Why Rugby is based on a lie (probably)

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The origins of Rugby can be traced back to the origins of Soccer. That tale is fairly well known among fans of the egg-shaped ball. But the tale involving William Webb Ellis, that most fans retell, is probably not true.
Seb Stafford-Bloor explores the true origins of Rugby. Illustrated by Philippe Fenner.
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Music sourced from epidemicsound.com
Additional footage sourced from freestockfootagearchive.com
#Rugby #RugbyUnion #Football

[@_JosephRoberto]

The spilt between Rugby Union and Rugby League would be a great topic to cover. It's something that many don't know but is important to know about.

[@usarugbyleagueunionfan]

@wolfishjtNoticed that too.

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

@wolfishjt Real football ⚽️ is the best and the most entertaining sport in the world ⚽️ ❤

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

@wolfishjt ⚽️ is growing faster and better

[@lungabiyela9081]

Posh people wanted to play an amateur sport, while the working class wanted to professionalise. Split happened, and today, you have to go to posh schools to get recognition as a rugby union player, while league players can attend Croxteth High School.

[@_JosephRoberto]

@lungabiyela9081 read spilt as a certain swear word for a second 🤣 in my opinion, it's a topic worth a video. You can even cover the blacklisting union players got for just talking to league people. I believe the spilt is still felt today.

[@arjunpaudel8918]

Growing up in a village in Nepal we used to play football in fields after school, we had no knowledge of rugby not even heard of it. But after playing football for a while and got tired late in the evening someone would just shout let's remove handball and foul , and all just tried and grab the ball and put it in the goal in pure chaos, later in life i realised it's pretty similar to what Rugby is so i imagine the origin of the sports is pretty similar to this just bunch of people thinking differently

[@BLACKSTA361]

Handball Is a Sport in itself as well

[@Ballin4Vengeance]

Spontanious evolution of Australian Rules Football in Nepal. Nepal Rules Football if you will.

[@Dreyno]

We had a game in school in Ireland called “murderball”. Basically you got the ball and ran. Everyone (no teams) would try and get it off you by any means. It usually meant being tackled to the ground and buried under a pile up of people trying to get the ball. One person would eventually get it and take off running with the mob after him. There was no points scoring and no rules. Utterly pointless but great fun.

[@goodmaro]

@@BLACKSTA361 Actually two families of sports by the same name.

[@realtalk6195]

Rugby football _didn't_ spin-off from association football (soccer) rules. Originally, there were no unified rules for soccer. The rules of a game or tournament of football varied by organizer. Some allowed picking up the ball and some didn't, and the other rules also varied. Eventually people started forming codes to stick by. That's how soccer and rugby diverged. There were Cambridge rules and Sheffield rules for people who wanted to play a sport that was akin to soccer. Then the FA (Football Association) formed who made their own rules. That's why it became known as association football. The common sport mutually diverged. But if you want to insist on one splintering from the other, then it would be soccer who branched away from rugby union. At the same time, rugby modified its own rules to discourage kicking and encouraging carrying and throwing the ball.

[@jyefrancis4980]

Joe Devine sure knows his stuff he should narrate a purely football channel

[@justincovert6943]

I don't know might not be enough money in that.

[@player-ty2sy]

Ooooh buddy... You not going to believe this...

[@haydentrumper7473]

If only he had cool hands and a warm embrace

[@Seeta_sa_gauta]

You mean American football?

[@RevStickleback]

I think people tend to overlook just how similar all the 'football' games were until the 1860s. Rugby might have evolved from football, but the truth is that rugby is far closer to the original games of the time than football is now. Within a decade or so, they'd changed the offside rule to allow forward passing, banned handling, which lead to the introduction of goalkeepers and heading, added a crossbar, whereas goals could originally be scored at any height, replaced the free 'try' at goal with the corner kick, and introduced the tactic of passing the ball on the floor, among other things, changing it completely from a game mainly based on strength, to one on skill.

[@indiekid19872]

Nowadays, if a kid picked up a ball and ran with it in a school football match, they'd simply diagnose the boy with ADHD and prescribe Ritalin

[@HerrCron]

Go be boring somewhere else, boomer.

[@Ese96Agoaye]

I've always wamted to see Tifo do rugby.

[@dchegu]

Tho if they want to do it any justice, they to hire people like squidge n the likes.

