Biography
Unsure of when rugby started or how to play? Get up to scratch with our guides to the rules and origin of the sport.
The Basics
Rugby - rugby union, that is - is the only major ball sport in which England have produced a team of world champions in recent years. In that respect, it deserves to outrank football and cricket in national affection. Now played throughout the world, the game's popularity as a spectator sport has spread to countries that have no obvious rugby tradition of their own.
The Story of Rugby
Legend has it that the game of rugby was founded when a boy at Rugby school in Warwickshire first defied the rules of football by picking up the ball and running with it towards the opposing goal. This story, for which there is scant evidence, has proved durable enough for the boy concerned to have had rugby union’s World Cup trophy named after him, but it disguises the far more complex origins of the game.
The Rules
To the untutored eye, rugby can look spectacularly confusing. There are far more players on the pitch than there are in association football, a lot of colliding and falling over goes on, and it isn’t always possible to see what has happened with the ball. And how can they call that a “ball” anyway?
