Linha de Ensaio travelled to the past to discover the origins of rugby

Article by: Nuno Madeira do O

Since medieval times that games have been played where the objective was to make an object (usually, the bladder of a pig filled with air) and cross a line drawn on a pitch or to arrive to a certain spot. These matches used to take place between two different cities, usually on Shrove Tuesday, and they have been reported since the 12^th century.

With time, game evolved and moved from the streets to English all-boys, private schools. The rules were simple: there were side lines on the pitch and the ball could be handled by both foot and hand, however, running whilst holding the ball was not allowed. To move on the pitch, one had to kick the ball forward. Matches could go for as long as five days and teams could have 100 players, each!

How was rugby born?

The year was 1823. The place? Rugby School, named after the town it was in, in the county of Warwickshire, England. The legend goes that a game of medieval football was being played and that William Webb Ellis, instead of kicking the ball forward like the rules indicated, took it in his hands and ran until the finish line, scoring what would be the first try of the history of the sport.

This new sport started being played more frequently and was named after the place where it was born: rugby football. Twenty-two years later, the official rules of the match were established and in 1851 the first rugby ball was created by William Gilbert, a shoemaker in that town.

In the 19^th century, rugby was seen as a way to make gentlemen out of men, due to its teamwork, bravery, selflessness and self-control. These were traits seen as ideal at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, that founded the first rugby clubs.

How did it carry on?

When students left school, they lost the opportunity to play rugby, with the exception of the matches between alumni and last-year students that happened once a year. This was the trigger for the creation for the first rugby clubs: University of Dublin (Ireland, 1854), Blackheath (England, 1858) and Edinburgh Academics (Scotland, 1858).

The first international match took place in 1871 when England played Scotland. In that same year, the first rugby union was created – the Rugby Football Union (England). Ireland, Scotland and Wales created their own unions in 1880.

In Portugal:

Rugby arrived to Portugal in the 20s of the last century and the Rugby Association of Lisbon (RAL), entity that ruled the sport in the country, was created in 1926. However, the sport wasn’t played consistently until the 50s, when the first official competitions started.

In 1958, RAL was replaced by the Portuguese Rugby Federation and the first national championship was played in 1958/59 with the club Os Belenenses grabbing the fist title. Portuguese rugby grew a lot during the late 80s, culminating with Portugal qualifying to the World Cup 2007, in France.

At the moment, there are about 70 rugby clubs in Portugal and the sport is attracting more and more fans each day.