History of the Game of Rugby

Anyone who plays the sport of Rugby will have been told one particular story that revolves around the history of the game of Rugby. The one that we are talking about is where in 1823 a young boy by the name of William Webb Ellis whilst playing a game of football at Rugby School chose to ignore the rules and picked the ball up and run with it.

Yet there is evidence that may suggest that in fact this type of game was being played well before Webb Ellis's time. Historians have found evidence that clearly suggests that for many centuries before Ellis's time that there were sports people were participating in that involved a ball being carried rather than kicked.

There may be a little or a lot of truth with regards to Webb Ellis being majorly involved in the history of the game of Rugby. But plenty of historians feel that the kind of football that the students of Rugby School were playing was something that was very similar to the kind of Rugby we play today. In fact many historians are still debating if Ellis was actually the creator of this sport or not and some feel that the game developed through changes in the kind of football the students were already playing at the school.

Should you enquire of any members of the English Rugby Union if the kind of football being played by Ellis and his fellow students was the same as what is played in the UK today, they would say not. In fact what many of these members believe that the sport played by Ellis and his students was a combination of both Rugby and football which involved the use of the rules of these games as well.

When you look back over this sports history at the time of Webb Ellis you will find that the ball was allowed to be handled once in the air. However, the difference with this game and modern Rugby is that following the ball being caught all players would be required to stand still whereas today they are able to run with it. Then the player who had the ball had to choices to either kick the ball anywhere on the pitch they wanted or to place it on the ground to then kick it to try and score a goal.

Another thing that should be considered when it comes to the history of the game of Rugby is that at the time of Ellis attending English Public School there were very few referees to control the game when being played. So there were many opportunities for students play any kind of sport including football to change the rules to meet their own needs. As a result there may have been a game involving Webb Ellis where suddenly without warning a student chose to pick the ball up and run with it rather than kick it.

However there is one thing that we can be sure of when it comes to the history of the game of Rugby is that it did not evolve from the game of football that is played today. There are many historians who believe that what has happened that over the years these two games were played and developed side by side.

-->