Rugby football is a type of football, a team sport which developed in the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom, and which later split into the modern sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Rugby football started at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where the rules were first put down in written (codified) form in 1845. The School's students had been playing football, with limited ball-handling allowed, since at least the early 1820s. Forms of football in which the ball was carried and tossed date to the Middle Ages (see medieval football). Rugby football spread to other English public schools in the 19th century and across the British Empire as former pupils continued to play it.
Rugby football split into two codes in 1895, when twenty-one clubs from the North of England left the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (renamed the Rugby Football League in 1922) at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, over payments to players who took time off work to play ("broken-time payments"), thus making rugby league the first football code to turn professional and pay players. Rugby union allowed professional players one hundred years later, in 1995. The world governing bodies are World Rugby (rugby union) and the International Rugby League (rugby league).
Canadian football and American football were once considered forms of rugby football but, after significant rules changes, are not now. The governing body of Canadian football, Football Canada, was known as the Canadian Rugby Union as late as 1967, more than fifty years after the sport parted ways with rugby rules.The first rules of the Melbourne Football Club in 1859 (now Australian rules football) were devised from the footballers' experiences playing rugby football the previous winter.
Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two forms rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the desire among the northern clubs to make the rules simpler and more attractive to paying spectators meant that the rules of rugby league were modified, including reducing teams from 15 to 13 players, removing the line-out and replacing the ruck with the play-the-ball, resulting in two distinct sports.
The form of rugby played at the Olympic Games is rugby sevens, based on rugby union, and organised by World Rugby. Each team has seven players on the field at one time, playing seven-minute halves. The rules and pitch size are the same as rugby union. Rugby league sevens and nines are similar short forms of rugby league.
Global expansion and professional era
Rugby football, in both its union and league forms, has expanded significantly beyond its origins in the United Kingdom and is now played worldwide. Rugby union has experienced substantial global growth through international competitions such as the Rugby World Cup, while rugby league has developed strong regional followings in countries including Australia, England, and Papua New Guinea.
The professionalisation of rugby union in 1995 marked a major turning point in the sport's development, leading to increased investment, global broadcasting, and the expansion of professional leagues across Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). In 1892, after charges of professionalism (compensation of team members) were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union (NU), was formed. The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, and officials involved in the new organization. After the schism, the separate clubs were named "rugby league" and "rugby union".
Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by the first tier unions: England, New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, Italy, France and Japan. Second and third tier unions include Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Namibia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, the United States, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. Rugby Union is administered by World Rugby (WR), whose headquarters are located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the national sport in New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Georgia, Wales and Madagascar, and is by far the most popular form of rugby globally. The Olympic Games have admitted the seven-a-side version of the game, known as Rugby sevens, into the programme from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 onwards.
The premier international competition is the Rugby World Cup. There are major domestic professional leagues in several countries.
Rugby league is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a global level by the Rugby League International Federation. In addition to amateur and semi-professional competitions in the United States, Russia, Lebanon, Serbia, Europe and Australasia, there are two major professional competitions—the Australasian National Rugby League and the Super League. International Rugby League is dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand, though Tonga and Samoa have threatened this hegemony regularly since 2017. In Papua New Guinea, it is the national sport. Other nations from the South Pacific and Europe also play in the Pacific Cup and European Cup respectively.
The premier international competition is the Rugby League World Cup, which is contested quadrennially. The premier international club competition is the World Club Challenge, which is contested annually in February. Currently there are two major domestic professional leagues globally:
Wales (currently no teams, part of system)
Both major codes of rugby—rugby league and rugby union—share several distinctive characteristics that set them apart from other types of football. One of the most notable features is the use of an oval-shaped ball, which influences the style and flow of gameplay. Another defining rule in both codes is the strict prohibition of forward passing. This means that players are not allowed to throw the ball ahead to a teammate; instead, they must either pass the ball laterally or backward. As a result, teams can only advance toward the opponent's try line by running with the ball in hand or by kicking it strategically. Additionally, in contrast to American and Canadian football, athletes in both rugby union and rugby league do not wear protective gear or armor such as helmets or heavy padding. The physicality of the sport is managed through technique, rules, and discipline, rather than through the use of extensive protective equipment.
The two rugby codes differ as the result of changes made to the rules of rugby league. League implemented these changes with the aim of making a faster-paced and more try-oriented game than rugby union.
The main differences between the two games, besides league having teams of 13 players and union of 15, involve the tackle and its aftermath: