Rugby is one of the most popular sports watched both live and on the television alongside football. It is one of the many older sports played and is still taught to pupils in secondary schools across the country today. Rugby players both amateur and professional keep themselves in peak physical condition and this includes improving their stamina and strength as well as their rugby technique. This includes watching Rugby Training drill Videos
Here are some interesting facts about the sport of rugby.
Origin
It is thought that rugby was first invented at Rugby School in the UK in 1823 and was bought about when William Webb Ellis caught the a during a football match and decide to run to the goal with it in his hands. Back in the 1th Century the games of football played in the schools often had their own rules and it was only when schools played against each other that any formal rules were established. No-one can either confirm or deny whether Ellis was the one who first invented the games of Rugby but the sport recognises this as a truth by the winner of the Rugby Union World Cup being presented with a trophy aptly named the Webb Ellis Cup.
An oval shaped ball
We have all come to know the iconic shape of a rugby ball but in the past the ball was more spherical in shape partly due to the fact that they were made in the same way as footballs – from pigs’ bladders that were then inflated by mouth. There were numerous fatalities from inflating the pigs bladders and were usually as a result of blowing air into a unknown diseased bladder. It was hard to determine what sort of shape would form after the badder had been inflated. A technology moved on and it was possible to make synthetic bladder inserts it became possible to define the shape of the rugby ball as more of an oval shape. Over the years the shape has become more flatter in style as this is to enhance the ability to be able to catch, maintain hold of a run with the ball compared to a standard round ball.
One special whistle
The opening of every Rugby World Cup tournament is indicated by the blowing of the same whistle. Named after the first-person to use the whistle the Gil Evans whistle was first used by the referee in 1905 in a match between New Zealand and England. It was also the whistle that was used at kick off for the Paris Olympics in 1924.
