Portal:Rugby union/Intro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rugby union (often referred to as just rugby or union, and in some of the southern hemisphere countries as football or footy) is a variant of rugby football. Rugby union is played by teams with 15 players. The name comes from the name of the game's original governing body, the Rugby Football Union. It is one of several codes of rugby football, the others including rugby league, rugby sevens and touch rugby.

Like other forms of rugby football the game was developed from the rules used to play football at Rugby school in England. The crucial differences from football (soccer) are that in rugby the ball is a prolate spheroid instead of a sphere and that the players are allowed to pick the ball up and run with it. The players are also allowed to throw the ball from player to player, but unlike American football they are not allowed to throw it forwards; ie the ball must only go sideways or backwards.

Rugby union was invented in the town of Rugby, England in 1823. It has established itself as a major global sport, especially popular in New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Australia, Argentina and South Africa. Rugby is also gaining popularity in Italy, following its acceptance into the Six Nations and Japan, despite their unsuccessful bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which went to New Zealand.