Rugby the game that divided a nation Siaffreporer or oday iv English WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE RUGBY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WITH A RATHER PROVOCATIVE VIEW OF THE SPORT’S CREATION ... ‘Any British man will tell you that his What the British actually did was to country invented all the world’s most establish rules for certain games that popularsports football, tennis, squash, had been played in different ways all golf. all of them, True, he will admit, _overthe place for centuries ~games we his compatriots are not very good at nowknowas football and rugby. these games an Englishman has not The British, being big on discipline, ‘won Wimbledon, for instance, since invented referees’, basically. But this shorlly’ after the last ‘was nevertheless a good mammoth died — but itis idea because it enabled" ‘an unquestionable moral teams from different victory to have had the villages (and nowadays idea inthe first place. different countries) to Cricket, Formula One, play each other without hockey, ping:pong~all of the game degenerating them, do youhear? into a fight. Most of What? We didnt invent the time American Football, you say? Of course ‘we did! American Football isjustabas- A SPORT FOR RICH SCHOOLBOYS OR tandized’ version of rugby with sly’ THEWORKING CLASS? costumes, and who invented rugby.eh? But the Elis myth offers fascinating ‘Thats rght-we dd! insight into Bish society, and largely explains why rugby ~ although played UP UNTIL 1823, NO HUMAN HAD EVER ow in 60 countzes around the world — THOUGHTOFPICKING UPTHEBALL has never been as popular as football Rugby was invented by a boy caled in the 19th century, Britain had m Webb Elis in 1823 at Rughy seven major “public schools that had School hence’the namerughy-when for centuries been educating aristo he picked up the ball (an inflated pigs craic children. Six of them played bladder duringa game of football and forms of fotbal, while the seventh ~ ran with it Up until 1823, no human Rugby played a game where the ball had thought of picking up theball. could be picked up ‘Okay.itdoessound improbable.The In 1861, the six other schools held a truth, historians now say, is that the conference and decided onthe offical practice ofplayingsportswithaninfat- rules of what they subsequent called ed pig bladder datesatleastto Roman Association Football (or soccer. times. So somebody probably had Theirhope was to crete a national picked itup before William Webb Eli league of football teams, with diferenttowns playing each other. Which, of ‘course, is what happened. However, there was a problem. To their horror, the sport rapidly came to be dominated by working-class players and teams, which hadnit been the idea at all. So ‘when, in 1871, anew conference estab- lished the official rules of Rugby Football, the organizers were deter mined not to make the same mistake. PROPAGANDA AND MYTHS: A CLASS WARDIVIDES THE GAME INTWO To this end they decide thatthe game could only be played by amateur Sportsmen. This made italmostimpos- sible forthe working clases to play or watch rugby — the games were played on Saturday afternoons when they were Supposed tobe at work. Footbal teams paid their players, thus’ reimbursing them for missing work but rughy teams were told" they cai affort to play, they should go without the game” ‘national agument” ensued! be "tween the gentlemen of the Rugby Football Union and those who LITEDED ciaimed that rugby was a wadi- tional spot thatthe aristocracy had no right to contol That was wy in 1875, te Rugby Football Union created the myth of Wiliam Webb Es “inventing the game in 1823. It was propa- ganda in the class war, and commpletely untrue Ulimatly the dsputeled:0a schism in the world of rughy — the working-class teams stupa fival game, Rugby League, in which players could be pros Sona, while Rogby Union con The tension betwen the wo stopped rugby from becoming the serious rival to football that it might have been. More than one hundred years later, the spit sill exists and Thugby League isnot considered “real rugby’, even though Rugby Union has, in recent years, abandoned its amateur principles. ‘Afr the seven schools... well, they all play rugby, of course. i