Fun Fact:352 Rugby! Rugby is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. 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 soccer and ran towards the opposition goal. Although the evidence to support the Ellis story is doubtful (the story did not appear until three years after Ellis death, and records show rugbys inception precedes that of football) it was immortalised at the school, unveiled with a plaque in 1895. The current Rugby World Cup trophy is called the Webb Ellis Cup. In 1848, the first rugby laws were written by Rugby school pupils. Rugby football stems from the form of the game played at Rugby School, which the older pupils then brought to universities. Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first 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. The game of rugby is a blend of dynamic flow and hard physical contact. Requiring speed, strength and exceptional stamina, the game demands sure-handed ball movement, steadfast tackling and an acute eye for opportunities to gain possession or territory. Without forward passing, the ball is advanced by a combination of kicking, running and backward passes. Fifteen players work as one cohesive unit -- maintaining possession, gaining territory and controlling ball movement at game pace. Meanwhile, their opposite numbers cover the field, tackling runners and working to regain possession. Players also direct kicks to gain territory and score points. Both teams work for the ultimate goal of touching the ball down in the try zone (end zone) and scoring a try. The first rugby football 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, which laid the foundations for future British and Irish Lions tours; and the 1888 New Zealand Native team brought the first overseas team back to Britain. Between 1905 and 1908, New Zealand, South Africa and then Australia all toured the northern hemisphere. They brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics with them, greatly enhancing and improving the existing game with surprising success. The New Zealand 1905 touring team performed a Haka before each match, leading Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams to suggest that Wales player Teddy Morgan lead the crowd in singing the Welsh National Anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, as a response. After Morgan began singing (in true Welsh fashion) the crowd joined in. This was the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event. Rugby was featured 4 times in the Olympics up until 1924. The current defending Gold medalists and most successful country with 2 golds? The United States.... Rugby is rightly returning to the Olympics in the form of Sevens rugby at the 2016 Rio Games. Rugby union was an amateur sport until the IRB declared the game open in 1995, removing restrictions on payments to players. Click to Listen to a BBC Podcast on Rugby Union going Professional Rugby History in Canada: The first game of rugby recorded in Canada took place in Montreal among artillery men in 1864. That same year, Trinity College in Toronto, published the first set of rules for the game of rugby in Canada. In 1868, the first club, the Montreal Football Club was formed. Football played in these years was a blend between Rugby code, as defined in 1871, and other local ball games played in universities. In 1874 the first North American international game took place in Cambridge, MA between McGill and Harvard Universities. The Canadian Rugby Football Union was established in 1884 with the specific purpose of organizing play-off games between various union champions. Representatives from the Montreal (Rugby) Football club (now known as the Westmount Rugby Club), the Toronto Rugby Football Club and the Hamilton Rugby Football Club, had meetings in Toronto and Montreal. It was decided that the union would continue to use the English rugby rules and at the end of the season, the winning club of the Quebec Championship would play the Ontario Champion for the Club Championship of the Dominion. This organization (also known at different times as the Canadian Rugby Union) was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League (using the American Football rules), while rugby union was then known as English rugby. To make matters more confusing the word Rugby continued to be applied to Canadian football. It was not until 1967 that the original CRU finally cleared up this confusion by renaming itself the Canadian Amateur Football Association, it adopted its current name of Football Canada in 1986. The oldest sporting trophy in Canada is the Canadian Football Leagues Grey Cup (sponsored by the then-Governor General, 4th Earl Grey, grandson of the tea loving 2nd Earl Grey). However, when the Grey Cup was first competed for in 1909, it was awarded to the best rugby team in the country. In 1949, there were only three active Provincial Rugby Unions: British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Historians believe that the first ice hockey game ever played in Canada was organized by lacrosse and rugby players looking for a physical winter exercise. The hockey faceoff is a concept taken directly from the rugby scrum and early versions of ice hockey only allowed for backwards passing, again adopted from the rugby game. Rugbys intense, all-out competition spawns superb sportsmanship and lasting friendships. It is a long-standing tradition for rival teams to gather after every game for a social gathering where hostilities are dropped and friendships are created. Rugby is not a game of personal posing and posturing; it is a game of hard team play that creates strong and lasting bonds - on both sides of the field. Played by people of all shapes and sizes, and by young and old alike, the game constantly tests individual will while demanding cohesive play. The intensity of game competition is matched only by the intensity of friendships spawned after the game. Brought together by a love of the rough and tumble, rugby players are part of a unique global community. This far-flung fraternity ensures that any club member who walks into any other club - anywhere else in the world - will find a warm and genuine welcome. Much is said of the Rugby Brotherhood; the bond that exists between players of all creeds the world over. This is true; run into an unknown fellow rugby player anywhere you happen to be, youre going to have an instant compatriot and friend.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 04:11:49 +0000
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