Understanding the Origin & Evolution of Sport Volume
1 - ISBN
978-0-9531714-1-5 |
MUSEUM OF RUGBY, TWICKENHAM BLOG - ARTICLE SUBMITTED
There's no finer sight than a man who's picked up pace,
running hard with the ball in hand, sweat glistening on his brow.
There’s a hint of a swerve as he heads towards the line and the crowd
looks on as he makes one last effort to reach the line. Then he sends the
ball down to the batsman at the other end. Cricket — what a game. Its
distinguishing feature is running with the ball. Over a day of cricket a
fast bowler must cover at least a mile running forward with the ball in
hand, and the crowd is there to watch just that. “Rubbish!”, I hear
you say, and of course, it is. Cricket is all about scoring runs — if a
team scores less runs than the opposition then they lose the game, no
matter how far they've run with the ball. Cricketers do, however, run forward with the ball far more
often than Rugby Union players do, so why then is it that we think of
rugby as a running game? Well, that’s because in 1895 a group of four
Old Rugbeians decided that it was, and in 1897 they published a report
saying that somebody else had said it was. When no disputes followed, in
1900 they placed a plaque on the wall of In my recent book published by Rugby Relics Ltd, I look at
the 1897 publication "The Origin of Rugby Football" in closer
detail. Unveiling previously unpublished information, the report is
identified as one of sport's greatest confidence tricks. The 1897 report
claims that Matthew Bloxam, a Rugbeian from before the time of Webb Ellis,
identified the Webb Ellis event as the 'origin' of Rugby Football. What
Bloxam actually said was that the event was the beginning of a change in
one of the rules, and that running with the ball was the biggest
difference between Rugby Football and Association Football, not the
distinguishing feature of the game. Through detailed analysis, the book shows that the objective
aim of Rugby Football at the time of Webb Ellis was to score goals by
kicking the ball over the crossbar. Both before the Webb Ellis event and
after he died nearly 50 years later, in 1872, this was the only way you
could win a game of Rugby Football. Even when in 1877 the objective aim of
Rugby Union became to score more points than the opposition, the majority
of points were still scored by goals. In fact, up until 1979 the laws of
the game stated that if you scored a goal (conversion) after a try then
the points gained from the try didn't count. In rugby, running with the
ball is just one action among many others: passing, catching, tackling,
scrummaging, jumping in the line-out and, of course, kicking. Whilst it
may be argued that running plays a far greater part of Rugby Union today,
it is still the goal and has always been the goal that is the main scoring
method. In the 2017 All Blacks v Lions series, 75 points were scored by
goals in comparison to 45 scored by tries. In Rugby World Cup finals to
date, the ratio lies at 179:75 in favour of the goal. Throughout the
evolution of Rugby Union, kicking the ball over the crossbar to score a
goal has been its distinguishing feature. Citing a number of different sources, the book demonstrates
that Rugby Football existed before William Webb Ellis attended When criticizing the validity of the Ellis event as the birth
of Rugby Football, modern historians have tended to link its origin to
'folk or mob football' instead, because of the similarities in the style
of play with the modern game. However, no link between Rugby Union and
these ancient games can be found, and there is no evidence of another game
or sport in which a ball was kicked over a crossbar having existed. Through a more general analysis of the evolution of sport, I
propose the following definition for the point of origin of a game or
sport: "The
ORIGIN of a GAME or SPORT is the point in time at which a game/sport
becomes identifiable as a single entity. From that point onwards it must
have an evolutionary path, drawn either theoretically or through the
provision of evidence, to the modern day version of the sport to be
considered the origin." Upon undertaking research of the history of Without conclusive evidence of when this happened, the book
concludes that there are three possible scenarios for the 'origin' of
Rugby Football, with the most likely being: "There
is a very high probability that Thomas James and/or James Chartes showed
or advised the boys of
The above illustration is from Rev. F. Marshall's 1892 book
'Rugby Football', showing the trees at This question is one of many asked and answered,
in this, my first book. You may love or hate the way I deliver the
narrative — I'm told it's a unique style — but whatever emotions it
may stir, there is no doubting that this is the most detailed analysis
published to date on how Rugby Football actually began, if I may say so
myself. Understanding the Origin & Evolution of Sport
- Volume 1 - Rugby Union by Dai Richards - ISBN 978-0-9531714-1-5 - signed
limited edition - available on amazon, ebay & www.rugbyrelics.com |
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