Editor's Weekly Ramblings 33

Friday 21st Nov 2003

Scintillating Rugby Facts

In case you have been living in a cave (or are American) you will know of the relentless scintillating thrust of England to the Rugby World Cup Final in Sydney. And the odds are good that by the time you are reading this we will either have been crowned Champions of the World. Or else suffered at the hands of another smug Australian sporting success at our expense. (Not this year!) Either way I thought it would be fun to delve into some Rugby related fun and facts and have a little pre or post (depending on when you are reading this) afterglow (not if you are Australian!) revel in a really great sporting tournament.

1/ Rugby as we know it originated in Rugby School in Rugby, England. The legend goes that the brand of football (or soccer as I will call it from here-on in to avoid confusion) that was played at the school between 1750 and 1823 allowed a certain amount of handling of the ball, but differed from our modern notion of soccer in that there was no fixed number of players, and that running with the ball was not allowed. In 1823 a young man by the name of William Webb Ellis decided the time was ripe to turn these rules on their head, and picked up and ran with the ball through the opposition defence to score the first try in history. And whilst not an overnight turn around, by about 1830 it had become an accepted part of the new game and Rugby Football was born. (Please note - You will hear many doubters of this legend if you explore the dark rugby ubderbelly of the web.. However, seeing as it is nearing Christmas, and I firmly believe in Fairy Stories, I have no intention of disputing it. The alternatives are less interesting anyway. They amount to the theory that people kinda just started running with a ball around the 1800s in the public schools of England. Not very inspiring!))

2/ At that time the ball was provided to students by William Gilbert, the shoemaker of Rugby, whose shop was next to the school. Gilbert made balls for the school out of hand stitched leather casings and real pigs bladders. The natural disposition of inflated pig’s bladders to form oval shapes is often cited as the reason why the ball is oval shaped.

3/ In 1851 William Gilbert showed the Rugby School Football at The Great Exhibition in London. The oval shape became more popular among followers of the rugby game, becoming widespread in 1877. At that time as well, teams were reduced from 20 to 15 players. In 1892 the Rugby Football Union, born in 1871, standardised the size of the ball which until that time had varied depending on the whim of mother nature and how generous she was with the size of the chosen pig’s bladder. The progressive flattening of the ball continued over the years and it’s size was also reduced in 1931 to the size it is nowadays.