Rugby is a team contact sport born in England. Rugby is very popular in the British Isles and other Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the former British colonies of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as in France and Italy. It is also widespread in other countries of the European continent, especially in Portugal, Spain and Eastern European countries such as Romania, Georgia or Russia. In the Americas rugby is practiced mainly in Argentina, where it has great roots and whose selection has achieved third place in the World Cup played in France in 2007. It is also practiced in other countries, such as Canada, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and a little less in Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. In Africa it is popular, because of South African influence, in Namibia and Zimbabwe, and because of French influence in Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, and Morocco. Because of Australian and New Zealand influence, rugby is also a popular sport in some Pacific islands such as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, all of them cradles of internationally outstanding players. In Asia, the most prominent team is Japan. In January 2008, 95 national unions were recognised by the International Rugby Board, the federative association that regulates this sport in the world.
Some surprising facts about Rugby
- Rugby was first invented in 1823 at the Rugby School when W.W. Ellis accidentally picked up the ball in his hand and continued to run with it in an ongoing football game.
- Although rugby balls today are oval in shape, they were decades ago shaped like plums because they were made from the bladder of pigs, which gave them their distinctive shape.
- The first reference to the game of Rugby in the Oxford Dictionary was made in 1852.
- Rugby is seen primarily as the Rugby Union or the Rugby League. Although the game consists of running the ball over the line and scoring a goal, the rules of the game are different in each case, respectively.
- The first time a national anthem was sung before sports was Rugby. In New Zealand, the famous Haka dance takes place before the match. It is a war dance that is supposed to intimidate the players of the opposing team and gives the team vigour and enthusiasm to win the game.
- After every four years, Rugby World Cup tournaments are held for the celebration of sports. The first official tournament was organized in 1987 by Australia and New Zealand and the winning team turned out to be New Zealand.
- Touch Rugby is another type of rugby, but it is played without the use of tickets, scrums, lineouts, rucks or even kicks.
