History of Rugby...Or Lack There Of

History for rugby is not a straight line, in fact its history is all over the place. Theories suggests that rugby comes from the same ancestor as soccer and American style football known as folk football. According to Collins of Rugby's Great Split, "other than two sides and the propulsion of a ball to a goal, the playing rules of the game could differ enormously from area to area. In some regions, the ball was driven primarily by foot. In others, the ball was carried or thrown. Quite often a mixture of the two was allowed but, against those who would imagine folk football was a direct precursor to soccer" (Collins 1). This sport is set in pre-industrial society or around the time of the 17th century where numerous towns in England have records of playing folk football including, Hull, Huddersfield, Manchester, Rochdale, Whitehaven, Workington, York, Derby, and the rugby stronghold in Rugby, England where the supposed first roots of rugby started with William Webb Ellis. Along with the variety of folk football, there was also variation with the number of men that played. It varied between a thousand men on each team in Derby to 400 men in Sedgefield. Since then many things have changed not only variety, because there's only one way to play rugby, but also the number going down from 400-a thousand to 15 per team.

The image on the left is a sculpture of William Webb Ellis erected at the Rugby School in Rugby, England where it is required in the school curriculum to play rugby. "With a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time , first took the ball in is arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game, " (Collins 6). There is some speculation and doubt with this theory because of lack of support but it is widely accepted and remains accepted to this day in England and elsewhere.