Some have tried to trace the origins of these games to the 6th century Roman sport of Harpastum, also known as Harpustum (also later on in Florence, Italy known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino ("Florentine kick game") or simply calcio ("kick"). The official rules of calcio were published for the first time in 1580 by a certain Giovanni Bardi. Just like Roman harpastum, it was played in teams of 27, using both feet and hands. Goals could be scored by throwing the ball over a designated spot on the perimeter of the field. The playing field is a giant sand pit with a goal running the width of each end. There is a main referee, six linesmen and a field master. Each game is played out for 50 minutes with the winner being the team with the most points or 'cacce'.
Athenaeus wrote : "Harpastum, which used to be called Phaininda, is the game I like most of all. Great are the exertion and fatigue attendant upon contests of ball-playing, and violent twisting and turning of the neck. Hence Antiphanes, "Damn it, what a pain in the neck I've got." He describes the game thus: "He seized the ball and passed it to a team-mate while dodging another and laughing. He pushed it out of the way of another. Another fellow player he raised to his feet. All the while the crowd resounded with shouts of Out of bounds, Too far, Right beside him, Over his head, On the ground, Up in the air, Too short, Pass it back in the scrum."
Galen, in On Exercise with the Small Ball, describes harpastum as:0 Bm94b8} gx38Lkg or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time, and costs nothing." He also considered it " profitable training in strategy", and said that it could be "played with varying degrees of strenuousness."
So Harpastrum was apparently a Ro%a|~le*7eHm a Greek game called Phaininda whose name was derived from the Greek word “to pretend,” as players elaborately tried to prevent the other team from intercepting a ball by deceiving them through a series of fake passes. The Romans conquered Greece in 146 BCE so it is fair to estimate that the Romans discovered the Greek versions of the games shortly after that date. Mind you, others have argued that the Romans learnt this games from the Far East, from China or even Japan, and so it goes on.
I guess we can be certain that ever since man learned to walk on two legs he was tempted to kick, throw and catch objects for his own enjoyment.
...anyway back to Rugby.
Codification
The invention of Rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game or the acts of a certain Webb-Ellis (true or not), but rather the events which led up to it's codification. Like so many sports which originated from Victorian England it was competition, the sense of fair play and the subsequent need for rules and laws which allowed the game to develop on a global basis and spawn internationally.
The game of football as played at Rugby School (Rugby, England) between 1750 and 1823 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the oppositions goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul.
The innovation of running with the ball at Rugby school was introduced some time between 1820 and 1830.
If William Webb Ellis was responsible for this innovation as stated in Mr Bloxam's account, it was probably met by vigorous retribution but by 1838-9 Jem Mackie, with his powerful running, made it an acceptable part of the game although it was not legalized until 1841-2 initially by Bigside Levee and finally by the first written rules of August 28th, 1845.
Mr Bloxam was a student at Rugby School at the same time as Webb-Ellis but left some years before him. His account of what someone else witnessed (probably his brother) is the only evidence on which the story is based
Rugby school 1859, note the number of players (Credit: rugby school)
Picture taken from similar angle (Oct. 2006)
Whilst football for the common man was being suppressed, notably by the 1835 highways act which forbade the playing of football on highways and public land (which is where most games took place), it did find a home in the schools around the country.
Rugby Rules
Different versions of the carrying game were played in schools such as Rugby, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Marlborough and different versions of the kicking game were played at Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and Westminster.
Source: Rugbyfootbalhistory
