'Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Sport' by Dai
Richards is out now. Here Dai gives us a taste of what's
inside.
There's no finer sight than a man who's picked up pace, running
hard with the ball in hand, sweat glistening on his brow. There's a
hint of a swerve as he heads towards the line and the crowd looks
on as he makes one last effort to reach it. Then he sends the ball
down to the batsman at the other end. Cricket - what a game. Its
distinguishing feature is running with the ball. Over a day of
cricket a fast bowler must cover at least a mile running forward
with the ball in hand, and the crowd is there to watch just that.
"Rubbish!" I hear you say, and of course, it is. Cricket is all
about scoring runs - if a team scores fewer runs than the
opposition then they lose the game, no matter how far they've run
with the ball. Cricketers do, however, run forward with
the ball far more often than Rugby Union players do, so why then is
it that we think of rugby as a running game? Well, that's because
in 1895 a group of four Old Rugbeians decided that it was, and in
1897 they published a report saying that somebody else had said it
was. When no disputes followed, in 1900 they placed a plaque on the
wall of Rugby School explaining that running with the ball is the
distinguishing feature of the game of rugby, and everyone at the
time blindly agreed. In my book I contest that "The Origin of Rugby
Football" is one of sport's greatest confidence tricks. The 1897
report claims that Matthew Bloxam, a Rugbeian from before the time
of Webb Ellis, identified the Webb Ellis event as the 'origin' of
Rugby Football. What Bloxam actually said was that the event was
the beginning of a change in one of the rules, and that running
with the ball was the biggest difference between Rugby Football and
Association Football, not the distinguishing feature of the game.
So what was/is the most distinguishing feature of the game? Well,
the aim of Rugby Football at the time of Webb Ellis was to score
goals by kicking the ball over the crossbar. Both before the Webb
Ellis event and after he died nearly 50 years later, in 1872, this
was the only way you could win a game of Rugby Football. Even when
in 1877 the aim of Rugby Union became to score more points than the
opposition, the majority of points were still scored by goals. In
rugby, running with the ball is just one action among many others:
passing, catching, tackling, scrummaging, jumping in the line-out
and, of course, kicking. Whilst it may be argued that running plays
a far greater part of Rugby Union today, it is still the goal and
has always been the goal that is the main scoring method.
Throughout the evolution of Rugby Union, kicking the ball over the
crossbar to score a goal has been its distinguishing feature.
Therefore, whilst it's certainly possible that Webb Ellis
contributed to the evolution of Rugby Football, the origin of the
game must predate 1823. When criticising the validity of the Webb
Ellis event as the birth of Rugby Football, modern historians have
tended to link its origin to 'folk or mob football'. However, no
link between Rugby Union and these ancient games can be found, and
there is no evidence of another game or sport in which a ball was
kicked over a crossbar having existed. Upon undertaking research of
the history of Rugby School and of football at the school, I found
that the game was first recorded as far back as circa 1783, with
the oldest named player being Walter Savage Landor. Just five years
earlier, Thomas James, a new headmaster and former Eton pupil, had
introduced a brand new education system into Rugby School that was
based entirely on Eton methods. Part of this system included a
reward of 'play' for good work or behavior. That 'play' is thought
to have taken the form of cricket in the summer and a variety of
Eton Football in the winter. In his 1953 book on the history of the
Football Association, Geoffrey Green states that Thomas James
brought the 'Eton Field Game' to Rugby School, while I believe that
it was most likely the little known 'Lower College Game', which
ended in 1865. Both versions were reliant on the boys regulating
and forming rules for the games, and both versions involved goals
that were low to the ground. At some point the Rugby School boys
moved their goals upwards, with their objective aim becoming to
kick the ball over the crossbar.
The above illustration is from Rev. F. Marshall's 1892 book
'Rugby Football', showing the trees at Rugby School. Did the
branches from these trees form the first crossbar? This question is
just one of many covered in the book.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Dai Richards is a se
lf confessed 'sportaholic'. From representing
Wales at 6 different sports (cyclo cross, triathlon, mountain
running, mountain biking, duathlon, and marathon kayaking), to
winning the world championship at another. His full time job is
running the rugby memorabilia specialists Rugby Relics Ltd and he
coaches sport in his spare time. Dai has collected rugby
memorabilia for 50 years and has one of the finest collections in
the world. This is his first book. Understanding the
Origin & Evolution of Sport - Volume 1 - Rugby Union by Dai
Richards - ISBN 978-0-9531714-1-5 - signed limited edition -
available on Amazon, eBay & www.rugbyrelics.com
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