Rugby History

Do you know how the rugby ball became an oval? Well up until the 1800’s people would use a raw pigs bladder for a rugby ball! Do you know what a pigs bladder is? It is where the pigs urine is! It is unhygienic and also had a disgusting smell! Even thought it was a nonstandard size they would still use it. Once they had got the pigs bladder they would wash it then put their mouths around the hole and blow air into it. But sometimes the would use a pipe. Then that’s what they used for a rugby ball.


In England at a school called Rugby School there was a boy named William Webb Ellis. One day while playing soccer he picked up the ball, in fine disregard for the rules, and ran to get a try. That was the day rugby was born, well sort of.