WILLIAM
WEBB ELLIS - DID HE PICK UP THE BALL?
Sean Fagan of RL1908.com
Many
texts and articles say that rugby was invented
in 1823 at Rugby School with schoolboy William
Webb Ellis picking up the football in a soccer
match and running with it - thus giving birth
to rugby football.
Here is what the Rugby School plaque states:
THIS
STONE
COMMEMORATES THE EXPLOIT OF
WILLIAM WEBB ELLIS
WHO WITH A FINE DISREGARD FOR THE RULES
OF FOOTBALL
AS PLAYED IN HIS TIME
FIRST TOOK THE BALL IN HIS ARMS AND RAN
WITH IT
THUS ORIGINATING THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE
OF
THE RUGBY GAME
A.D. 1823 |
From the above plaque we can readily discern that
a new feature (running forward with the ball)
appeared in the Rugby School version of football
in 1823.
However, for that to be so, the Rugby School version
of football must have been been in existence before
1823. What year rugby football was first played
is now impossible to tell - it clearly was not
born in 1823.
Interestingly, the plaque does not state that
Ellis picked the ball up from the ground.
Indeed, Rule 8 of Rugby School (in the first documented
laws of 1845) still expressly prohibited a player
from picking the ball up and seeking to run ahead:
Running in is allowed to any player on his
side, provided he does not take the ball off the
ground, or take it through touch.
Once
the ball was on the ground all that could be done
was to kick it - picking the football up from
the turf was still illegal decades after Ellis
had left the School.
Putting
aside arguments as to whether the deeds of Ellis
are a myth, the "distinctive feature"
he allegedly originated was running forward towards
the goal line after taking a catch.
The
rules of Rugby School in 1823 allowed players
to catch the ball, and to run backwards, but not
to run forwards and attempt to score a try.
Ellis
did not pick the ball up from the ground in a
soccer match. Soccer was not born until 1863 with
the formation of rules at the founding of the
Football Association.
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