Historiy and Rugby

Like every great sport, Rugby Union brings with it its own history, legends, and heroes. One such legend relates to the sports very founding in 1823.

William Webb Ellis, a school boy (predictably) attending Rugby School, is first accredited to playing rugby while at recess. As so many historical sites proclaim, a witness states that the young Ellis “took the ball in his arms and ran with it”, separating “Rugby” from sports like soccer, that mainly utilize feet. The International Rugby Board (IRB) now recognizes the World Cup champions with the William Webb Ellis Trophy.

From there, rugby was quickly adopted by many different schools as well as groups of men looking to form clubs. National teams began to play against each other in the 1860’s, developing now well-known rivalries, such as those between England and France and Australia and New Zealand.

For someone just entering the sport, it may seem as if rugby lacks the conventional histories and rivalries of a traditionally American sport such as baseball or basketball. In reality, however, these currents reside just beneath the surface of American rugby. Americans in particular should be both proud of their rugby heritage.

Did you know that the USA won the Rugby Union event at the Olympics in both 1920 and 1924?

This fact in particular should spark your interest in the history of rugby. When the Olympics later ceased to recognize the sport as “Olympic” (a point of frequent controversy), American teams ceased their development of the sport. Now though, with renewed interest in the game, many Americans have the opportunity to engage in this legacy and bring American rugby back to par with the rest of the world.

Once again, my post ends with some suggestions: I encourage you all to read the more detailed versions of rugby history at the MSN Encarta site or at RugbyFootballHistory.com. Become familiar with rugby’s great players, games, and events. And of course, go make some history of your own.

Note: Most references for this post were taken from the aforementioned web-sites, as well as usarugby.org.

Other Rugby Cups

In the wake of the enthralling and exhilarating World Cup, you may feel slightly depressed, bored, and downright sore (that is, if you played in it). The apathy that follows a momentous event, whether in sporting or in another arena often leaves people depressed, looking for something else to which they may dedicate their time. For instance, the new release of the Backstreet Boys album "Unbreakable" has left me with many of these feelings.

But on to more relevant things.

While the World Cup may be over, there are still many tournaments to look forward to in the coming months. Indeed, things can only get better for rugby, a sport that now garners over 3 billion viewers. So here are a few of the largest tournaments and their breakdowns for you and other your friends.

The Tri-Nations Tournament is a competitive series of games including Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The games are held every summer, and have been since around 1996. Recently, countries like Fiji, Tonga, and Argentina have been trying to join the fray. The cup is exciting and traditionally New Zealand has taken home the title.

The Six-Nations is another very aggressive rugby tournament, with teams coming from England, France, Ireland, Wales, Italy, and Scotland. The tournament is held every spring so as not to conflict with the Tri-Nations. The tournament was previously called the Five Nations, until Italy joined in 2000, which begs the question as to why the governing rugby bodies keep titling their tournaments after such transient numbers.

Look for more tournaments on Wikipedia's list.

If you're really itching to see some rugby, don't lose hope! There are plenty of places you can find rugby on television. In fact, for many of these games you can watch online. If you go to my Rugby World Cup post and follow the instructions you may watch these games over the web for free. But don't forget, rugby is always much better live. Go to my post on Rugby in Durham, North Carolina, or check out USA Rugby. The world awaits.

A Controversy of Style

Within the last decade there has been an ongoing argument between teams that play "good" rugby and "bad" rugby. This controversy is directly related to teams' usage of their forwards and backs.

"Good" rugby is the classical rugby style that involves more finesse among the backs and a great fitness level for players. The emphasis is on ball control and strategy. Forwards are used to retain the ball while backs complete offensive moves.

"Bad" rugby is a recent development within the sport calling for larger players that do not have as much fitness and do not play smartly, simply running into the opposing team and being as brutal as they can. Forwards are used as the main offense, crashing the ball constantly. This type of rugby, ironically, leads to fewer points as players cannot run and pass well enough to score tries and are forced to kick drop-goals for points.

This is not to say that rugby players may not be large and strong, but rather that they should have a firm commitment to fundamentals such as passing and running.

Going into the finals the South Africa has used the qualities of "good" rugby while England have been guilty of subscribing to "bad" rugby techniques. Springbok Coach Eddie Jones says, "'At the end of the day I love rugby, and I don't particularly like the way it's been played over the last three or four years". Sports writer Wynne Gray of the New Zealand Herald says that Jones' is critical of "Bash, grunt and kick rugby" because it has not enhanced the sports' image.

Others, including the French national team, recently knocked out of the tournament say that they want South Africa to win "because their style of play is more spectacular than England. " As another sports writer for the Herald writes of the French players,

"They believe a South African win is vital for the health of the sport in general, and the World Cup in particular, with the English side having come under fire for their reliance on force rather than flair."

Rugby is a sport of dominance, but it is also a sport of friendship. Teams will generally play hard against each other and then hold social events after the games. If teams continue to use "bad" rugby techniques, however, this amity may disappear. Lets play good rugby and keep it a sport "played by gentlemen".

The Final is Nigh

This weekend could prove to be one of the finest of the decade for rugby players and fans alike. On Friday, October 19th France and Argentina compete in the consolation match for third place. Then, on Saturday England and South Africa showdown in a monumental battle for the World Cup championship.

