According to legend, in 1823, the school held a soccer match, when the game was very intense, in which a 16-year-old boy named William Webb Ellis (William Webb Ellis), because of the score is behind, in the heat of the moment, he picked up the ball on the ground on the opposing team's goal to run. Later in the school's soccer games, running with the ball in his arms was a common occurrence. Although at the time this action violates the rules of soccer, but gives people a new revelation, this phenomenon of running with the ball, to the game added a fierce competition against the atmosphere, over time will be accepted by the people, become a legitimate action. In this way, a new, conducive to the overall development of the body, has a high exercise value of the sport, rugby, gradually derived from the soccer game.
But historians have since scrutinized the story and found it to be false, but the legend is so powerful that it has taken hold of people's hearts and minds, and today there is a stone tablet at Rugby School that reads: "This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis. of William Webb Ellis." "This stone commemorates the courageous actions of W. W. Ellis".
Even Rugby football's highest honor, the Rugby World Cup trophy, is named after Webb Ellis and is known as the Webb Ellis Cup.
After 1839, the sport was gradually developed at universities such as Cambridge and the Graby Club was established in succession.
In 1871, the English Rugby Football In 1871, an English rugby union was formally established, which often played matches, and since then, English rugby was soon introduced to Europe and the United States. 1890, the International Rugby Organization was established, and in 1906, an international rugby tournament was held in France. Since then, English rugby has been played in many countries, and has continued to change, with many countries creating their own rugby sports, the most famous of which is American soccer (American Football). There are 94 countries in the world where rugby is played, and the highest international organization is the International Rugby Board (I-R-B), which is made up of the four domestic associations of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, plus three foreign associations in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa; its main task is to formulate the rules of the game and the policy for the development of rugby.