The Entirely Serious History of Rugby, Part 3: The Rugby Football Union and rules

As we all know from Part 2, clubs that played rugby football wanted no part of the Football Association and carried on playing their game while the FA and its new rules moved inexorably towards gobbing off at referees, diving and David Beckham. 

However, a few short years later, the differing rules that still existed in rugby football were causing havoc among teams travelling to play each other, with each club having their own subtle variations.  Much like playing pool in pubs now, areas of discrepancy had to be clarified beforehand because, as anyone attempting two-shot carry somewhere other than their local knows, the consequences of such confusion could be argument and violence.  So it was that in 1870, Edwin Ash of the Richmond club posted a letter in the newspapers stating, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play."

On January 26, 1871 this meeting occured, attended by representatives from 21 clubs at the Pall Mall Restaurant, Charing Cross and it founded the Rugby Football Union.   The clubs in attendance were: Blackheath, Richmond, Ravenscourt Park, West Kent, Marlborough Nomads, Wimbledon Hornets, Gipsies, Civil Service, Law Club, Wellington College, Guy’s Hospital, Flamingoes, Clapham Rovers, Harlequin F.C., King’s College, St Paul's, Queen’s House, Lausanne, Addison, Mohicans, and Belsize Park.  Some of these are still playing in the top flight today, and I for one am gutted that Flamingoes, Mohicans and Gipsies are not in the Guinness Premiership.

A notable absentee is Wasps.  The story goes that their representative went to the wrong pub, had a few and was too bladdered to find the right venue; a location-confusion tradition they continue today by calling themselves London Wasps despite being based in High Wycombe, 40 miles away.

Following this meeting rules were drawn up and formally ratified in June 1871.  To prove that rule changes are not a modern phenomena these ones were also subsequent to change -  the original ELVs were in 1877 when the number of players was reduced from twenty to fifteen. The original scoring system was very different also, with no points at all for a touchdown, this simply earned you a "try" at kicking for goal to "convert" it to points, hence the terminology that has persevered to this day, well beyond its logical use. 

In 1892 the oval ball became the compulsory shape, the game having previously been played with a mix of round and oval;  and in 1893 tries (3 points) became worth more than conversions (2 points), establishing the game firmly as the one we recognise today.  (As an aside; tries were increased to four points in 1971, which is much later than I imagined.)

NEXT TIME: "The Great Split", aka "Some northeners get the arse about not getting any money".

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