History of rugby union: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

This article covers the history of rugby union. See also football and the history of rugby league.

Early history

Playing football has a long tradition in England and football had probably been played at Rugby School for two hundred years before three boys published the first set of written rules in 1845. The rules had always been determined by the pupils and not the masters and they were frequently modified with each new intake. Rules changes, such as the legality of carrying or running with the ball, were often often agreed shortly before the commencement of a game. There were thus no formal rules for football during the time William Webb Ellis was at the school (1816-1825) and the legendary story of the boy "who with a fine disregard for the rules as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it" in 1823 is apocryphal. The story first appeared in 1876, some four years after the death of Webb Ellis, and is attributed to a local antiquarian and former Rugbeian Matthew Bloxam. Bloxam was not a comtemporary of Webb Ellis and vaguely quoted an unnamed person as informing him of the incident that had supposedly happened 53 years earlier. The story has been dismissed as unlikely since an official investigation by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895. 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'.

The Football Association was formed at the Freemason’s Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Lincoln Inn Fields, London October 26 1863 with the intention to frame a code of laws that would embrace the best and most acceptable points of all the various methods of play under the one heading of "football". At the 5th meeting F. W. Campbell a member of the Blackheath Club argued that hacking is an essential element of the ‘football’ and that to eliminate hacking would “do away with all the courage and pluck from the game, and I will be bound over to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practice”. At the 6th meeting on December 8 F.W.C. withdrew the Blackheath Club explaining that the rules that the FA intended to adopt would destroy the game and all interest in it. Other rugby clubs follow this lead and did not join the Football Association.

In December 1870 Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play". On January 26 1871 a meeting attended by representatives from 22 clubs was held in London at the Pall Mall Restaurant. As a result of this meeting Rugby Football Union (RFU) was founded. Three lawyers who had been pupils at Rugby School drew up the first laws of the game which were approved in June 1871.

In 1884 England had a disagreement with Scotland over a try, with England arguing that as they made the Law, if they said it was a try then it was. After a messy dispute which pulled in the Irish and Welsh Unions on the side of Scotland, it was agreed with England in 1890 that in future the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), which had been founded in 1886, would oversee the games between the home unions.

For more details see History of Rugby League

On August 29 1895 at a meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, twenty clubs from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire decided to resign from the RFU and form the Northern Rugby Football Union which from 1922 would be known as the Rugby Football League. The dispute about payment was one which at the time was also effecting soccer and cricket. Each game had to work out a compromise; Rugby was the least successful at doing this. It would be a century before Rugby Union became professional and would allow players who had played a game of Rugby League (even at an amateur level) to play in a Union game.

The Five Nations Championship was suspended in 1915 and it is not resumed until 1920. One hundred and thirty three international players were killed during the conflict.

For many years, the sport’s authorities had suspected that the govering body of French Rugby Union, the French Rugby Federation (FRF) was allowing the abuse of the rules on amateurism, and in 1931 the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country.

In 1934 the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) was formed at the instigation of the French. It was designed to organise rugby union outside the authority of IRB. In 1990s the organisation recognised the IRB as the governing body of rugby union world wide and became in 1999 FIRA - Association of European Rugby an organisation to promote and rule over rugby union in the European area.

In 1939 the FRF was invited to send a team to the Five Nations Championship for the following season, but when war was declared, international rugby was suspended. Eighty eight international rugby union football players were killed during the conflict.

In the UK, for the duration of the World War II the ban on Rugby League players was temporarily lifted by the RFU. Many played in the eight rugby "Internationals" between England and Scotland which were played by Armed Services teams, using the rugby union code. The authorities also allowed the playing of two “Rugby League vs. Rugby Union” fixtures as fundraisers for the war effort. The Rugby League team (which included some pre-war professionals) won both matches, which were held under union rules.

After the defeat of France in 1940, the French Rugby Union authorities worked with the German collaborating Vichy regime to re-establish the dominance of their sport; Rugby League was banned and many players and officials of the sport were punished. All of the assets of the Rugby League and its clubs were handed over to the Union. The consequences of this action reverberate to this day; the assets were never returned, and although the ban on rugby league was lifted, it was prevented from calling itself “rugby” until the mid-eighties, having to use the name Jeu de Treize (Game of Thirteen, in reference to the number of player in a Rugby League side)

In 1947 the Five Nations Championship resumed with France taking part.

On August 26 1995 the International Rugby (Football) Board declared Rugby Union an "open" game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. It did this because of a committee conclusion that to do so was the only way to end the hypocrisy and to keep control of rugby union.

