What Is Rugby

In this rugby for beginners guide.

What is rugby.

Internationally the pinnacle of the sport lies in the rugby world cup. Dates times and channels for live rugby union on sky sports including six nations heineken cup aviva premiership internationals rugby championship. Rugby is a fast skilled team oriented game combining the tactical complexity and physical brutality of american football only without the padding with the continuity and pace of soccer and the scoring rate of lacrosse. Rugby is one of the most physical of sports.

Rugby football is a sport people play in many countries. It is usually called rugby or rugger. Rugby football game played with an oval ball by two teams of 15 players in rugby union play or 13 players in rugby league play. Legend has it that one day in 1823 a senior boy called william webb ellis elected to run with the ball rather than retiring to kick it as was the normal mode of play in rugby school football matches.

Canadian football grey cup still has rugby football written on it and to a lesser extent american football were also broadly considered forms of. Rugby is a dynamic and free flowing game featuring a combination of strength speed and strategy. Usa rugby oversees four national teams multiple collegiate and high school all american sides and an emerging olympic development pathway for elite athletes. Rugby football is a collective name for the family of team sports of rugby union and rugby league as well as the earlier forms of football from which both games association football australian rules football and gridiron football evolved.

Both rugby union and rugby league have their origins in the style of football played at rugby school in england. The official website of the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the united states of america. According to the sport s lore in 1823 william webb ellis a pupil at rugby school defied the conventions of the day that the ball may only be. Find the latest rugby news schedules and video on the rugby world cup six nations premiership rugby sevens world series and more from nbc sports.

Usa rugby is charged with developing the game on all levels and has over 125 000 active members.