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Football match on the 1846 Shrove Tuesday in Kingston upon Thames, England. Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league . Rugby football started at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, [1] where the rules were first codified in 1845. [2] Forms of football in which the ball was carried and ...
Apr 12, 2024 · Rugby is a football game played with an oval ball by two teams of 15 or 13 players. Learn about its origins, rules, and variations, such as rugby union and rugby league, from Britannica.
- John Nauright
Get the latest updates on rugby union, including the Six Nations, Premiership, Women's Six Nations and more. Watch live coverage, highlights, analysis and features on BBC Sport online and Sounds.
Rugby sevens included since 2016. Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union or more often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is simply based on running with the ball in hand.
- 15 (with up to 8 substitutes)
- World Rugby
Rugby was invented in the early 19th century as a variation on football. It is a team sport where each player can really go all out. Rugby is a 15-a-side team sport. The object of the game is to ground the ball behind the opponent's try line, into what is called the in-goal area. Rugby is played both with the ball in hand and by kicking the ball.
- 3 min
Two centuries later, rugby football has evolved into one of the world’s most popular sports, with millions of people playing, watching and enjoying the game. At the heart of rugby is a unique ethos which it has retained over the years. Not only is the game played to the Laws, but within the spirit of the Laws.
The origins of the game, now know across the world simply as rugby, can be traced back over 2000 years. The Romans played a ball game called harpastum, a word derived from the Greek word “seize”, the implication of the name being that somebody actually carried or handled the ball. More recently, in medieval England, documents record young ...