[@zenokada2278]

Most sports originate from England because the elite private schools codified all the laws so most major sports play under the specific rules from 1800s Britain

[@lukealadeen7836]

no really, English sports just became popular because of the British empire

[@Gallalad1]

Most people who play rugby know rugby is a form of football. Hence why its called rugby football. The RFU and IRFU for example stand for the Rugby Football Union and Irish Rugby Football Union respectively. Its one of about half a dozen sports that are football. Of course association football fans like to think otherwise.

[@tsherwood2112]

Honestly nfl fans are worse about that. Most of them don't even know the difference between rugby, AFL, rugby league, and GAA

[@jmill3147]

@@tsherwood2112 Probably because none of those sports you mentioned are played in the US. Some of us do know the difference though. I find Union to be boring and too many rules involved, but love League/CFL/NFL.

[@tsherwood2112]

@@jmill3147 American football isn't played in Europe or Australia, yet they know what it is over there. Also how TF do you think rugby union is too slow but watch the NFL 😂 The NFL is miles slower, no way I'm sitting around for 3 hours to watch a 10 minute game

[@jmill3147]

@@tsherwood2112 Sheesh triggered much?? The fact people know what american football is in those other countries is a testament to its popularity.

[@tsherwood2112]

@@jmill3147 by your logic, Americans would know soccer. But most can't even name a single team. The problem here is that the average American is uncultured and closed-minded (I'm American, I see it on a daily basis)

[@tsherwood2112]

This is why the meaning of the word "football" has the power to start pub brawls

[@R.J._Lewis]

Yes, there's "the good kind of football"(rugby union), "not quite enough players to make a full side of good football"(rugby league), "upside down football"(Aussie rules), "don't really use feet anymore football" (American football), and of course the OG, "theatrics-minded weiners"(association football).

[@titussalter8070]

​@@R.J._Lewisand then there's 7s lol

[@tsherwood2112]

@@titussalter8070 7s is so unserious. Watching it sucks, but playing at festival style tournaments is fun. Especially for outside backs

[@eoin8156]

⁠@@tsherwood21127 was great back in the 90s when top players like Lomu etc played. Now it’s mainly players who couldn’t get a second pro contract in 15s.

[@tsherwood2112]

@@eoin8156 true, but now we're seeing Dupont in 7s. He's the only reason I'll be watching at the Olympics, and I assume many others can say the same

[@DavidLimofLimReport]

This is like the story of Jebediah Springfield.

[@league_of_ireland_fan]

I think you mean Hans sprungfeld

[@DroolingLizard]

He was great

[@insertnamehere5809]

"A noble spirit, embiggens the smallest man"

[@patrickstewart3446]

@@insertnamehere5809It’s a perfectly cromulant word

[@Alphoric]

How it probably started was just some group of student football players just thought of playing it slightly different. A game like football can be changed so drastically with few changes so we get so many different forms

[@patrickporter1864]

Ceid was the name of the game which was played in tipperarywhere Ellis lived.

[@Snookbone]

Seeing as Rugby School was the first to ever have written rules for its version of football, it's more accurate to say that every other form of the game we know today came from rugby.

[@elijahtchilembe-mpovie2715]

Can Tifo also cover why rugby Union used the Nazis in France to push away rugby league, and never apologized?

[@scottmcnaughton539]

And from the same era a young Tom Will's who was also attending the school, took what he learnt back to Melbourne to create a game for cricketers to keep fit in winter. Merging both football & rugby, we now have Aussie Rules Football.

[@1bert719]

Aussie rules also owes a lot to Gaelic football from Irish ex pats. I believe there is now a combination game of the 2 known as international rules football.

[@insertnamehere5809]

Tom Wills as a boy also watched & knew of an Aboriginal game called MARN GROOK, which had a ball made with stuffed possum hide & kicked between players

[@RevStickleback]

In truth, all of the football games were very similar back then. The diversification of the rules came later.

[@elzurdorodriguez6650]

Ooooh, that's why Aussie rules football field is round-shaped? Because It was originally a cricket field?

[@RevStickleback]

@@elzurdorodriguez6650 A lot of early football clubs were formed by cricketers who wanted a winter sport. It's actually a bit of a surprise that their version was the only one to retain the cricket field shape. It does mean that most of Australia's cricket grounds are far larger, in capacity, than they would be based on cricket crowds.

