympic rugby
Rugby union was
played at the
Olympic Games in 1900,
1908, 1920 and 1924. As per Olympic rules, the nations of Scotland,
Wales and England were not allowed to play separately as they are
not sovereign states.
Rugby sevens has
been played at the Commonwealth Games
since 1998 and on 9 October 2009, the International
Olympic Committee
voted with a majority of 81 to 8 that rugby be
reinstated as an Olympic sport in at least the 2016 and 2020 games, but in the sevens, 4-day tournament format. This is
something the rugby world has aspired to for a long time and
Bernard Lapasset, president of the International Rugby Board, said
the Olympic gold medal would be considered to be "the pinnacle of
our sport" (Rugby Sevens).
Women's international rugby
Women's International
Rugby began in 1982. Over six hundred women's internationals
have been played by over forty different nations. As well as the
women's World Cup event
(which takes place every four years), there are also other regular
tournaments, including a
Six Nations, run in
parallel to the men's competition. The New Zealand Women's team are
the current World Cup holders.
The first female rugby world cup was
in 1991.
Variants
Besides the full-contact, 15-a-side code, three major variants
exist:
- Rugby sevens
(7's, or VIIs), is a fast-paced variant which originated in
Melrose
, Scotland in 1883. In rugby sevens, there
are only 7 players per side, and each half is normally 7 minutes.
Major tournaments include the Hong Kong
Sevens and Dubai Sevens, both held
in areas not normally associated with the highest levels of the
15-a-side game.
- Touch rugby, in which "tackles" are
made by simply touching the ball carrier with two hands.
- Mini rugby, also known as "New Image
Rugby", which originates in England, is a variety mainly used to
coach children.
- Rugby tens (10's or Xs), a Malaysian
variant with ten players per side.
- American Flag Rugby, (AFR),
like mini rugby, is a mixed gender, non-contact imitation of
Rugby Union designed for American
children entering grades K-9.
Other less formal variants include
beach
rugby, and
street rugby.
Influence on other sports
Rugby union, and its immediate ancestor rugby football, has had a
strong influence on several other sports.
The
Gridiron codes,
American football and
Canadian football, are derived from early
forms of rugby. Confusingly, in Canada,
Canadian football has also frequently been
referred to as "
rugby football", and
a number of national and provincial bodies were called "Rugby
Football Unions" or "Rugby Unions", such as the
Ontario and
Quebec Rugby Football Unions.
For example, in the
Encyclopedia Canadiana, the
entry
Rugby Football begins by referring to "the Canadian
development of rugby union or "English rugger" introduced into
Canada in the third quarter of the nineteenth century", but later
states that "the Canadian game is a radical departure from rugby
union".
Australian rules football
has been influenced by a large number of sports, including rugby
football and
cricket. Many authors believe
that the primary influence was
rugby
football and other
other games emanating from
English public schools.
Tom Wills, the
founding father of Aussie Rules, also attended Rugby School.
Gaelic football is
not an
offshoot of rugby union and the political direction of the
Gaelic Athletic Association has
traditionally meant an active opposition to the growth of rugby in
Ireland. Rugby union, being of English origin, was seen as one of
the "barracks games" and a symbol of British colonialism. In
response to the encroachment of English sports, Irish nationalist
Michael Cusack set up the GAA.
In particular, "Rule 42" of the GAA's Official Guide forbids foreign sports, including rugby, being played on GAA-controlled property. However, in recent years this rule has been lifted, and rugby has now been played in some GAA grounds, including Croke Park
; see List of non-Gaelic games played in Croke Park for exceptions to this rule.
Rugby lends its name to
wheelchair
rugby (also known as "quad rugby" or "murderball"), but the
sport is more strongly influenced by
wheelchair basketball,
ice hockey and
handball than rugby union. Likewise, the sport
of
underwater rugby, is related to
rugby in little more than name.
In addition, rugby union has a strong reciprocal influence on
rugby league as well as common
ancestry.
See also
Sources
Printed sources
- Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven
Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3)
- Griffiths, John (1987). The Phoenix Book of International
Rugby Records. London: Phoenix House. p. 5:3.
ISBN 0460070037.
Electronic sources
References
Footnotes
- Origins of Rugby - Codification - "The innovation of
running with the ball was introduced some time between 1820 and
1830."
- Law 2 The Ball
- Law 1 The Ground
- William Webb Ellis - fact or fiction? bbc.co.uk
- Early Rules
- Marshall (1951), pg 13.
- Marshall (1951), pg 13-14.
- Godwin, p10
- Godwin, p18
- Stubbs, p118
- Law 3 Number of Players
- Law 9.A.1 Points values
- Midgley, p394
- Law 6 Match officials
- Law 4 Players' Clothing
- Regulation 12 Provisions relating to player
dress
- Encarta (1997)
- Stubbs (2009)
- ticketbooth.org.uk
-
http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/mediazone/pressrelease/newsid=2033716.html
- http://www.rugby365.com/news/1922820.htm
-
http://cbs11tv.com/sports/golf.rugby.olympics.2.1238472.html
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/8292584.stm
- Bath, p71
- http://www.americanflagrugby.com/about_the_game.php
- Bath p77
- Stubbs, Ray,
The Sports Book, p115
- "Rugby football" in Encyclopedia Canadiana,
p110
- Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie
Sandercock, Ian Turner and Sean Fagan have all written in support of this
view. See, for example: Richard Davis, 1991, "Irish and Australian
Nationalism: the Sporting Connection: Football & Cricket",
Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies Bulletin, v.3,
no.2, pp. 49-50 and; B. W. O'Dwyer, 1989, "The Shaping of Victorian
Rules Football", Victorian Historical Journal, v.60,
no.1.
Notations
External links
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Resources
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