History

Main article: History of rugby union

Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, with a rugby football pitch in the foreground

The origin of rugby football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823, when William Webb Ellis is said to have picked up the ball and run with it.^[6] Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895.^[7][8] Despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, which former pupils then introduced to their university.
Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first "football" team.^[9] During this early period different schools used different rules, with former pupils from Rugby and Eton attempting to carry their preferred rules through to their universities.^[10]
A significant event in the early development of rugby football was the production of the first written laws of the game at Rugby School in 1845,^[11][12] which was followed by the 'Cambridge Rules' drawn up in 1848.^[13] Other important events include the Blackheath Club's decision to leave the Football Association in 1863^[14][15] and the formation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871.^[14] The code was originally known as "rugby football"; it was not until after the schism in England in 1895, which resulted in the separate code of rugby league, that the sport took on the name "rugby union" to differentiate it from the league game.^[16] Despite the sport's full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world.^[17]

First internationals

The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England. Scotland won the game 1-0.^[14][18] By 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby sevens tournament, the Melrose Sevens,^[19] which is still held annually.
Two important overseas tours took place in 1888: a British Isles team visited Australia and New Zealand—although a private venture, it laid the foundations for future British and Irish Lions tours;^[20] and the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team brought the first overseas team to British spectators.^[21]

James Ryan, captain of the New Zealand Army team, receiving the Kings Cup from George V.

During the early history of rugby union, a time before commercial air travel, teams from different continents rarely met. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia,^[22] followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe.^[23] Traditionally the most prestigious tours were the Southern Hemisphere countries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa making a tour of a Northern Hemisphere, and the return tours made by a joint British and Irish team.^[24] Tours would last for months, due to long traveling times and the number of games undertaken; the 1888 New Zealand team began their tour in Hawkes Bay in June and did not complete their schedule until August 1889, having played 107 rugby matches.^[25] Touring international sides would play Test matches against international opponents, including national, club and county sides in the case of Northern Hemisphere rugby, or provincial/state sides in the case of Southern Hemisphere rugby.^[22][26]
Between 1905 and 1908, all three major Southern Hemisphere rugby countries sent their first touring teams to the Northern Hemisphere: New Zealand in 1905, followed by South Africa in 1906 and Australia in 1908. All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics,^[27] and were far more successful than critics had expected.^[28]
The New Zealand 1905 touring team performed a haka before each match, leading Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams to suggest that Wales player Teddy Morgan lead the crowd in singing the Welsh National Anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, as a response. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in: the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event.^{[29][nb 2]} In 1905 France played England in its first international match.^[27]
Rugby union was included as an event in the Olympic Games four times during the early 20th century. No international rugby games and union-sponsored club matches were played during the First World War, but competitions continued through service teams such as the New Zealand Army team.^[31] During the Second World War no international matches were played by most countries, though Italy, Germany and Romania played a limited number of games,^[32][33][34] and Cambridge and Oxford continued their annual University Match.^[35]
The first officially sanctioned international rugby sevens tournament took place in 1973 at Murrayfield, one of Scotland's biggest stadiums, as part of the Scottish Rugby Union centenary celebrations.^[36]