[@joefuller1207]

As someone who lives in Rugby and did this stuff for a local history project in school, this was really cool to see. Also pretty wild seeing local landmarks like that statue in a KZbin video haha. Thanks for making this.

[@alanfox691]

Gilbert are the gold standard for Rugby Union balls become of the unic way they go about, making them. No mass manufacturing for Gilbert they make every ball from start to finish buy hand unlike other ball manufacturers.

[@tsherwood2112]

Gilbert is the best, Rhino is a distant second. I've used a mitre ball too but it was terrible

[@PaulHolder]

I'd seen previously that as there were no established laws of football at the time the players, at Rugby school and others, would decide on the rules between themselves before each game (and probably change them during as well). When boys from that school eventually decided to write down a set of rules based on the versions they played, they included running with the ball etc. William Webb Ellis may well have picked up the ball and ran with it but it may also not have been considered a big deal or particularly notable at the time.

[@jacekatalakis8316]

That sounds similar to what I have been told, that the rules weren't a formal set but more to settle disputes between schools, there was no laws of rugby so to speak but Eton had its rules, Rugby school had its rules, and so on. It was common for boys from each school to carry a small book in their pocket to be able to settle disagreements

[@jamespusey7186]

huw edwards really summed it up well tbf

[@CarlinConnolly]

Good to see a history vid again - it's been a while but it was watching you fantastic football history vids that got me into Tifo in the first place - when are you going to do a video on Bela Gutman?

[@munsterfloyd]

There was a type of football played in Ireland in the 18th centuary known as "Caid". It was a rough, no holds barred, type of game. The word is still used to describe Gaelic football in some parts. It quite possibly influenced Aussi rules and quite possibly had a part to play in the development of Rugby. Ireland was under British rule at that time and there were numerous army barracks located all over the country. It is very conceiveable that British service men joined in, in the local sport. It is even suggested somewhere that Webb Ellis spent time in Ireland, possibly in Killkenny and that when he picked up the ball and ran with it he was heard to say, "this is how they play it in Ireland." In 1905, New Zealand, wearing their now familiar all black livery, toured Europe and North America for the first time as "The All Blacks." Their captain was Dave Gallagher, a native of Ramelton, County Donegal. He later, sadly, died of wounds he received during the 3rd Battle of Ypres in 1917. Although he was 43 years old at the time, he had enlisted following the news of his brother's death on the Western Front. Whenever the All Blacks visit Ireland they visit Ramelton to pay their respects to their first captain.

[@Prestigiazioneit]

rugby didn't evolve from football. they started with common roots, from a bunch of games called "football". And a lot of inaccuracies on the script.

[@aldobonaso3481]

that sudden American accent at the end of the video is rather jarring 🤣

[@kcrowther5977]

Many cultures have had kicking ball games but Association Football comes directly from the kicking ball games first played in England.

[@russelljones2281]

That's why it's called soccer

[@lungabiyela9081]

Great. But how does this affect the use of the inverted fullback in the Bundesliga today?

[@OscarOSullivan]

Rugby is a lot closer to mob football than association football. The real beginning of rugby was the 1860’s and 1870’s. The six nations is one of the oldest sporting competitions going back to 1883 as the home nations championship. The f in either union or league governing bodies stands for football. Garyowen from Limerick are formally known as Garyowen FC. Unlike American and Canadian football kicking is crucial. Modern Rugby balls since the 1980’s and 1990’s are not made with leather and pig bladders which have made kicking including drop goals, conversions and penalty kicks more consistent.

[@brianandrea3249]

And handling.

[@saoirsedeltufo7436]

Joe Devine's dulcet tones put to rugby? Something I never knew I needed

[@J-K-A]

It’s almost like the name football wasn’t related to the use of the foot on the ball.

[@Pesso86]

I’ve heard somewhere that foot refers to the size of the ball, not the fact that you kick it

[@bobrong9645]

@@Pesso86 Heard that it might refer to the fact that the players were on foot, i.e. not on horses like polo. A bit like "foot soldier".

[@goodmaro]

Both of those are canards. The term was originally related to the use of the foot (rather than hands or sticks) on the ball, but the game kept that name while branching into a family that even included one from centuries back that outlawed all playing of the ball by feet under any circumstances. The earliest football found was much smaller than a foot in diameter, and there are many ball games where the players are on foot that we don't call "foot ball". Not only that, but ball games played on horseback are very uncommon, while those played on foot, whatever you call them, are common.

