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Rugby Union (often referred to as just rugby, or union) is a variant of rugby football. Rugby union is normally played by teams with 15 players, although there is also rugby sevens, a quicker game with 7 players a side. The name comes from the name of the game's original governing body, the Rugby Football Union. It is one of the two codes of rugby, the other being rugby league.
Like other forms of rugby football the game was developed from the rules used to play football at Rugby school in England. The crucial differences from football (soccer) are that in rugby the ball is a prolate spheroid instead of a sphere and that the players are allowed to pick the ball up and run with it. The players are also allowed to throw the ball from player to player, but unlike American football they are not allowed to throw it forwards, it must only go sideways or backwards.
Rugby union was founded in England, in 1823. It has established itself as the national sport in New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and is a popular sport in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Australia, Wales, Argentina and South Africa. Rugby is also gaining popularity in Italy and Japan, following Italy's acceptance into the Six Nations and Japan's unsuccessful bid to host 2011 Rugby World Cup, which will be hosted in New Zealand.
The International Rugby Board (IRB), founded in 1886, governs the sport and also publishes the game's laws. There are currently 95 full members and 8 associate member countries. According to IRB figures, rugby is being played in over 100 countries spanning five continents by men and women of all ages. The IRB controls the Rugby World Cup, the Women's Rugby World Cup, Rugby World Cup Sevens, IRB World Sevens Series, Under 21 World Cup, Under 19 World Championship, and the Super Powers Cup. It will hold votes to decide where these events shall be held.
Rugby league is a team sport, played by two teams of 13 players. The aim is to carry an oval ball up the field towards the opponents in-goal where the ball is grounded to score a try, worth four points. Having scored the try, the team has the right to attempt to kick a goal worth a further two points if successful. The opposing team attempts to prevent the attacking team from carrying out this objective by tackling the player with the ball. It is one of the two codes of rugby, the other being rugby union.
Rugby League was initially played by a breakaway faction of the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) known as the Northern Union. When similar breakaway factions occurred from RFU-affiliated Rugby Unions in Australia and New Zealand, in 1907 and 1908 they formed associations known as Rugby Leagues and used the modified Northern Union rules. The Northern Union later changed its name to the Rugby Football League. Thus, the game became known as rugby league.
Like most forms of football, rugby league's roots can be traced to early football history, through the playing of ball games which bear little resemblance to modern sports. It is then important to acknowledge the development of the modern codes and two separate schisms in football history.
In the nineteenth century football was most prominently played in private schools. Each school had its own rules based on whatever playing field that was available to them. The rules could be categorised as either handling or kicking forms of football. The kicking and handling forms were later codified by The Football Association and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) respectively.
In 1895 rugby football was later beset with a schism that resulted in the formation of the rebel Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). Although many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams to the irritation of the gentry who ran the game, the main division was caused by the RFU decision to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing 'broken time payments' to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to southern teams who drew their players from the middle and upper classes who did not depend on such payments. There were similar movements in other countries. In 1895 a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby on pitches where entrance fees were charged led to the famous meeting on 29 August 1895. Twenty-one clubs (plus Stockport who negotiated by telephone) met at The George Hotel in Huddersfield and formed the Northern Rugby Union (later to become known as rugby league). Within fifteen years more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby league revolution.
The NRFU made changes to the rules in order to increase the number of spectators as they were now dependent on money from the turnstile. Organisations allied to the NRFU changed their names from union to league, hence the names rugby league and rugby union.
Rugby Sevens is a variant of rugby football in which only seven players per side feature. Although it was conceived as an event for rugby union, rugby league has also adopted the sevens format.
Rugby union sevens is sanctioned by the International Rugby Board (IRB), and is played under substantially the same rules and on a field of the same dimensions as the 15-player game.
While a normal rugby union match lasts upwards of 80 minutes, a normal rugby sevens match lasts approximately 15 minutes (allowing for the one-minute halftime break, injury time and so forth). Competition finals last somewhat more than 20 minutes; each half in a competition final is ten minutes instead of the normal seven minutes. This allows rugby tournaments to be completed in a day or a weekend. However, sevens scores are generally comparable to union scores; scoring occurs with much greater regularity in sevens, since the defenders are more spaced out than in rugby union.
Scrum's still exist within sevens, composed of just three men from each team. Given the speedy nature of the game, players are usually either from the backline or loose trio of forwards in 15 man rugby.
Rugby sevens was initially conceived by Ned Haig, a butcher from Melrose, Scotland as a fundraising event for his local club in 1883. The first ever sevens match was played at the Greenyards, where it was well received. The largest sevens tournament in the world is the Rosslyn Park Schools tournament, with an attendance of over 3,000 schoolchildren from around the world. The first ever officially sanctioned International Tournament occurred at Murrayfield as part of the 'Scottish Rugby Union's celebration of rugby' centenary celebrations in 1973. Due to the success of the format, the ongoing Hong Kong Sevens was launched three years later. In 1993, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, dubbed the 'Melrose Cup' was launched.
Owing to the speed by which matches are resolved and the minimal personnel requirements, there is hope that sevens will be accepted for Olympic competition (it has been in the Commonwealth Games since 1998). The IRB pointed towards sellout crowds at Commonwealth Games and World Cup sevens as proof of the sport's popularity. In addition, it would provide a competition in which sporting minnows from regions such as the Pacific, who are able to field competitive rugby teams, could genuinely compete in. However, the IOC turned down the bid for the purposes of the 2012 Olympics to be held in London. One IOC official from Switzerland, Dennis Oswald, dismissed the bid declaring: “When it comes to rugby, I am not a specialist, but people within the sport tell me that rugby sevens is something of a joke.†Oswald later confirmed that he had never in fact watched a game of sevens, or indeed, 15 man rugby. Although disappointed, the IRB responded by pointing out that in terms of the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger), a rugby player was more likely to possess all of these attributes than competitors within other questionable Olympic events. The IRB has recently moved to counter criticisms that it only proposed for a male Olympic tournament, establishing a series of Sevens events for Women.
Two of the best known sevens competitions are the Hong Kong Sevens and Wellington Sevens which now make up parts of the IRB World Sevens Series.
