Rugby

Rugby, town, England

Rugby, town (1991 pop. 59,039), Warwickshire, central England. An important railroad junction and engineering center, Rugby is the seat of one of England's most esteemed public schools. Rugby School was founded in 1567 under the terms of the will of Laurence Sheriff, a wealthy Rugby-born London merchant. Its present buildings date from the early 19th cent., when Rugby became well known under the headmastership of Thomas Arnold. His son Matthew Arnold wrote of the school in his poetry, and another Rugbeian, Thomas Hughes, wrote the schoolboy classic Tom Brown's School Days, which deals with life at Rugby. The sport of rugby originated at the school in 1823. Among the town's buildings is the war-memorial chapel, which commemorates the 682 residents who died in World War I.

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rugby, game

rugby, game that originated (1823), according to tradition, on the playing fields of Rugby, England. It is related to both soccer and American football. The game is said to have started when a Rugby School student named William Webb Ellis playing soccer picked up the ball and ran downfield with it instead of kicking it. Other English schools and universities adopted the style in the mid-19th cent. In 1871 the English Rugby Union was formed to standardize the game. Rugby was introduced (1875) into the United States, but faded as football developed. In 1895 an argument in England over paying players led to a split between groups of clubs and two forms of the sport have existed since: the professional game (now called Rugby League) with 13 players per team; and the more widely played amateur Rugby Union, with 15 players. The rules differ slightly, but the basic idea for both is the same. The rugby field is roughly 160 yd (146 m) long and 75 yd (69 m) wide, with goal lines 110 yd (101 m) apart and two in-goals (corresponding to football's end zones) 25 yd (23 m) deep. A halfway line divides the field, which is further subdivided by other lines parallel to the goal line. The goal posts have measurements similar to those used in American football, and the ball, although larger and more rounded, is similar to the American football. Players may kick, carry, or pass (to the sides or to the rear) the ball; though tackling is permitted, blocking is forbidden. Unlike American football, rugby features almost continuous play; after penalties and out-of-bounds plays, however, a scrum (in which the two opposing lines of forwards kick the ball thrown between them) starts play again. Various points are scored for carrying the ball into the opponent's in-goal (a try), conversions (kicking the ball between the goal posts after a try), field goal kicks, and penalty kicks. A rugby match is in halves of 40 min, and may end in a tie. Since 1987, when rugby World Cup matches were first established, nations have competed for the Webb Ellis Cup, named for the sport's supposed founder; outside the British Isles, the sport has been popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, and Romania. It has gained a measure of recent popularity as a club sport in American colleges, sometimes played in the spring by football players.

Bibliography

See R. Williams, Skillful Rugby (1980); K. Quinn, The Encyclopedia of World Rugby (1991).

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rugby

Football sport made up of two variant codes—rugby union and rugby league. The sport was first developed in the 1820s at Rugby School in England. In 1895 a dispute over professionalism between the Rugby Football Union and several clubs in northern England led to the creation of rugby league (always a professional sport). Rugby union became fully professional in 1995. The game is played by teams of 15 (union) or 13 (league) members each, using an inflated oval ball. The ball may be kicked, carried, or passed laterally or backward (but not forward). The object is to score goals (worth three points) by kicking the ball between the uprights of the opponent's goal, or tries (worth five points in union play, four in league), by grounding the ball behind the opponent's goal line. A conversion kick (worth two points) is attempted after scoring a try. Both rugby union and rugby league have international play and world cup tournaments. Rugby is most popular in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

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rugby, rugby football

1. a form of football played with an oval ball in which the handling and carrying of the ball is permitted

2. Canadian another name for Canadian football See also rugby league rugby union

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Rugby

a town in central England, in E Warwickshire: famous public school, founded in 1567. Pop.: 61 988 (2001)

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Rugby 

(also Rugby Union football), a team sport played with an oval-shaped ball on a special field with H-shaped goalposts. The point of the game is to ground the ball in the opponent’s ingoal area by passing the ball with the hands (only in a backward direction) or feet (in any direction) or to kick the ball through the opponent’s goalpost. Players may stop an opponent who is carrying the ball by tackling him with the arms or knocking him down with the shoulder. The team that wins is the one that scores the most points in a match, which consists of two periods of 40 minutes each. Four points are scored for grounding the ball, three for kicking the ball through the opponent’s goalposts during play or in penalty or free kicks, and two for a successful conversion kick after grounding. Other games played with an oval-shaped ball and deriving from Rugby are American, Gaelic, and Canadian football, Australian Rules football, and Rugby League football, all of which are played according to rules different from those of Rugby.

Modern Rugby dates to 1823, when it was founded by W. Ellis, a student at Rugby School. The first rules of the game were formulated in 1862, at which time the game was given the name Rugby football. In 1871 the first Rugby union was established in the British Isles, and 1890 saw the formation of the International Board, an international union for the various Rugby clubs of Great Britain. Between 1880 and 1890 Rugby teams were organized in France, Germany, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. International matches have been held since 1888, and Rugby was included in the Olympics in 1900, 1904, 1920, and 1924. In 1934 the International Amateur Rugby Federation (FIRA) was established; by 1974 it had a combined membership of 25 national federations.

Rugby is played on all the continents and in more than 50 countries, including all the European socialist countries. Rugby has achieved its greatest popularity in New Zealand, France, Rumania, Great Britain, and Australia. Matches to decide the winner of the FIRA Cup, the unofficial world champion, have been held for men since 1960 and for juniors since 1968.

In the USSR the first Rugby teams were organized in 1923 by M. S. Kozlov, A. A. Markushevich, A. V. Pravdin, N. Ia. Kolli, and others. Since 1934 matches have been played in a number of cities, and national championships were held in 1936 and 1939. In 1938 matches were played for the USSR Cup, with the Dynamo team from Moscow emerging as champion and cup-holder. During the 1940’s there were only individual, nonchampionship Rugby matches. The growth of the sport since the late 1950’s is due in part to B. M. Egupov, G. G. Mrelashvili, and A. A. Sorokin. Since the early 1960’s championships have been held among sports clubs, and national championships have been held annually since 1966. National champions have included teams from the sports clubs of the Moscow Higher Technical School, the Iu. A. Gagarin Air Force Academy, and Fili. Since 1967 Rugby has been included in the Uniform All-Union Sports Classification. In 1968 the Rugby Federation of the USSR was created, and in 1975 it became a member of FIRA. In 1974 about 10,000 persons played Rugby, including more than 200 masters of sport; among these are the international-class Rugby players B. P. Gavrilov, A. G. Grigor’iants, and I. I. Kiziriia. In 1974, 20 teams took part in the national championships. Between 1961 and 1974, Soviet Rugby players competed in more than 100 international matches.

REFERENCES

Sorokin, A. Regbi, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1968.
Highem, E. S., and W. G. Highem. Regbi na vysokikh skorostiakh. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from English.)

A. A. SOROKIN