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RUGBY THE GAME 
During a game of football on an autumn day in the year of 1823, on a ground called the Close at Rugby School, Warwickshire, one William Webb Ellis, then a 16 year old pupil of the school, ‘with a fine disregard of the rules ….first took the ball in his arms and ran with it’
Until Webb Ellis’s definitive act, the game of football had included handling the ball, but no one had been permitted to run with it in his grasp towards the opposite goal. Progress forward by kicking, hacking and what today might be described as an enormous rolling maul involving up to sixty players. In 1820 the game was played a bit like soccer but you were allowed to catch the ball and kick it out of your hands.
There were no limits to the number of players on each side. In 1839, when Queen Adelaide visited the School, School House played ‘The rest’ (75 boys against 225). Sometimes games would last up to five days.
Legend has it that Baron de Coubertin is said to have been inspired to invent the modern Olympic movement by reading Tom Brown’s Schooldays at the age of 13 and then in the 1880’s visiting the School where he found the myth of Dr Arnold still very much alive.
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Today, Rugby football is a game played and enjoyed around the world. The Rugby
Football World Cup 2007 is being held in France. The William Webb Ellis Cup is awarded to the winning nation. |
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| The Ann Conroy Trust is delighted to be associated with: |
The symposium is organised by The Ann Conroy Trust
Registered Charity No 510582
Support, research & education for sufferers & carers of
syringomyelia & associated conditions
Contact:33 Southam Rd, Dunchurch,
Rugby, Warwickshire, CV22 6NL, England
Tel: 00 +44(0) 1788 537676
Fax: 00 +44(0) 1788 569996
Email: admin@syringomyelia2007.org
www.theannconroytrust.org.uk
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The University of
Birmingham |
The Society of British Neurosurgeons |
Spine Society of Europe Neurosurgeons |
Rugby School |
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