The rugby union authorities of the time hoped that as players could now play in either code, in the long term most of the sponsorship and interest would gravitate away from league to union. The union clubs and national teams in Australia and England stand to gain the most, as they are able to call upon talent in terms of ideas, players and support from the League heartlands. Conversely, the ending of sanctions against the playing of rugby league led to some amateur union players moving the other way and sampling the ‘other code’.

The move to professionalism was not without its problems, and the many smaller unions have struggled (both financially and in playing terms) to compete with the major nations since the start of the open era.

Year the The National Rugby unions were founded:

• 1871 (England) Rugby Football Union (RFU)
• 1873 Scottish Rugby Union
• 1874 Southern (Australian) Rugby Union (later New South Wales Rugby Union)
• 1879 Irish Rugby Football Union (a merger of two Irish unions both formed in 1874)
• 1880 Welsh Rugby Union
• 1883 Northern (Australian) Rugby Union (later Queensland Rugby Union)
• 1889 South African Rugby Board
• 1892 New Zealand Rugby Football Union
• 1895 Rhodesia Rugby Football Union (Zimbabwe RFU after 1980)
• 1899 Argentinian Rugby Union
• 1913 Fijian Rugby Union
• 1919 French Rugby Federation
• 1923 Spanish Rugby Federation
• 1923 Tongan Rugby Football Union
• 1923 Samoan Rugby Football Union
• 1926 Japanese Rugby Football Union
• 1928 Italian Rugby Federation
• 1931 Romanian Rugby Federation
• 1949 Australian Rugby Union
• 1951 Uruguay Rugby Union
• 1961 Cote d’Ivoire Rugby Federation
• 1964 Georgian Rugby Union
• 1965 Rugby Canada (founded as Canadian Rugby Union)
• 1975 USA Rugby (founded as United States of America Rugby Football Union)
• 1990 Namibian Rugby Union
• 1992 South African Rugby Football Union (a merger of the white South African Rugby Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union)

• 1884 England had a disagreement with Scotland over a try with England arguing that as they made the Law, if they said it was a try then it was. There was a messy dispute which pulled in the Irish and Welsh Unions on the side of Scotland.
• 1886 International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded by the Rugby Unions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• 1890 England joins the IRFB and agrees that in future the IRFB would oversee the games between the home unions.
• 1930 It was agreed that all future matches were to be played under the laws of the IRFB.
• 1949 Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became members of the IRFB.
• 1978 France became a member of the IRFB.
• 1986 Canada became a member of the IRFB.
• 1987 Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Japan, Romania, Tonga, USA and Zimbabwe became members of the IRFB.
• 1988 Cote d’Ivoire, Spain and Samoa became members of the IRFB.
• 1989 Uruguay became a member of the IRFB.
• 1990 Namibian became a member of the IRFB.
• 1991 Georgia became a member of the IRFB.
• 1998 The International Rugby Football Board dropped the ‘F’ to become the IRB.

• 1883 First Four Nations (Home countries) Championship between England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
• 1910 The Four Nations becomes Five when France joins.

• 1987 First Rugby World Cup.
• 1996 The Tri Nations Series begins between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
• 2000 The Five Nations becomes The Six Nations Championship when Italy joins.

see the article Rugby Union World Cup#History

For more details see the article Rugby Union World Cup

• 1987 New Zealand defeated France 29-9 at Eden Park, Auckland, in the first Rugby Union World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand.
• 1991 Australia defeated England in the final 12-6 at Twickenham, London, in the second Rugby Union World Cup held in British Isles and France.
• 1995 South Africa defeated New Zealand in the final 15-12 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg (after extra time) in the third Rugby Union World Cup held in South Africa (considered by many to be the first true Rugby world cup).
• 1999 Australia defeated France in the final 35-12 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. in the fourth Rugby World Cup held in the British Isles and France.
• 2003 England defeated Australia in the final 20-17 at Stadium Australia, Sydney (after extra time) in the fourth Rugby Union World Cup held in Australia.

For more details see the article Rugby union at the Olympic Games

• 1900 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the first time. Two countries enter. France defeated Germany 25-16.
• 1908 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the second time. Two countries enter. Australia defeated Great Britain 32-3.
• 1920 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the third time. Two countries enter. USA defeated France 8-0.
• 1924 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the fourth and final time. Three countries enter Romania and France & USA. USA defeated the other two.

• 1973 the Barbarians defeat All Blacks at Cardiff Arms Park in "that game" (video of game available under the Millennium stadium)
• 1999 France defeats the All Blacks in the world cup semi finals.

• 1971 Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand.
• 1974 Lions tour of South Africa – the notorious 99 call