The Evolution of Rugby: From Amateur to Professional Leagues

Rugby union football – or just rugby as you probably know it – has come a long, long way. From Irishmen using inflated bladders as balls and arched trees as goal posts in the medieval times to ellipsoidal leather balls and sophisticated laws like the offside rule in the present day. This sport has certainly evolved over the years.

In the 1800s, rugby was played across different nations as a form of recreation. Back then, it was simply called football, and an Englishman named Albert Pell was credited with introducing the game to Cambridge University where he was a student at the time. Pell put together the first recorded football team, and it slowly started to be picked up by other schools.

But different schools applied different rules in their games up until 1845 when a set of rules were written up at the Rugby School. Three years later, Cambridge came up with what would later be known as the Cambridge Rules.

Then in 1863, the Football Association was formed, and the organization started to put together rules that would govern the game.

These early rules aimed to see to it that players did not have an unfair advantage over their opponents. Players were banned from just holding the ball in their hands and running and they were also banned from kicking other players in the shin. These were some actions that were completely normal and legal under the Rugby School and Cambridge Rules.

But not everyone was happy with these rule changes and that led to a lot of clubs leaving the FA and continuing with the rules they had come to know and love. The FA, with its stricter rules, evolved to become what we all know now as football, while the teams that split formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871.

In 1895, there was a further split due to certain differences of ideas. Some teams broke away and formed the Rugby League, which then led the Rugby Football Union to adopt the name Rugby Union to differentiate itself from the breakaway league. Some laws are different, but both versions are fundamentally very similar, and many people can’t even tell them apart.

The first professional rugby game was played in Edinburgh, Scotland on the 27th of March, 1871, and it was a game between England and Scotland. Scotland won that game.

The first international rugby competition was the Home Nations Championship, and it began in 1883. That same year, the Melrose Sevens – a rugby sevens event that still holds till date – had its first ever edition.

The first Rugby World Cup was organized in 1987 and it was hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and New Zealand came out as winners of the inaugural edition. But the first World Cup Sevens tournament didn’t happen until 1993 and the rugby sevens wasn’t included in the Olympic Games until 2016.

Rugby union was an amateur sport up until 1995 when the International Rugby Board declared it open shortly after the completion of the World Cup that year, but it still remains one of the oldest sports known to mankind.