[@justincovert6943]

They did the same thing with baseball. I believe in 1920's the created the story of Doubleday, creating a brand new sport to make it less British. In reality Baseball is a derivative of British Rounders, and has forms of Cricket.

[@CCNYMacGuy]

Yup. "Hey, some random old guy claims that a famous Civil War general also invented our National Pastime™? Let's just go with that!"

[@guyfaux3978]

@@CCNYMacGuy In Cooperstown NY of all places, hitherto known as the family seat of James Fenimore Cooper's family, prompting the question of whether Natty Bumppo played baseball, or more likely lacrosse.

[@Fatblue246]

eh there evidence of the rounders link is pretty questionable also. we realistically don’t entirely know where baseball came from besides the fact that the modern code of the game was based off a variant being played in Canada at the time adapted by north eastern Americans sometime in the 1800’s. It clearly has rounders influence but you can say this about any bat and ball game they all have similarities and neither rounders, cricket, nor baseball are the oldest of these types of sports. The Doubleday story is some revisionism though for sure lol

[@normanstevens4924]

@@Fatblue246 If you weren't familiar with either game you'd be hard pressed to distinguish between rounders and baseball. They could be played on the same field with the same equipment and use the same skills.

[@goodmaro]

@@normanstevens4924 More like rounders and slow pitch softball.

[@PatrickHall55]

Rugby Football *DID NOT* evolve from Association Football. Both descended from a myriad of football games, and codified their own rules.

[@PatrickHall55]

This is why Association Football should still be called "Soccer".

[@rhysjones2786]

1:45 funny how two of those cups shown aren’t used to this day 😂

[@AfricanCorn-np8jt]

Would love to see more Rugby content tbh such an underrated sport much more better than soccer maybe you could even do a video on the NBA

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

Real football ⚽️ is the best and the most entertaining sport in the world ⚽️ ❤

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

⚽️ is growing faster and better

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

Real football ⚽️ is the greatest sport of all time ⚽️❤️

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

@wolfishjt American football, basketball, and hockey have fake injuries

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

@wolfishjt If real football ⚽️ is boring, then how is real football ⚽️ the most popular and most watched sport in the world

[@KACHUKHA]

Very nice animation!

[@Yamikani]

Was this channel advertised on the Football channel

[@fanofcodd]

In medieval history , In Italy and also in France , maybe elsewhere too , during some festivities , there was a game , village against village , where people had to put a ball on in front of the other village church. No rules , infinite field , but still I think some similarities can be found Refreshed my memory with some researsh , look at Castio storico for Italy and La soule for French. The french one is quite funny , 200 players with games lasting a week or until everyone gave up

[@dazzza111]

Do a video on Gaelic Football and Hurling 🫡

[@alanfox691]

Would it get the viewing numbers though that is the thing. I would watch it.

[@cian69]

@@alanfox691sure like even people would watch it to learn about it lol

[@flamingfrancis]

@@alanfox691 You would be aware then that Irish Gaelic Football is played as a merged International sport with Aussie Rulles? Annual International Rules championships are played between All Irish and All Australian teams.

[@IFCGaming]

Oh my god. A non American sport being covered? Please more of this!!

[@franciscoeko2970]

You must be new here

[@dude9318]

I like how you do different sports Not just football Very cool 👍

[@christopherharvie8716]

Eton’s form of football is a precursor Australian Football. It came about as a hybrid of this game and Rugby.

[@goodmaro]

Eton has two forms of football, so which one do you mean? The field game or the wall game?

[@flamingfrancis]

As stated earlier, Aussie Rules is generally believed to have derived out of the Indigenous game os MarnGrook. The man generally considered to have adopted the game did so for cricketers to play in the off season . The Melbourne Cricket Ground is considered the home of Aussie Rules. p.s. those Indigenous peoples are considered the longest living culture on Earth dating some 60,000 years.

[@goodmaro]

@@flamingfrancis And not even *generally* believed; that was just a propaganda rumor circulated long after the fact. It's unlikely the first people to play that form of football were even *aware* of MarnGrook, as they had no contact with the autochtonous Australian race. Plus, the feature people now liken to MarnGrook -- the high balls and fair catches -- weren't even a prominent feature of early Aussie football, but came in much later -- and not by some observation of MarnGrook, but because a fair catch had been a feature of various British football games for some time. Not only that, but the primary impetus for developing the game wasn't even by cricketeers looking for something to fill the off season, but by people who specifically wanted to play a football game, and eventually found cricket ovals suitable and available after they'd initially played football on rectangular fields.

