Feb 27 2007
Know Your Football Codes: Rugby Football
For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.
I’ll be honest with you. Rugby is probably my least favorite form of football to watch.
Perhaps it’s because I don’t get all the nuances and subtleties of a good rugby match. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with American football, and when I watch rugby, I start thinking that guys like Walter Camp and John Heisman had the right idea.
Of course, what Americans like me might think is largely irrelevant here, as rugby is arguably the second most popular football code on the planet. It plays second fiddle to soccer in Europe, but it still has a strong following there, not to mention a huge fan base in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. National teams compete in Six Nations and Tri-Nations competitions every year, and there’s even a Rugby World Cup coming up in September, though I doubt ESPN will pimp that as much as they did the FIFA World Cup last summer.
So how did rugby manage to separate itself from the Football Association? Well, if you believe the legend, it starts with a brat named William Webb Ellis…
(More after the jump.)
Historians have generally proven this legend to be bunk, but the story goes like this: William Webb Ellis attended the Rugby School in the 1820s, and he had Lester Hayes-like reputation for being a bit of a rule-bender. (That part is actually true.) One day in 1823, young Mr. Ellis finally grew frustrated with having to back up and kick the ball after every catch, so he simply took off running down the field with the ball in his arms and touched the ball down inside his opponents goal — a move which prompted most of his classmates to say, “Bloody hell, what is that stupid git doing now?” (That part may not be quite so true.)
Footballers, though, kinda liked that whole run-with-the-ball thing — good metaphor, that. So by the 1840s, running with the ball was a staple of the Rugby School’s football game, and by 1860, dozens of rugby football clubs sprouted up all over England. The rugby players then decided to break away from the Football Association and formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871, where they formalized the rules of the game and spread those rules around the world. Rugby clubs began forming in far away places like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
Unfortunately for the sport, not everyone agreed with the RFU’s rules, and by 1895, a schism broke the game in two. We now have rugby union and rugby league, which are essentially two slightly different games. The difference is bound to confuse potential new fans to the game.
There’s also the fact that guys like Walter Camp and Thrift Burnside took rugby and made something very different and, in my opinion (and the opinion of many football fans in North America) much more interesting. That’s just one opinion, though, and rugby proves there’s always another opinion.
We’ll talk about Camp and Burnside later in the week. In the meantime, I encourage all you rugby football fans out there to use the comments to argue which is superior: rugby union or rugby league. Try to keep it more civil than an Irish maul, okay?
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Wow, this is interesting. I’ve enjoyed it so far.
Where can I go to figure out what the main differences between rubgy and American football are? This has confused me for some time - the main thing I see is that rugby players lack pads.
Good question. Wikipedia has a good rundown of the differences between American and Canadian football, but nothing about American football and rugby. I’ll do some Googling, but I’d recommend starting here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_football
Here’s another article that might help a little:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=3020
rugby union + league split in england over payment, after which the 2 codes were exported separately. Essentially the game was played by the middle and upper classes in southern england and they had a very strong amateur ethos (they could afford to). In northern england, factory workers needed compensation for lost pay caused by travelling and playing on saturdays. the southern amateurs refused to play with “professionals”. This atttitude persisted until union went pro in 1995.The usual english class struggle personified. Note the 2 games are not interchangeable. A lot of top class union players have successfully taken up league, but very few league players have taken to union. Union requires certain specialised skills eg lineouts,rucking & mauling which have no equivalent in league. Maybe canadian/US football would be analagous - superficially very similar but not quite the same. NB when i lived briefly in rugby league country i was told that union (my game) was a girl’s game.
Tony:
That’s funny, since I’ve heard rugby union fans refer to American football as a girl’s game. Nobody can agree on these things, can they?
rugby fans probably think pads, helmets etc are for girls. however nowadays nearly all union players wear shoulder pads. would i be right in thinking in that north americas failure to fall in live with soccer is due to ludicrous girly rolling around in agony every time a player gets tackled?
i meant fall in love not live
Oh, yeah, the diving turned a lot of people off. Big time. I’ve been known to refer to a certain Portuguese superstar as “Greg Louganis.”
