The Birth of Rugby and It's Progression Into the 21st Century

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The Birth of Rugby and its progression into the 21st century The birth of rugby began in England and has developed and spread throughout Britain into one of the nation’s top played and watched sports. Rugby is a tough sport not only physically but also mentally. It all began in England in the early 1800s and has grown into a huge sport all across Britain with hundreds of teams. A lot of things are different in its early beginning stages from how it is played today to how the position and fields are set up. My five topics are how rugby was founded, the early rules of rugby, and the early type of apparel worn, the field of play, and its positions. How rugby was actually founded is shrouded in mystery. One of its most famous legends of how it all started took place in 1823 at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England. When William Webb Ellis was playing a football game (soccer) at Rugby School instead of following the rules which disallow players from touching the ball at all with your hands or forearms picked up the ball and ran toward the opponent’s goal. All who witnessed this became intrigued on the idea of running the ball and spread the word. To commiserate Ellis in his actions a stone was placed outside of Rugby School etched with the writing, “This stone commemorates the Exploit of William Webb Ellis who with a fine disregard of the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game A.D. 1823”. Most historians believe this to be urban legend, but not all of it is made up. It is known that at Rugby School is where Rugby became codified into a sport. While other schools in the area moved ahead refining their rules of football, Rugby school developed differently, and by the 1830s running with the ball a Rugby School was in common use. As word of this new game spread,

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