[@jennybrown-fu6rd]

I grew up in the town of rugby and i went to rugby school. And somehow i didn't know this😂

[@alanfox691]

Do a video on Aussie Rules Football that would be of interest.

[@TheStubertos]

I was watching Gaelic football the other day and (not knowing any about either sports) couldn't help but draw a lot of comparisons between Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football. There must be a link there somewhere.

[@HerrCron]

@@TheStubertos The myth goes that Irish convicts sent to Australia brought it with them, but that's likely a load of bollox. The game we know as Gaelic football today was codified in 1887 and AFL got its start in 1858. AFL, much like rugby was most likely derived from 'football' played in English public schools, but we'll probably never know for certain.

[@ifldiscovery8500]

@@HerrCron Irish populations were small compared to English populations that were migrated to Australia so that story is fasle too.

[@HerrCron]

@@ifldiscovery8500 what is it you think k you're contributing here?

[@flamingfrancis]

@@TheStubertos There is and has been for some years. Both nations play an International Rules series annually.

[@rhyswilliams4893]

He may not have invented it but everything needs an unbelievable origin story

[@harryfurphy1491]

lie or not i love Rugby. I've been watching it since i was a knee high with my dad. One of the big things i love about this sport is at the end of the match I'll happily buy the winning team or losing teams supporters a pint and chat about the game after.

[@BroadwayJoe99]

So for all intents and purposes, William Webb Ellis is to rugby as Abner Doubleday is to baseball - a mythical "creator" anointed as such by others.

[@goodmaro]

But at least in Doubleday's case it can be disproven, while in Ellis's it can't, though it is extremely far fetched. It's not even known whether the game originated at Rugby School or just became popular there.

[@BroadwayJoe99]

@goodmaro English "public schools" often had their own unique games of "football", and some probably still do. Rugby Football became what it is today because of the network of Rugby School alumni taking "their" game with them wherever they went.

[@goodmaro]

@@BroadwayJoe99 The schools don't even have to be English. We developed a line of games with a Spaldeen to be played at particular features of walls and fences at Horace Mann School. But rugby football became popular to play in and around Rugby (geographically) before alumni spread it significantly anywhere. And soon club play became far more influential in development of the game than alumni were. The one significant influence the institution itself had on sports (especially youth sports) generally was via the novel set there, _Tom Brown's School Days_ . Its influence seems to have been greater in the USA than in Britain, because public schools were already known about extensively in Britain.

[@closelaugh185]

Only England could invent a game and lose the first international match lmao

[@SportsSpirit1]

Create a video on ringball

[@bautistachasseing7164]

Great video! You got to do a video on Nelson Mandela and Rugby someday! No sport is as important for a country as Rugby of South Africa, it’s incredibly interesting. And it is an opportunity to talk about Apertheid and racism. I just read an interview Hugo Porta did (Argentinian Rugby Legend) in which he talked about it, he played matches in South Africa during Apertheid and was the Argentinian ambassador in the country during De Klerk and Mandela’s government.

[@jondnz]

"No sport is as important for a country as Rugby of South Africa"..............have you heard of New Zealand and a small team called "All Blacks"?

[@bautistachasseing7164]

@@jondnz Did rugby in New Zealand play a part in anything as important for the country as the end of apertheid in South Africa?

[@BP__15]

@@bautistachasseing7164All Blacks Rugby is truly synonymous with NZs national identity at levels of life there so Jon is not wrong but I also understand what you’re saying about 1995 RWC impact on SA politics as well, you’re both right about how important Rugby is to both countries 👊🏽.