I grew up playing American Football
I love American football
I learned to play rugby in my teens; I have refed, coached and played rugby for more then a few years, here in the US
My evaluation and comparison of the all the ‘codes’ is this…
All of the football games are played with abandon, and are all physical challenging and fun to PLAY
As for which is most physically tough to play
Here is my biased opinion
Rugby League is the top spot, just watch one match; there will be no need for explanation
American Football top speed collision, it would be hard to find a football game where a player is not injured
Rugby Union limited substitution, but the game has had several rule changes to ensure safety, but it is still rugby and still a physically demanding game
Canadian football field is too big to foster the collisions seen in American football, but it is very exciting if you like that forward pass thing
Irish Football limited amount of contact; but these are a bunch of Irish guys out there
Australian rules limited amount of tackling, alot of running though, similar game, but not so many Irishmen.
Here are is the rest
Table Foos Ball
Ultimate Frisbee
Donkey Kong
Kick ball
lastly
Soccer
For the differences of rugby league and American football:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_football_and_rugby_league
And rugby league and rugby union:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_rugby_league_and_rugby_union
Well lemmie tell you all to begin…
I am a Rugby player, have been for quite a while.
Rugby Union is my game, Rugby league is closer to American football in my op because of the break in play (albeit for just a second) after a tackle.
Rugby is the less pointy or explosive version of full on combat, all the lessons you can learn in war can be applied to rugby.
You can do what you please, just dont raise your fists.
Rugby requires you to be expremely physically fit, it is full on for 80 mins, there are no breaks for tactics, water breaks, there is only one stop for ten minutes at half time, and especially the forwards (the 8 big people in the “pack”) need to be constantly running, tackling, mauling or rucking. as in combat, you can’t just call a time out to regroup, you have to have a strong leader who can do it while running towards the man with the ball, about to make a tackle.
Passing only backwards is a trait of Rugby, it adds an extra dimension to the tactics involved. You want to score? Can’t just run a man up the line and throw to him, you gotta fight your way to the line, while every step of the way, 15 of the opposition are doing their hardest to prevent you from doing so.
Rugby players refer to American Football players as girls because of their pads and helmets etc. This is completly understandable, American football has breaks in play every 20 seconds, often after a single tackle. If someone in American Football gets injured, the top clubs just roll out another Quaterback. Rugby players run and fight for 40 mins, with the only breaks they get are for when they have to form a Scrum, and use the forwards (those big
to push against the other teams forwards so that they can get the ball back to their team. that’s their break. Rugby players have been known to continue with serious injuries for entire matches. A frenchman once had his scrotum ripped in half, yes, split from front to back, in the opening minutes, and played the rest of the match, no complaints until afterwards. This is not uncommon. I myself have played several matches on consecutive days with broken bones. Yes i knew they were broken, no I didn’t whinge.
No helmets,
No pads
Just balls.
Not a complete summary, but at least you can have an insight into some of the aspects of Rugby. There are many more, like suggested above, try just watching a match of Rugby, preferably Union, but Leage is just as fun. Don’t worry yourself about the rules and why things are happening, see if you can get a knowlegeable mate to sit with you.
Oh and finally; Rugby is celebrated for its players being able to drink 30 pints of hard beer after a match, then the players squeeze their 17” necks into a collered shirt, and go back to work the next day.
Have a beer while watching the rugby.
Enjoy
Fang, just to clarify, it was an All Black - Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford who had his scrotum ripped by dirty French tactic’s.
Rugby is the mans game though, American football has never taken off in New Zealand due to the game being very stop/start and taking too long. We are all drunk by the end of the first quarter.
Rugby develops men to think on there feet, think for themselves. You can train tactics all week but if it doesn’t work on the field its the players that have to come up with something different…the coach doesn’t have very much effect after the team runs out for battle.
Pity that Rugby develops Men to think on their feet… I kinda enjoy it, but don’t want to become a man