СИНГИДУНУМ

First association of rugby clubs was founded in 1871 in London in a restaurant Pall Mall and was called Rugby Football Union. Word football remained in the name because from 1863 to 1871 rugby developed under the Football Association. RFU gathered 21 clubs from England, most of which still exist. From the day it was founded, RFU insisted on amateur principles. First international game was played on 27 March 1871 in Edinburgh between Scotland and England. The very next year, the first game between Oxford and Cambridge was played. Very soon after, games on national levels were played in Britain. One of most famous tournaments, Six Nations Cup initially started as a cup of four nations (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) when in 1910 France joined, and in 2000 Italy. In the first game of this cup in 1883 England defeated Scotland. The competition, except the interruptions during the two wars, is held even today.

In the early stages of rugby as a sport, there was one big dominating problem. The pioneers of rugby, gentleman and industrials who were finishing colleges and had better education were higher class by the social structure imposed at that time. They had a lot of money and a high social status. They thought that rugby should remain amateur.

Another social class, people without education, poor people and blue collar class, demanded that rugby should become professional sport. This problem came up regarding Saturday’s wages. Workers, most of them working in mines in the North of the country, had to work on Saturdays, and that was a game day. The problem occurred when workers lost their wages if they had played the game, and according to amateur rules they couldn’t be paid for playing the game. This problem was solved when RFU split on 29 August 1895. The group of clubs that supported refunding founded their own association Rugby League, while amateur principles remained firmly in RFU. The principles remained for more then hundred and twenty years, and only ten years ago did the World Rugby Federation abolish the amateur principles. In order to make a game different from RFU, Rugby League decreased the number of players from 15 to 13 and simplified some of the rules. That is why colloquially Rugby League competition is often referred to as Rugby XIII in our country.

Rugby XV was in an Olympic Games program in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924. The biggest popularity rugby has in England, France, Italy and Romania; and therefore these countries had greatest results in international competitions. Until 1987 the competition was called Webb Ellis Cup, when it was renamed into World Rugby Cup. Since 1987 competitions are held every four years. Two countries usually host the event, with one country being main host, where most of the games are played, and another subsidiary. Rugby Union Three Nations Series is an international competition annually played between Australia, New Zealand and South African Republic. First competition was held in 1996 and was won by New Zealand.