[@bautistachasseing7164]

@@BP__15 what a nice dude 😄

[@jondnz]

@@bautistachasseing7164 Not directly but, the protests associated with 1981 Springbok tour to New Zealand were pretty significant

[@MbisonBalrog]

I want American Gridiron Football split from Rugby vid

[@joelmonteiro1419]

That wasn't born from a split. It developed on its own. From Wikipedia: "The sport developed from informal games played in North America during the 19th century. Early games had a variety of local rules and were generally similar to modern rugby union and soccer. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto's University College in November 1861. Later in the 1860s, teams from universities were playing each other, leading to more standardized rules and the creation of college football. "

[@goodmaro]

@@joelmonteiro1419 That description is misleading at best. The similarity to modern Rugby Union and soccer can be said to cover all the ground of football, in that all football is similar to all other football, *generally.* That really says nothing. The game wasn't even referred to as taking place "on the gridiron" until 1882 when the lines across every 5 yards were instituted, and not until many years later in Canadian football (depending on provincial union), so it would be silly to refer to that 1861 rugby match as "gridiron football". But what we now call Canadian and American football (though by no means all football in America) were definitely types of rugby, and if there can be said to have been a split, it was on the part of the Rugby Football Union in England, which in 1878 instituted a requirement to put the ball down immediately after a tackle. Canadian and American football continued the earlier style, which allowed the tackled player to take his time returning the ball to play.

[@TheBliksempie]

Actually the name Rugby is short for Rugby Football, which is a varient of football played the same as Aussie Rules football, Galic Football and American Football and this is the reason why Football is also called Soccer in a large part of the world. Most governing bodies are called "Rugby Football Union", thus refering to football being played according to the Rugby varient. The William Web Ellis legend was generally accepted as the most probable origin of the Rugby Football varient when the game of Rugby Union was being promoted to a broader audience. The game was widely played in Europe, especially in France and the British colonies. One other strong claim to the origins of the game is the Welsh claim, but it was never called football, hence disgarded.

[@slobberkissintl3548]

I don't understand how there could be a rule to not do something if no one had ever thought to do it A eureka moment?

[@nabhannbn]

0:10 football not association football⚽️ Football back then can be played with both hand and foot different citie. Colleges have their own version of football , then in 1863 FA made some rule and that becames the football ⚽️ as of today

[@northamericanintercontinen3207]

Then how rugby evolved into gridiron football both American and Canadian ?

[@sammenhennet]

Aussie Rules evolved in a similar way, also partially being inspired by the Aboriginal game Marngrook.

[@goodmaro]

Except, nobody at the time seems to have expressed any such idea.

[@maikotter9945]

In American Football, a brain injury is more certain, than the opposite, even with helmets on!

[@andrewthomson870]

Yes but in America it's harder to diagnose. 😆

[@user-xb8tc3tc8t]

Helmets possibly add to brain injuries, I think they are doing scientific studies on it.

[@JonnyLewisFilms]

How about a video on how World Rugby tier 1 nations continually block tier 2 nations from joining big tournaments like the 6 Nations and the Rugby Championship? in 2026 the new Nations League (aka Nations Championship) will begin but it will only be contested and owned by the tier 1 nations. They say there may be promotion and relegation for tier 2 nations, but only starting in 2031. This is essentially rugbys version of soccer European Super League, but in soccer the fans, media, FIFA and UEFA put a stop to it, meanwhile in Rugby, the World Rugby org have given it their full backing. Also in Rugby only the tier 1 unions have any real voting power on the World Rugby Board, and they keep voting to keep the tier 2 unions down. A video on this would be fantastic. Thanks

[@salt1956]

The outright theft of assets belonging to the Rugby League by the Rugby Union in France during WWII is a topic it would be good to cover (while on the subject of lies, disregard for laws and thuggish behaviour).

[@RedLorryYellowLorry_]

I heard William Webb Ellis is a South African

[@vishveshtadsare3160]

Rugby started when one footballer said 'fck the rules!'

[@kgotsomodise]

1:38 Pig’s Bladder?

[@graduatestev]

Yes, rugby balls were originally made using pigs bladders.

[@flamingfrancis]

Pig's skin was once used for the casing so why not other parts.

[@gerrih3483]

The new scrummage rules will make it even more of a lie...

[@flamingfrancis]

Well then...have you considered the possibilities of the early English explorers to Australia from Captain Cook's time (60 years prior to this) had observed and chronicled the Australian Indigenous people playing their game called MarnGrook. Cook's people had documented that they observved the locals playing a game with a stuffed animal (wombat) skin and that is thought to be a forerunner to the game of Australian Rules which has foundation Clubs established in the 1850's. SInce these Indigenous people are known to be the oldest surviving culture on planet Earth from around 60,000 years ago it is likely that their game has been around for a very long time. Aussie Indigenous players also became masters at RU, proof of which lies in a team designated as the Wallaby Invincibles that toured Britain and Ireland in 1984.

