Would
You Know a Scrum if You Saw One?
The scrum.
The try.
The lineout.
These sports terms may be relatively unfamiliar in North America, but much of the rest of the world knows exactly what they mean. They are key elements of rugby—a game that shares its earliest history with soccer and American football.
The history of rugby and these other ball games can trace its roots back to ancient England. As early as the 10th Century, great mobs would get involved in games that involved kicking and throwing an inflated pig bladder through town streets and squares. Villages would compete against each other and any means short of murder could be used to get the ball across the goal.
To no one’s surprise such games were frowned upon by ruling authorities. In the 12th and 13th Centuries, no less than nine European monarchs banned these ball games. The kings weren’t so much opposed to the violence and the property destruction, but to the distraction the games caused from military training.
The Legend of Rugby
In the late 1700 and early 1800s, a more
civilized type of mob football was a common
pastime at English boy’s schools.
Such games had very loose rules, but it
was apparently understood that running with
ball was right out. According to legend,
that changed in 1823 when young William
Webb Ellis, a student at Rugby School, picked
up the ball and ran toward the goal. After
Webb’s scamper, the attitude among
spectators and players seemed to be, “Forget
the rules, running the ball is cool!”
(We admit they most likely didn’t
say “cool” in 1823, but you
get the idea.)
