|
|
|
|
Review all! Beauty Product Tips, Cosmetic Skin care and Make up Tips & Hairstyle Advice. Project of www.US.am
Review all presented in details to choose the best you look for.
Join the network of
successful people!
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 Many believe that rugby was born in 1823 when William Webb Ellis "with fine disregard for the rules of football (remember football was yet to split into the various codes) as played in his time at Rugby school, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game". Although it is worth pointing out that this is apocryphal as there is little in the way of evidence to substantiate this view, it is however, the popular view. So much so in fact that the international committee named the Rugby world cup the "William Webb Ellis Trophy".
The towns first public commemoration of the game of Rugby was unveiled by Jeremy Guscott on 26th September 1997.The bronze statue, by Graham Ibbeson and modeled after his own son, cost £40,000 which was raised by a public appeal. The bronze statue of a boy running with a Rugby ball, cast using the lost wax technique, now stands at the junction of Lawrence Sheriff Street and Dunchurch Road, beside the school and opposite Gilbert's museum.
Codification
The invention of Rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game or the acts of a certain Webb-Ellis (true or not), but rather the events which led up to it's codification. Like so many sports which originated from Victorian England it was competition, the sense of fair play and the subsequent need for rules and laws which allowed the game to develop on a global basis and spawn internationally.
The game of football as played at Rugby School (Rugby, England) between 1750 and 1823 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the oppositions 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.
If William Webb Ellis was responsible for this innovation as stated in Mr Bloxam's account, it was probably met by vigorous retribution but by 1838-9 Jem Mackie, with his powerful running, made it an acceptable part of the game although it was not legalized until 1841-2 initially by Bigside Levee and finally by the first written rules of August 28th, 1845.
Mr Bloxam was a student at Rugby School at the same time as Webb-Ellis but left some years before him. His account of what someone else witnessed (probably his brother) is the only evidence on which the story is based.
|
 Rugby Rules
Different versions of the carrying game were played in schools such as Rugby, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Marlborough and different versions of the kicking game were played at Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and Westminster.
Rugby school for example had developed Rugby football from football and played this game according to Rugby rules. The question as to why the game of Rugby school became so popular in preference to the games of other schools, such as Eton, Winchester or Harrow was probably largely due to the reputation and success of Rugby school under Dr. Arnold, and this also led most probably to its adoption by other schools; for in 1860 many schools besides Rugby played football according to Rugby rules.
During the middle of the 19th century, Rugby Football, up till that time a regular game only among school boys, took its place as a regular sport among men. The former students of Rugby school (and other Rugby playing schools such as Marlborough School) started to spread their version of football (Rugby rules) far and wide. The first notable event was a former pupil, Arthur Pell who founded a club at Cambridge University in 1839. The Old Rugbeians challenged the Old Etonians to a game of football and controversy at the Rugbeians' use of hands led to representatives of the major public schools (Rugby, Eton college, Harrow, Marlborough, Westminster and Shrewsbury) meeting to draw up the 'Cambridge Rules' in 1848.
To begin with, men who had played the game as schoolboys formed clubs to enable them to continue playing their favorite school game, and others were induced to join them; while in other cases, clubs were formed by men who had not had the experience of playing the game at school, but who had the energy and the will to follow the example of those who had had this experience. The introduction of railroads during thisa period assisted in the games ability to spread across the British isles.
In 1863 a meeting was held in Cambridge where a ban was placed on "Hacking", "Tripping" and Blackheath's preference, "running with the ball in the hands towards the opposite goal after a fair catch".
A separate meeting was also held in the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London with eleven schools and clubs supporting the kicking and handling codes present. They drew up common rules by which they could play each other, however, after they had reached a compromise a number of the attendees recanted and ended up adopting the Cambridge rules (which precluded running with the ball). Blackheath subsequently withdrew from the football association as it was then called. Henceforth there was a split between Association football (soccer) and Rugby Football (rugby).
Even those who supported the Rugby code were not in full agreement regarding the rules. Blackheath for example did not agree with "Hacking". A letter which appeared in the press in 1866, revealed that Richmond also were wanting to remove this feature of the game. In the end both clubs refused to play any team which supported "hacking". The result was that "hacking" disappeared from club games even though it remained at Rugby School for a few seasons more. The Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871 and immediately made "hacking" and "tripping" illegal.
The Laws
Along with the founding of the Rugby Football Union a committee was formed, and three ex-Rugby School pupils, all lawyers, were invited to formulate a set of rules, being lawyers they formulated 'laws' not 'rules'. This task was completed and approved by June 1871. The laws have changed a great deal since then and spawned other games, notably American Football and Australian Rules Football.
By 1880, Scotland, Ireland and Wales had followed suit and established their own Rugby unions.
|
|
|
|
|