Tensions are high. Not many people in the rugby community would have predicted that England, ranked only 6th coming into the world cup, would have made the championship. English player Jonny Wilkinson has, for his second world cup shown himself to be the world's best goal kicker, scoring point after triumphant point against the opposition (on a side note, Jonny will also become the highest world cup point scorer if he makes just five points in the next game). South Africa, ranked 3rd in the preliminaries have played consistently and deserve to be where they are at. The crucial points in the game will be whether South Africa's strong forward pack will be able to oust the heavy English defense, and whether Jonny will be able to overcome the immense pressures the Springboks (South Africa) will present to him.

More than the pressures of the game and the what the teams stand to gain from their performances though, the World Cup final should help bring rugby players and fans together like never before--in front of their televisions. As Stuart Kemp and Georg Szalai of The Hollywood Reporter write,

"In a statistic that might surprise people outside traditional rugby hotbeds, the Cup's worldwide TV audience exceeded 3 billion four years ago. Although shy of the most recent soccer World Cup (30 billion for all matches) and Summer Olympics (4 billion), it's still No. 3 on the list, For perspective, the Super Bowl in February drew about 100 million global viewers (with 93 million in the U.S.)."

With this kind of viewer-ship one may ask why this tournament is largely unheard of in America? If the above excerpt is valid, then this may not be the case for long. Other sports and busy commitments are not a valid excuse for not watching this once-every-four years tournament.

Rugby is a social game, and as such we should try to spread not only the sport, but also the camaraderie associated with it. I encourage you all to watch the game this weekend. If you look at my post entitled Rugby World Cup you can learn how to watch games online for free. What I am suggesting then, is completely free. Invite some friends over, watch the game. Have a good time. Learn Rugby.

The game will be held on Saturday, at 8:00pm English time and 3:00pm US Eastern time. If you don't know how to convert just go to the Time Zone Converter. Also, to buy a jersey or other paraphernalia simply follow the link to the right for World Rugby Shop. Get fired up.

Will South Africa be the second team in history to hold two World Cup titles, or will England do the same and better to become back-to-back two time champions? Also, voice your opinion by voting to the right. I offer you the tools to watch the game: take advantage of them.

Go England. Go South Africa. Go Rugby.

Notable Rugby Blogs

Recently I've been looking at other rugby blogs for inspiration and have found a few notable writers and web-sites. The set of links titled "Other Rugby Blogs" in the right-hand column showcases a few of these sites. I encourage you to look at them if you are interested in learning more about the game. About: Rugby, The Rugby Blog, and both the World Cup blogs are particularly good for World Cup commentary while USA Rugby Blog offers some an analysis on the future of rugby in the United States. One of the most interesting blog I have come across so far has been the Rugby Tips blog, written by Scott Donaldson.

Rugby Tips blends several aspects of rugby and blogging that highlight some powerful elements of both activities. Although some things about the site are not user-friendly, overall the blog is informative and provocative for the reader.

Donaldson does a very good job of making his posts meaningful in that they ask questions to the reader and the greater rugby world while simultaneously offering forth suggestions about the game and its implementation. For instance, the recent post titled Lets Raise the Stakes Between Tournaments asks why teams like England and France don't "play the way they did last night, all the time?" Donaldson then suggests that international matches during the regular year should be deciding factors in determining which pools teams are divided into for the World Cup. This, he reasons, would increase competitiveness and interest in the game through rivalry because the matches would actually have an effect on World Cup pool placement.

Rugby Tips is also humorous in a non-biting way, which truly reflects the rugby ethos. When describing New Zealand's recent loss to the French national team, Donaldson imagines the Kiwis (Residents of New Zealand) "searching for both answers and new hobbies with cross stitch, poetry and playing bridge as the safest options" since they no longer have a team in the World Cup for which they may cheer. At first this may seem scathing, but for Donaldson, who currently resides in Wellington NZ, it can be seen as nothing more than a chide to his neighbors (I too am guilty of chiding a few of my Kiwi friends).

The blog also exhibits some largely unexplored uses of blogs in its use of audio commentary on rugby. Readers can learn about the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, while perusing the articles.

Some flaws in the blog do exist in the poor formatting of the page. The initial view of the blog is somewhat uninviting to readers, probably turning at least a few prospectives away.

Once again, I encourage you all to explore the vast world of rugby by using the links to the right. If you would like to share your favorite rugby web-site or blog, post a comment.

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is here!

Much in the style of the Soccer World Cup, every four years the best nations in the world bring their rugby teams together to decide on the World Champion. The Rugby World Cup began in 1987.

Rugby competitions like the World Cup have two rounds; the preliminaries and the knock-out round. In the preliminaries teams are divided into pools, where they play round-robin until everyone has played everyone else. Teams with the best records are then seeded into the knock-out elimination round, where they advance until only one team is left.

Past Rugby World Cup winners are:
1987, Auckland: New Zealand 29, France 9
1991, London: Australia 12, England 6
1995, Johannesburg: South Africa 15, New Zealand 12
1999,Cardiff: Australia 35, France 12
2003. Sydney: England 20, Australia 17.
Original article can be found at http://goaustralia.about.com/cs/eventsfestivals/a/rugbyhistory.htm

***To watch World Cup games live for free, simply do the following:***

1) Download SopCast.

2) Look at the schedule of games at http://myp2p.eu/Other.htm.

3) Click the links and enjoy! Other links for the World Cup are at the bottom of this page.