[@BrandonjSlippingAway]

Yeah but nah. The truth is ultimately very simple. The concept of "football" is a very basic one, and almost all cultures have had some folk version of it played in the distant past from Marn Grook, to ancient Chinese football, to Calcio Storico

[@mpumelelobeyers957]

Fun fact ; Nelson Mandela became and still remains Rugbys' greatest marketing 'prop '(no pun intended) 💯❤️

[@Madjiul]

Some kid broke the rules n had a damn statue erected in his honour? 😂 I should have 5 statues at least

[@Chip_in]

Rugby...smashed him bro ⛳

[@vlada]

First international match? Isnt that supposed to be between two countries? That's right up there with world series.😂

[@sinclairwhitbourne2090]

Except it's not. England and Scotland are culturally quite distinct and the entity you are probably thinking of as one country is actually the union of the crowns of Scotland and England, formed in 1707. Scotland, Wales and Ireland also play other sports as distinct nations - such as soccer/football. That can't be said of the teams that play in the so-called World Series, although given the way the US is becoming more and more the disUnited States, perhaps in a few years teams from the red states will represent culturally distinct entities when they play teams from the blue states?

[@kuntowijoyo9353]

why it took rugby so long to professionalize?

[@joelmonteiro1419]

I'd love to see a video on that.

[@United_Wings]

Interesting 🤔

[@domenstrmsek5625]

I myself love rugby Union because I find it more interesting and a male sport. Realistically, in my country it is sadly nonexsistant (in addition to football it is still possible to watch American football, but not Rugby )and I can watch online. Otherwise, besides karate and mma the most interesting sport

[@gnomevoyeur]

Just intuitively, the Webb Ellis story makes no sense. It must have been more complex. In it's simple form, he would have just been penalised for breaking the rules of the game. Determining the history of modern codes suffers from a dearth of written history through the middle of the 19th century because they were still mostly school yard games. Purely based on written codes, it appears that Australian Rules Football is the senior code - largely written by Tom Wills, a former school master from Rugby School and the collegiate form of American Football emerged soon after. The rivalry between Rugby and Soccer was heated in England in the 1870s during the early years of the Football Association. They Webb Ellis mythology appeared at around this time and appears to have been based on the 30+ year old memories of an old boy. Tellingly, the first FA cup had a set of rules including handling and when the rules were updated for the second season (probably by the enthusiastic administrator, Charles Alcock), to more closely reflect the non-handling Winchester game, many of the inaugural clubs dropped out, to return several years later as members of the initial Rugby Union. I don't think any code can legitimately be determined as first, all the differences are somewhat fine threads that are lost in the midst of time.

[@gnomevoyeur]

PS - I'm somewhat dismissing the 1845 written rugby code as it is so different to modern Rugby. It's much more closely aligned with the 1858 rules of Australian Football.

[@goodmaro]

@@gnomevoyeur I disagree with that overall judgment, although there were some points of similarity. What does seem to have been cribbed from Australian football, not from 1858 but later, was Gaelic football. However, the traces of the rivalry between rugby and soccer still show up as the RFU's adoption of "laws of the game". Until then rugby football had been played by "rules", but since the Football Association had gotten highfalutin establishing "laws", the RFU must've felt they had to keep up.

[@rich45davis]

big up my family from Rugby.

[@SkaldfraNorden]

Why is the outro guy American? It's just....wrong

[@Trajan2401]

Yes i doubt it was as simple as a boy picking a ball up and running with it the Georgians have a game similar to rugby called Lelo that they've played for centuries

[@ntsakomathebula4840]

So

[@yamkelasaleni4742]

The South African Springboks are Rugby World Cup Champions btw.

[@User47HD]

Soccer became Rugby, like a boy becomes a MAN.

[@Namadadi_iddi]

I wonder about American football now😂

[@mochabear88]

neat

[@user-ev9oe7db5h]

🇿🇦❤

[@thembelanihdlamini5395]

Rugby is a place in England 🤣

[@patrickad3065]

Everything the athletic touches turns to tabloidic garbage. This video was entirely too brief to serve a purpose.

[@zytrik1]

Rugby football is related to association football? Wow, who would have thought 🙄🤦‍♂️

[@mitchhak2]

A Webb gets famous for something he didn’t do...hmm...

[@eamonncduffy]

Do rugby league please

[@realchestro2986]

🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🙃

[@jyefrancis4980]

first?

