Home

Rugby union is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball on a field up to 100 meters long and 70 meters wide with H-shaped goal posts on each goal line.

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 football 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's death, and records show rugby's inception precedes that of football), it was immortalized at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895. In 1848, the first laws were written by pupils; other significant events in the early development of rugby include the Black heath Club's decision to leave the Football Association in 1863 and the split between rugby union and rugby league in 1895.