Rugby Games

The history of rugby games dates back to the ancient Greek era and it is said that Greeks used to play rugby as a leisure game. However, the growth of this game from a leisure field game to a professional one with millions of fans all over the world is simply amazing.
Games that are similar to Rugby were played all over the world and a version of the game used to be played in Ireland and many other countries. The fute ball is a game that has a striking resemblance to rugby and was used to play in ancient England.
Associating the game with a single source is very difficult and mentioning a specific origin place is also very difficult.
Eton College used to play a game which was known as Eton Wall Game and the game used to be played in a court with 5 x 10 meters dimension. The game is said to be the original source for football and rugby which is true to a large extent.
There is no doubt that the Eton wall game revolutionized the field games in America and paved its way for new variations of the game. Even today the Eton School wall game is played widely and there are inter college competitions held each year -If you are a rugby fan, you should watch this game and find out how beautiful was the origin of rugby.

It is said that there was nothing like running with the ball in the earlier version of rugby which was introduced to the game in around 1823. The credit for this revolutionary game strategy of rugby is given to William Webb Ellis, who was a sixteen year old.
Williams decided to break the rule and run towards the goal post with the ball during a football game which introduced a new way of thinking to the game. Even though the origin of the game is on huge dispute, historians agree that Ellis has contributed largely to the game's development.
Written rules were introduced during Victorian era when Great Britain enjoyed world superiority. That time, every game associations and players were gathered together to come up with new rules for different game and rugby was also one among them.
One of the earliest recognitions for the Rugby game from media was by Sidney Monitor, an Australian newspaper. In 1829, one of their reports stated about a new sport that is very similar to football which was played by army men in their barracks.
While it is not quite sure whether the game was exactly rugby, it is said that the game played by soldiers had a striking resemblance to today's rugby games.
It is also not sure whether running with the ball was globally accepted before the Victorian Era. However, the practice of running with the ball was allowed by local football teams as well as some school teams during 1840s. There are no proven evidences to suggest that the rules were accepted and followed by rugby players all over the world.
Rugby enjoys a great popularity in United Kingdom and other Common Wealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Even France enjoys a huge popularity of the game.

The Rugby game is played in a court where the distance between each goal post is 100 yards. Rugby ball looks very similar to American football but the ball is bigger than that of American football.
Beyond the goal line there is an area which roughly covers 22 yards and this is known as the goal area. The time period for the game is split into two and each half is 40 minutes with a break period that is usually less than five minutes.
Scoring in Rugby is known as try and you have to ground the ball in the opponent's goal area.
The game starts with a kickoff, which is from the central line. The objective of kickoff is to move the ball at least 10 yards farther from where any player can kick or run away with the ball.
If a person is running with the ball, none of his team members are supposed to run in front of him but they can follow him. Once a player scores, the game is restarted with a kickoff from the halfway.

The rugby ground is usually 220 meters in length and 70 meters in width. It is usually divided into two equal parts and the midline is called halfway. From the halfway, there are two lines on each side at a distance of 10 meters. This line is known as ten meter line and when a player is kicking off the ball, it should cross this line from where the game actually starts.
From the goal line, there is again the 22 meter line on each side where most part of the game play occurs. This is the major part in the game where most of the activities occur and the game's direction is determined.
The first rules in rugby are known as Cambridge Rules which were written in 1948. However, the Cambridge Rule was limited to college campuses and there was not a widely popular rule beyond campuses till 1861, when Harrow Rules were introduced.
The conflict between "Kickers" and "Carriers" were very high, it was difficult to unify the code for Rugby games. Even though the mutual agreement was almost formed several times, it never became a reality due to various reasons.
However, in 1870 Ruby and Football association's rules were popular and widely accepted which made rugby a very popular game.
Once the Rugby Football Union formed in 1872, the organization organized several matches and confusion about the rules were eliminated to a large extent with few disagreements remaining here and there. The huge popularity of game in Britain, nurtured the future of rugby. Many people happily adapted the game and its expansion to all over the world was very rapid.
Within a couple of years, The Rugby game started enjoying popularity all over the world.