RUGBY FOOTBALL

Rugby football, as we know it to-day, had its genesis in the unpremeditated action of a boy at Rugby School. who was playing an ancient games, such as the Wall Game at Eton. In 1823 William Webb Ellis instead of kicking the ball, as it had been the custom among his school fellows, picked it up and ran with it. From that time forward we had two kinds of football, although they did not receive their present nomenclature until many years afterwards, they now play according to the rules recognised in 1841.

The clubs playing Rugby in the Metropolitan area in the earlier 1860's associated themselves with the formation of the Football Association in 1853, but as the new body definitely barred hacking, and the Rugby players attached considerable importance to it, the latter seceded. For some years Rugby was played in a somewhat haphazard manner, there was no uniform set of laws, and at the two principal Universities and many of the Public Schools there were important differences in the written and unwritten laws. Soon clubs formed the oldest of these is the Blackheath Club, formed in 1860.

In 1871 a successful effort was made to found the Rugby Union, there was a crisis in the history of the Union in the middle nineties of the 19th century. Many of the leading clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire, where the holding code was strongly entrenched, desired to make payments to their players. The determined policy of the Union to maintain the unimpeachable amateurism of Rugby has been an important factor in the increasing popularity of the pastime.

Rugby is really a combination of football and handball. Rugby is played with 15 players a side, eight of these form the scrimmage, a survival of the original group of men striving to push the ball along as best they could. The other seven are two half-backs, four three-quarter backs and one full back. The ball may be kicked in the direction of the opponents goal, but it may also be carried, and the carrying is its most prominent feature. The ball not be thrown forward, or knocked on, but it may be thrown back, and a player who is behind the ball when so thrown is in plat and may in turn endeavour to make ground towards the goal that is being defended. The object of each team of players is to score tries and goals. A goal may be kicked from the field in the ordinary course of play but such goals are not frequent compared with those scored from tries. A try counts as three points towards game when a player of the attacking side either carries the ball across the goal line and then touches the ground with it before it can be touched by any of his opponents, or who touches down from a kick behind his goal line by a defending player before the latter or any member of the defending side can do so.

Following the scoring of a try the ball is brought into the field of play again in a straight line, from the spot where it was touched down, and is then placed on the ground in a selected spot. A member of the attacking side then endeavours to kick the ball between the uprights over the bar and if ho succeeds two more points are added to the score. A goal from a free kick or penalty kick scores three points, and a penalty goal four points.

The usual duration of the game is an hour ten, or an hour and twenty, minutes, in two equal portions, and the teams change ends at half-time. The laws provide that there must be 15 players on each side, and although a less number may play it must be by accident and not design, as the Union declares it to be an act of professionalism to agree before a match that either or both sides shall consist of less than 15 players. The field of players must not exceed 110 yards in length nor 75 in breadth, and it shall be as near those dimensions as practicable. On each goal line and equidistant from the touch-lines, are the two goal posts. Which are l8 feet apart, and joined by a cross-bar at a height of 10 feet from the ground; and to score a goal the ball must be kicked over this bar by one of the opposite side. The ball is oval in shape and must be kicked above the bar, not under it in order to score a try, its measurements being: Length 11 to 11¼ inches; length circumference, 30 to 31 inches; width circumference, 24 to 25½ inches; weight, 13½ to 15 oz.; hand sewn, and not than eight stitches to the inch. Not more than 25 yards behind, and equidistant from each goal-line and parallel thereto,. there are lines, and if the ball or player holding the ball touch or cross those lines the ball is dead and out of play. One of the main attractions of the game to players is the scrummage, and if a side have scrummagers who are skillful in heeling, and alert colleagues ready to pick up and initiate attacking movements, a try is often scored.

Before the Great War the number of Rugby Union clubs in England probably did not reach 1,000. Since the Armistice the growth of the game in numbers and in importance has been one of the features of sport in Great Britain. The public attend the matches in increasing numbers, and the Rugby Union purchased and laid out at Twickenham, a suburb of London, one of the finest playing-grounds in the kingdom The English Union has its headquarters and ground at Twickenham; Here England plays her home international matches, and a match is played each year between Oxford and Cambridge. The Scottish Union has a ground at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.The rules are revised periodically by an International board representing the four Rugby Unions.

Rugby is a winter game, one of the remarkable features concerning Rugby is the tremendous strides it has made at the Public Schools. The majority of them played Soccer, but one by one they have forsaken the dribbling for the handling code, until now there are comparatively few Public Schools where the Association game is played. At Oxford and Cambridge Rugger is placed on a much higher pedestal than Soccer. The former may be regarded as one of the three major sports, the other two being cricket and rowing. It is also very popular in most parts of England as well as in South Wales and has been taken up in Scotland and Ireland. It has also spread to France and in New Zealand and South Africa is played with great keenness. International matches are played between the four home countries and with France. From time to time teams from South Africa and New Zealand come to Britain and British teams go overseas.

RUGBY LEAGUE FOOTBALL

A third form of football is the Northern Union game. This came into existence in 1895 when the Rugby Union refused to allow professionalism. Some Rugby clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire then broke away, formed the Northern Union and began to play a slightly different kind of game.

For many years the football it played was known exclusively by that name, but in 1922 that title was dropped, and it is now officially known as Rugby League football. The main points of difference between the Rugby Union game and that of the Rugby League are the number of players reduced from 15 to 13: there is no line out; and there is no direct kicking into touch. In 1922, kicking a goal from a mark was abolished. The claim is made by Rugby League enthusiasts that their game is much faster, and the changes made for a more open and spectacular game. This game is much played in Australia.

The Rugby League game provides for a scrummage instead of a line out when the ball goes into touch, but while the scrummage is formed ten yards from the line opposite where the ball goes into touch if the ball if the ball has bounced in the field of play before going into-touch, should the ball not so bounce scrum is formed on the spot where the ball was last kicked. Rugby League football is confined to the Northern counties, and it is a popular game in some of the big centres of population. There is a League of 28 the leading four clubs play and semi-final and final ties to decide the championship. There is a Challenge Cup, and in 1931-32 this was competed for by 30 clubs, the winner being Leeds. With a view of stimulating interest in the game the final tie has been played at Wembly. Tours have been made by Rugby league teams to Australia..

A fourth kind of game is played in Ireland. In this there are 13 players a side and a round ball is used. This however can be handled but not be carried. A score is made if the ball is sent either over or under the bar of the goal post.