[@Snookbone]

Shut up

[@edsonmakiyi71]

And then they taught the South Africans how to play it,,, 😊 biggest mistake they ever did

[@d.b.cooper1]

Was going so well till that bloody yank accent ruined the ending

[@blindbunker777]

Did u know that Rugby DIDN'T evolve from football champ? William Webb Ellis never picked up the ball & ran with it because it was never on the ground in the first place ffs. Check Tony Collins research & get an understanding of a topic before failing it from ur opening line.

[@NhlanhlaMathe]

Then a country in the southern most tip of Africa would go on to be the greatest rugby nation the planet has ever seen 🏆🏆🏆🏆

[@joelmonteiro1419]

I love the boks but you guys sure as cocky. You have every right to be but the History of rugby is still being written.

[@NhlanhlaMathe]

@@joelmonteiro1419 as of present day, South Africa is a juggernaut of the sport... I'm sorry these facts make upset, Joel.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

@@NhlanhlaMathe they don't upset me, the Boks are my favorite international team after Portugal.

[@NhlanhlaMathe]

@@joelmonteiro1419 So what's cocky about stating facts?

[@sinclairwhitbourne2090]

I think New Zealand might question 'the greatest rugby nation' and they have the record against SA to use as a basis - 106 games between the two sides, NZ have won 62 and SA have won 40. However, SA have 4 RWC's and NZ have 3. I think it is fair to say that SA and NZ are the two historically dominant sides, with other sides comparatively having moments where they have interrupted but not overturned that dual dominance. So, Australia between about 1980-2003 interrupted the duopoly (and for some of that time the disgrace that was apartheid saw SA excluded); the English side of roughly 2000-2007 was another one to disrupt. Some of the French sides have been very good (especially that of about 1986- 1999) and the Welsh side of the 1960's and 70's was pretty sensational. The sport is in a pretty good place right now, in the sense that it is probably more evenly competitive than has been common, with SA, NZ, France, Ireland all being pretty much of a level, with Scotland and England (and possibly Argentina - a remarkable rugby story in their own right) on their day being not far off and then another step down to sides like Fiji, Oz, Wales, Samoa, Tonga, Japan. Those Pacific Island sides would be extraordinary if they were not subject to something resembling neo-colonialism. Congratulations on doing the sensational and winning the RWC 2 tournaments running, something only NZ have also done.

[@BoereViking]

Ahhh Rugby, like American Football but for men...

[@alanfox691]

Over simplicittion buy yourself there.

[@NIDELLANEUM]

*Gentlemen, Rugby is a gentleman's game

[@Snookbone]

Feel free to come join my team at training and see how you get on

[@pacevoez1929]

and more simple

[@jmill3147]

Funny how whenever rugby players try to catch on the NFL they flame out within a year.

[@danielemerson312]

William Webb-Ellis was, according to contemporary accounts, much keener on Cricket and a pretty accomplished player. That origin myth was just the first of the lies that the code has swathed itself in over the decades. And that's before we get to Rugby Union's enthusiastic cosying-up to some of the vilest regimes of the 20th century. The French using the invading Nazis in the 1930s to help eliminate sports they saw as competition, Peter Howard (the England Rugby Union captain) being the leader of the gang of racist thugs that Oswald Mosley (leader of the British Union of Fascists) hired as protection and Rugby Union's close association with apartheid and the Afrikaner-Broederbond in South Africa, among others. And yet few sports have tried to claim some form of moral superiority as often. Except maybe golf.

[@sakariatangeni6203]

Racist now

[@joelmonteiro1419]

...how?

[@mphomothle5430]

Stick to football bro. Rugby ain’t for you.

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

Football is way better ⚽️ ❤

[@matteotc]

Worst sport In history

[@AfricanCorn-np8jt]

Said by a soccer fan

[@Snookbone]

It's alright, you can admit the Laws are too complex for you.

[@thurmanmerman2720]

I never understand why soccer fans are so insecure that they have to constantly attack all the other forms of football.

[@denok411]

Soccer fans only know and play soccer, don't have diversity and complexity of life

[@SenuraKumara-ii5rq]

​@@AfricanCorn-np8jt Real football ⚽️ is way better

[@Musydid911]

Proof Rugby isn't a real sport.

[@ibdean1873]

Trying to spin up some controversy with this video title? 🤣 I feel like it didn't quite land the way you wanted it to with 100k views