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Playing with balls, part 3

By Mrs Trellis of North Wales
July 17 2015

Part three of Mrs Trellis's history of the game brings us up to the formation of the RFU in 1871.

Codification Part 2

Other Schools' Rules

Different versions of the carrying game were played in schools such as Rugby, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Marlborough and different versions of the kicking game were played at Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and Westminster.

Rugby School for example had developed Rugby football from football and played this game according to Rugby rules. The question as to why the game of Rugby School became so popular in preference to the games of other schools, such as Eton, Winchester or Harrow was probably largely due to the reputation and success of Rugby School under Dr. Arnold, and this also led most probably to its adoption by other schools; for in 1860 many schools besides Rugby played football according to Rugby School rules.

During the middle of the 19th century, Rugby Football, up till that time a regular game only among schoolboys, took its place as a regular sport among men. The former students of Rugby school (and other Rugby playing schools such as Marlborough School) started to spread their version of football (Rugby School rules) far and wide.

A former pupil, Arthur Pell, founded a club at Cambridge University in 1839. The Old Rugbeians challenged the Old Etonians to a game of football and controversy at the Rugbeians' use of hands led to representatives of the major public schools (Rugby, Eton college, Harrow, Marlborough, Westminster and Shrewsbury) meeting to draw up the 'Cambridge Rules' in 1848.

To begin with, men who had played the game as schoolboys formed clubs to enable them to continue playing their favourite school game, and others were induced to join them; while in other cases, clubs were formed by men who had not had the experience of playing the game at school, but who had the energy and the will to follow the example of those who had had this experience.

In the Autumn of 1857, Frank Albert Mather, who had recently left Rugby School, wrote to his friend Richard Sykes the Captain of Football at Rugby School inviting him to take part in a game of football in Liverpool and bring with him one of the balls in use at the school, made by Linden a Rugby bootmaker. The game was arranged for Saturday the 19th December 1857 on the Liverpool Cricket Ground at Edgehill. Fifty players arrived and they decided to play Rugby versus the World. Liverpool club was founded there and then. ô

Dick Sykes was born in Edgeley Park (now Alexandra Park) and spent the next eighteen months in Heidelberg, Paris, and Geneva but returned in 1860 to found the Manchester club, the fourth FC. Richard Sykes was the first captain but owing to a lack of opposition they only played 2 or 3 games a year. Sykes trained players on the Western Cricket ground, Pendleton assisted by Major White of the 84th regiment of foot, then garrisoned at Ashton-under-Lyne, and other Rugbeians. He remained captain until 1867 by which time a home ground had been established in Whalley Range. Sale FC was the fifth FC founded in 1861 and their early rulebook - the Minute Book of 1865 - was created stipulating the ten rules to be followed by all players. This is now the world’s oldest existing rugby rulebook and a much treasured possession at the Clubhouse.

Cambridge Rules (Association Football)

In 1863 a meeting was held in Cambridge where a ban was placed on "Hacking", "Tripping" and Blackheath's preference, "running with the ball in the hands towards the opposite goal after a fair catch".

A separate meeting was also held in the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London, with eleven schools and clubs supporting the kicking and handling codes present. They drew up common rules by which they could play each other, however, after they had reached a compromise a number of the attendees recanted and ended up adopting the Cambridge rules (which precluded running with the ball). Blackheath subsequently withdrew from the football association as it was then called. Henceforth there was a split between Association football (soccer) and Rugby Football (rugby).

Even those who supported the Rugby code were not in full agreement regarding the rules. Blackheath for example did not agree with "Hacking". A letter, which appeared in the press in 1866, revealed that Richmond also were wanting to remove this feature of the game. In the end both clubs refused to play any team that supported "hacking". The result was that "hacking" disappeared from club games even though it remained at Rugby School for a few seasons more. The Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871 and immediately made "hacking" and "tripping" illegal.

The formation of the RFU

The Rugby Football Union was founded in the Pall Mall Restaurant in Regent Street, Charing Cross, London to standardize the rules and removed some of the more violent aspects of the Rugby School game. The meeting was initiated by Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Club, who submitted a letter to the newspapers which read: "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play".

The 21 clubs that attended the first meeting chaired by the club captain of the Richmond Club, one E. C. Holmes, included Harlequins, Blackheath, Guy's Hospital, Civil Service, Wellington College, King's College. Wimbledon Hornets and St. Paul's School which are still playing today. Other clubs now defunct, or playing under other names, were the picturesquely named Gipsies, Flamingoes, Mohicans, Marlborough Nomads, West Kent, Law, Lausanne, Addison, Belsize Park, Ravenscourt park, Clapham Rovers, and a Greenwich club called Queen's House.

Many famous provincial clubs, founded before 1871, were not founder members of the Rugby Football Union, though, of course, they became members later; among these were Bath, Sale, Manchester, and Liverpool.

One famous name that was missing, though, was the London club Wasps. Somehow they managed to send their representative to the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong day but another version of the story was that he went to a pub of the same name and after consuming a number of drinks was too drunk to make it to the correct address after he realized his mistake.

 

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