By Mrs Trellis of North Wales
July 3 2015
And here's part 2 of Mrs Trellis's history of the game...
The invention of Rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game or the acts of a certain Webb-Ellis (true or not), but rather the events which led up to its codification. Like so many sports which originated from Victorian England it was competition, the sense of fair play and the subsequent need for rules and laws which allowed the game to develop on a global basis and spawn internationally.
The game of football as played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1823 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the oppositions goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul.
The innovation of running with the ball at Rugby school was introduced some time between 1820 and 1830.
If William Webb Ellis was responsible for this innovation as stated in an account by a M. Bloxham, it was probably met by vigorous retribution but by 1838-9 Jem Mackie, with his powerful running, made it an acceptable part of the game although it was not legalized until 1841-2 initially by ìBigside Leveeî and finally by the first written rules of August 28th, 1845.
i. FAIR CATCH is a catch direct from the foot.
ii. OFF SIDE. A player is off his side if the ball has touched one of his own side behind him, until the other side touch it.
iii. FIRST OF HIS SIDE, is the player nearest the ball on his side.
iv. A KNOCK ON, as distinguished from a throw on, consists in striking the ball on with the arm or hand.
v. TRY AT GOAL. A ball touched between the goal-posts may be brought up to either of them, but not between. The ball when punted must be within, when caught without the line of goal: the ball must be placed-kicked and not dropped, even though it touch two hands, and it must go over the bar and between the posts without having touched the dress or person of any player. No goal may be kicked from touch.
vi. KICK OFF FROM MIDDLE, must be a place.
vii. KICK OUT must not be from more than ten yards out of goal if a place-kick, not more than twenty-five yards, if a punt, drop, or knock on.
viii. RUNNING IN is allowed to any player on his side, provided he does not take the ball off the ground, or take it through touch.
ix. CHARGING is fair, in case of a place kick, as soon as a ball has touched the ground; in case of a kick from a catch, as soon as the players foot has left the ground, and not before.
x. OFF SIDE. No player being off his side shall kick the ball in any case whatever.
xi. No player being off his side shall hack, charge, run in, touch the ball in goal, or interrupt a match.
xii. A player when off his side having a fair catch is entitled to a fair knock on, and in no other case.
xiii. A player being off his side shall not touch the ball on the ground, except in touch.
xiv. A player being off his side cannot put on his side himself, or any other player, by knocking or throwing on the ball.
xv. TOUCH. A player may not in any case run with the ball in or through touch.
xvi. A player standing up to another may hold back one arm only, hold one arm only, but may hack him or knock the ball out of his hand if he attempt to kick it, or go beyond the line of touch.
xvii. No agreement between players to send the ball straight out shall be allowed on big side.
xviii. A player having touched the ball straight for a tree, and touched the tree with it, may drop from either side if he can, but the opposite side may oblige him to go to his own side of the tree.
xiv. A player touching the ball off his side must throw it straight out.
xx. All matches are drawn after five days, but after three if no goal has been kicked.
xxi. Two big-side balls must always be in the Close during a match or big-side.
xxii. The direction of sending into goals rests with the heads of sides or houses.
xxiii. No football shall be played between the goals till the Sixth match.
xxiv. Heads of sides, or two deputies appointed by them, are the sole arbiters of all disputes.
xxv. No strangers, in any match, may have a place kick at goal. Deputies may be allowed to act by the head of the School-side, at the Sixth match.
xxvi. No hacking with the heel, or above the knee, is fair.
xxvii. No player but the first on his side, may be hacked, except in a scrummage.
xxviii. No player may wear projecting nails or iron plates on the heels or soles of his shoes or boots.
xxix. No player may take the ball out of the Close.
xxx. No player may stop the ball with anything but his own person.
xxxi. Nobody may wear cap or jersey without leave from the head of his house.
xxxii. At a big-side, the two players highest in the school shall toss up.
xxxiii. The Island is all in goal.
xxxiv. At little sides the goals shall be four paces wide, and in kicking a goal the ball must pass out of the reach of any player present.
xxxv. Three PrÊpostors constitute a big-side.
xxxvi. If a player take a punt when he is not entitled to it, the opposite side may take a punt or drop, without running if the ball has not touched two hands.
xxxvii. No player may be held, unless he is himself holding the ball.
Mr Bloxam was a student at Rugby School at the same time as Webb-Ellis but left some years before him. His account of what someone else witnessed (probably his brother) is the only evidence on which the story is based.
A boy of the name Ellis — William Webb Ellis — a town boy and a foundationer, .... whilst playing Bigside at football in that half-year [1823], caught the ball in his arms. This being so, according to the then rules, he ought to have retired back as far as he pleased, without parting with the ball, for the combatants on the opposite side could only advance to the spot where he had caught the ball, and were unable to rush forward till he had either punted it or had placed it for some one else to kick, for it was by means of these placed kicks that most of the goals were in those days kicked, but the moment the ball touched the ground the opposite side might rush on. Ellis, for the first time, disregarded this rule, and on catching the ball, instead of retiring backwards, rushed forwards with the ball in his hands towards the opposite goal, with what result as to the game I know not, neither do I know how this infringement of a well-known rule was followed up, or when it became, as it is now, a standing rule.
Whilst village football for the common man was being suppressed, notably by the 1835 highways act which forbade the playing of football on highways and public land (which is where most games took place), it did find a home in the schools around the country.