What is Rugby?

This article from Wikipedia discusses Rugby Union, of which the CSULB Rugby team plays.

History

The legendary story about the origin of Rugby football, whereby a young man named William Webb Ellis "took the ball in his arms (ie caught the ball) and ran" while playing football at Rugby School is almost certainly a complete fiction. Sports historians have dismissed the story as unlikely since an official investigation by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895. However, the trophy for the Rugby Union World Cup bears the name of "Webb Ellis" in his honour, and a plaque at the school 'commemorates' the 'achievement'.

Playing football has a long tradition in England and football games had probably taken place at Rugby School for two hundred years before three boys published the first set of written rules in 1845. Until the formation of the Football Association (FA) in October 1863 each football team would agree on a set of rules with opponents before a match. Teams which competed against each other regularly would tend to agree to play a similar style of football.

Rugby football has a claim to the world's first "football club", formed at Guy's Hospital Football Club, London in 1843, by Rugby School old boys. A number of other clubs formed to play games based on the Rugby School rules. Blackheath Rugby Club, who claim that they were founded in 1858 are one of the world's oldest surviving rugby club. However, they were more likely formed in 1862, whilst Liverpool (Rugby) Football Club were certainly in existence in 1858.

Blackheath Rugby Club was a founding member of the Football Association. But when it became clear that the FA would not agree to rules which allowed 'hacking' and 'hacking over' (fundamental parts of the rugby game), Blackheath withdrew from the FA just over a month after the initial meeting. Other rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA.

For the next few years rugby clubs continued to agree rules before the start of each game as they had always done, but on January 26, 1871, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) formed, leading to the standardisation of the rules for all clubs in England that played a variety of the Rugby School laws. Soon most countries with a sizable rugby community had formed their own national unions. In 1886, the International Rugby Board (IRB) become the world governing and law-making body for rugby. The RFU recognised it as such in 1890.

In North America, rugby developed into American football and into Canadian football.

The 1890s saw a clash of cultures within the game, between working men's rugby clubs of northern England and the southern clubs of gentleman, a dispute revolving around the nature of professionalism within the game. On August 29, 1895 22 clubs split from the RFU and met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union, commonly called the Northern Union. NRFU rules gradually diverged from those of Rugby Union, although the name Rugby League did not become official until the Northern Rugby League formed in 1901. The name Rugby Football League dates from 1922.

A similar schism open up in Australia and other rugby playing nations. Initially Rugby League in Australia operated under the same rules as Rugby Union. But after a tour by a professional New Zealand team in 1907 of Australia and Great Britain; and an Australian Rugby League tour of Great Britain the next year; Rugby League teams in the southern hemisphere adopted Rugby League rules.

For clarity and convenience it became necessary to differentiate the two codes of rugby. The code played by those teams who remained in national organisations which were members of the IRB became known as Rugby Union. The code played by those teams which played "open" rugby and allowed professionals became known as Rugby League. Although the IRB claimed to be enforcing the amateur status of rugby union, many referred to the situation as "shamateurism".

On August 26, 1995 the IRB declared Rugby Union an "open" game and removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. ". The move from amateurism to professionalism has been one of great success and has undoubtedly increased the quality of Rugby being played. However, professionalism has meant a huge increase in the gap between the top nations and the second tier. Alongside the success stories there have been some famous rugby clubs which have not coped well with the new era.

After decades of domination by New Zealand , South Africa , and more recently Australia , England under Clive Woodward succeeded in turning the rugby world upside down by regularly beating the three Southern Hemisphere giants culminating in 2003 when they beat Australia in the final of the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup . New Zealand and France also reached the semifinals.