Rugby Football: A United Game

Rugby remained central to modern Welsh identity, particularly in the period between the mids and the early s, when players such as Gareth Edwards , Barry John, Phil Bennett, Gerald Davies, J. Williams, and others kept Wales at the top of Northern Hemisphere rugby.

During the s many coal mines were closed, which led to the deterioration of mining valley communities that had been the cradle of Welsh rugby for a century. Since that time Wales has struggled to regain its position as a leading rugby nation. Rugby union football spread more slowly outside the British Empire , though it was played in France as early as There were 20 or more French clubs by , mostly in and around Paris.

Soon the game diffused to southwestern cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, and Perpignon, where it became the most popular team sport. French attitudes toward professionalism were much more relaxed than in the British Isles, which led the Home Nations unions to sever relations with France in , though they were restored in Like rugby union, the league game in France is largely confined to the southern part of the country.

During World War II , rugby league play was outlawed in France by the Vichy government, but the sport made a comeback in the postwar era. In the s rugby also gained a foothold in Italy, particularly in the northwestern part of the country. The Italian Rugby Federation was founded in In the s clubs supported by large companies began to organize payment of players in their club competition, and leading international players such as Naas Botha of South Africa, David Campese of Australia, and John Kirwin of New Zealand played rugby union in Italy.

Italian rugby advanced significantly by the s, and in Italy joined the Five Nations competition, which was then renamed Six Nations.

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Rugby rules appeared in North America before the s and were used in a famous game between McGill University of Montreal and Harvard University of Cambridge , Massachusetts, in Rugby rules were soon modified in the United States and later in Canada, however, to create the distinct codes of gridiron football played in North America. Although gridiron football had largely supplanted both association football and rugby in the United States by late in the 19th century, rugby enjoyed a revival from on the Pacific Coast after gridiron football was banned there in the aftermath of a public furor over violence and player deaths and injuries.

Rugby remained popular there after the gridiron sport was restored to its preeminent position. West Coast players largely made up the national rugby teams that won at the and Olympic Games , after which rugby was dropped as an Olympic sport. Rugby also retained a foothold in British Columbia in Canada. Into the 21st century a large proportion of players on the U. It was in the Southern Hemisphere that rugby assumed new levels of cultural meaning and innovation. In New Zealand and South Africa, the sport became an integral part of national identity and at times a flash point for social and political issues.

In Australia the game was closely associated with the eastern coastal region. Only five clubs played in Sydney at that time, but by , 79 clubs existed, with a senior and four junior competitions. By the s matches between teams representing New South Wales and New Zealand began, as rugby in Australia remained largely confined to the big east coast cities of Sydney and Brisbane.

The national Australian Rugby Union was not formed until In other parts of Australia, Australian rules football had already established itself as the dominant sport.

The issue of payment to players appeared in Australia by the early s, centring in particular on compensation for injured footballers. At the same time, a professional team of New Zealand rugby players, known as the All Golds, prepared to travel to England to play against Northern Union clubs. In a rugby league competition began in Sydney with working-class clubs leaving rugby union to play by the new rules.

The first Australian rugby league players toured Britain in —09, followed by another tour of Britain in —12, thus establishing international links between Northern and Southern Hemisphere breakaway groups. The main centres of rugby league in Australia are Sydney and Brisbane, though it is widely played in cities and towns throughout the country and has a larger following than has rugby union. In New Zealand the first rugby match was played at Nelson in However, rugby spread slowly owing to problems of distance and sparse population, and while regional unions appeared throughout the country by the mids, a national union, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union NZRFU , was not founded until A team made up mostly of Maori players toured Britain, winning 49 of its 74 matches, including many matches against clubs in the north of England that largely consisted of working-class players and that had become the best club teams in the country.

In the Ranfurly Shield was presented by Earl Ranfurly, the governor of New Zealand, to serve as a trophy for a challenge competition between provincial rugby teams. In New Zealand played a truly national Australian team for the first time.

