History of the Game of Rugby

The history of the game of Rugby has many stories attached to it of how it came into being but there is one story more than any that players of this sport will have been told about. It is the one where in 1823 at Rugby School a young guy by the name of William Webb Ellis whilst participating in a game of football chose to flounce the rules and run with the ball in his hands.

However there is an abundance of evidence that clearly shows that this kind of game was being played before Webb Ellis chose to pick up the ball and run with it. Historians have found evidence that clearly shows for many centuries people were involved in games with balls where instead of kicking they picked it up and ran with it.

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.

Were you to ask the question of members of the English Rugby Union if the kind of football played by Ellis when he was at school was the same kind as played today they would say not. They instead feel it was a game that was a mixture of the games of Rugby and football we play today so using a combination of their rules as well.

When someone looks back over the history of this game when it was being played by the likes of Webb Ellis yes players were allowed to handle the ball only when it was in the air. Then if the player caught the ball every other player on the field was required to stand still whilst in the modern game they are entitled to run with the ball. Once all were stood still the player with the ball had the option either to kick it to another part of the field or to place it on the ground so that they could then kick it in order to score a goal.

When it comes to the history of the game of Rugby another thing one should take into consideration is when Ellis was attending public school the students would often devise their own rules for each game of football they played. The reason for this was at the time not many referees were available and so of course the opportunity to decide to pick up and run with the ball rather than kick it when Webb Ellis was involved in a game could have been something someone chose to do.

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.

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