Rugby Football (usually just "rugby") may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of England. It is initially said that the sport initially originated from Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Rugby League and Rugby Union are the only two sports referred to as "Rugby" today, although Australian rules football, American football and Canadian football are modern sports that have originated from Rugby Football.
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In Wales such a sport is called cnapan or "criapan," and has medieval roots. The old Irish predecessor of rugby may be caid. The Cornish called it "hurling to goals" which dates back to the bronze age, the West country called it "hurling over country" (neither should to be confused with Gaelic hurling in which the ball is hit with a stick called a hurley or hurl, not carried), East Anglians "Campball", the French "La Soule" or "Chole" (a rough-and-tumble cross-country game). English villages were certainly playing games of 'fute ball' during the 1100s. English boarding schools would certainly have developed their own variants of this game as soon as they were established - the Eton Wall Game being one example.
The invention of 'Rugby' was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game at Rugby School or elsewhere but rather the events which led up to its codification.
The game of football as played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1823 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul. The innovation of running with the ball was introduced some time between 1820 and 1830, traditionally after William Webb Ellis broke the local rules by running forwards with the ball in a game in 1823. Shortly after this the Victorian mind turned to establishing written rules for the sports which had earlier just involved local agreements, and boys from Rugby School produced the first written rules for their version of the sport in 1845.
Around this time the influence of Dr Thomas Arnold, Rugby's greatest headmaster, was beginning to be felt around all the other boarding schools, and his emphasis on sport as part of a balanced education naturally encouraged the general adoption of the Rugby rules across the country, and, ultimately, the world.
Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by "major" unions:New Zealand Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. Rugby Union is administered by the International Rugby Board (IRB). Rugby union is the national sport in New Zealand, South Africa and Wales. "Minor" unions include Canada, Chile, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, United States and Uruguay.
Rugby League is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a global level by the Rugby League International Federation. In addition to the countless amateur and semi-professional competitions in countries such as the United States, Russia, Lebanon and across Europe, there are two major professional competitions worldwide—the Australian National Rugby League and the European Super League. In the "National Rugby League" there are teams from four Australian states and territories, which are New South Wales, Queensland, ACT and Victoria, and there is also one in Auckland, New Zealand. In Super League there are two teams from outside the north of England, the London-based Harlequins and the Perpignan-based Catalans, although this will become three when the South Wales-based Celtic Crusaders join at the start of the 2009 season.
Distinctive features common to both rugby codes (league and union) include the prolate spheroid ball and the ban on passing the ball forward, so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. As the sport of rugby league moved further away from its union counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced, more try-oriented game.
Today, the main differences between the two games, besides league having teams of 13 players and union of 15, involve the tackle and its aftermath:
Set pieces of the union code include the scrum, where packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the lineout, where parallel lines of players from each team, arranged perpendicular to the touch-line (the side line) attempt to catch the ball thrown from touch (the area behind the touch-line).
In the league code, the scrum still exists, but with greatly reduced importance. Set pieces are generally started from the play-the-ball situation. Many of the rugby league positions have similar names and requirements to rugby union positions but there are no flankers in rugby league. The result of these variations have led to rugby union being considered a traditional form of rugby.
In the UK, an old saying goes "football is a gentleman's game played by ruffians and rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen". In most rugby-playing countries, rugby union is widely regarded as an "establishment" sport, historically amateur, played mostly by members of the upper and middle classes. For example, many students at private schools and grammar schools play rugby union[1]. By contrast, rugby league has traditionally been seen as a working and middle class, professional pursuit. A contrast to this ideology is evident in the neighbouring unions of England and Wales. In England the sport is very much associated with the public schools system (i.e. independent/private schools). In Ireland, rugby union is also associated with private education and the "D4" stereotype, and this image of the spoilt, ignorant, wealthy rugby-playing jock inspired the best-selling Ross O'Carroll Kelly novels. In Wales, rugby is associated with small village teams which consisted of coal miners and other industrial workers playing on their days off[2]. In Australia support for both codes is concentrated in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The same perceived class barrier as exists between the two games in England also occurs in these states, fostered by rugby union's prominence and support at private schools.[3]
Exceptions to the above include New Zealand, Wales, France except Paris, Cornwall, the Borders region of Scotland, County Limerick in Ireland (see Munster), and the Pacific Islands, where rugby union is popular in working class communities. Nevertheless, Rugby League is perceived as the game of the working class people in the English counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cumbria[4], and in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland[3]
In the United Kingdom, rugby union fans sometimes use the term "rugger" as an alternative name for the sport, (see Oxford '-er').[5] Also the kick off is known to be called "Rug Off" in some regions. New Zealanders generally refer to rugby union simply as either "football", "rugby" or "rugby union" and to rugby league as "rugby league", "football" or "league". [6]In the U.S., people who play rugby are sometimes called "ruggers", a term little used elsewhere except facetiously. Those considered to be heavily involved with the rugby union lifestyle—including heavy drinking and striped jumpers—sometimes identify as "rugger buggers". Retired rugby union players who still turn up to watch, drink and serve on committees rank as "alickadoos" or, less kindly, as "old farts" (the "old farts" reference has probably been made the more popular by former England captain Will Carling's remark on the RFU[7]).
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