NFL knows US professional rugby union could be a very good deal indeed

A form of rugby football was played in South Africa in , and the game was first played in Cape Town in The expanding population that followed the Kimberley diamond discovery spread the game into that region —86 , and rugby was being played in the Johannesburg and Pretoria areas by South Africa too has leagues for clubs and a national competition between provincial teams for the Currie Cup, first given in by Sir Donald Currie. Black South Africans were excluded from playing in the whites-only rugby competitions run by the South African Rugby Board and were forced to play in separate competitions over the course of the 20th century.

Pivotal to the success of South African rugby, as well as to its continued segregation, was the controversial Danie Craven , a legendary player who also served as coach of the national team and president of the Rugby Board. As a core cultural activity of white South Africans, rugby became the target of protests by black South Africans and international antiapartheid protesters, who called for boycotts of both South Africa and its national rugby team. Significant protests first emerged in New Zealand in —60 when the NZRFU did not select Maori players for the tour of South Africa in order to comply with apartheid restrictions.

In response to disquiet among black Commonwealth countries, the New Zealand government canceled a planned tour by South Africa, in order to save the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. The most-dramatic events surrounding rugby occurred in during the South African tour of New Zealand.

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The second match of the tour was canceled when protesters occupied the field. During the s, however, South Africa became progressively isolated as the sports boycott took effect. Notably, it was excluded from the first two Rugby World Cups in and The dismantling of apartheid began in , and South Africa was again accepted by the international sports community. The country hosted the rugby union World Cup in and won the championship with a nearly all-white team, which, with the open support of then president Nelson Mandela , unified the country in a brief moment of transracial national identification.

Other countries where rugby has developed to a high level include Argentina and the Pacific Island nations of Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Rugby was introduced to Argentina in the s, and by the turn of the 20th century four clubs based in Buenos Aires had formed the River Plate Rugby Football Union. The Argentine national team, known as the Pumas, has a reputation for being particularly physical in the scrum.

Although rugby did not reach the Pacific Island countries of Samoa and Tonga until the s, it had been played in Fiji since the s. All three countries continue to focus on their individual national teams, but in the early 21st century they also began to play together periodically as a single team representing the Pacific Islands. In the latter part of the 20th century, both rugby union and rugby league were affected by the growing influence of commercialism and television. The development and success of World Cup competitions was a particular spur to the enormous growth of rugby football in the decades leading into the 21st century.

Rugby union thus embarked upon a road toward professionalism and new levels of commercialism that eventually led to the full professionalization of the sport in The World Cup, held in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France and won by Australia, had confirmed its place as a major international sporting festival. By the chairman of the Rugby World Cup could claim that the event was the fourth largest international televised sporting event as the tournament reached an estimated countries and 2. In rugby league, television became crucial to the wider promotion of the game. In the State of Origin competition between New South Wales and Queensland began, and it soon became one of the most-watched sporting events in Australia.

In England this model was followed through the creation of the Wars of the Roses series between Yorkshire and Lancashire. While compromise was reached in Australia, the game suffered significant damage as spectators turned away from rugby league in disgust, with some preferring to watch rugby union or Australian football.

Rugby Union

With professionalization of rugby union in and the now relatively free movement of players between sports, it appears that a rapprochement between union and league might be possible. Several people have devised compromise rules that seek to create uniform rules for both codes, but these have been resisted thus far.

Despite professionalization, at grassroots levels rugby retains a strong social and cultural atmosphere where play on the field is only a part of the experience. Rugby players are notorious for heavy drinking and singing sessions, particularly when on tour. Moreover, in rugby-playing countries, success on the field often translates into success in professional life, as rugby clubs and associations form the basis for strong local, national, and international social networks.

We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. In late , the Harvard team traveled to Montreal to play McGill in rugby, and won by three tries in front of 2, spectators. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Journey to Camp: The Origins of American Football to Professional Football Researchers Association.

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