The Rugby School in England is perhaps the most important educational institution in the history of sports: it was the place where Rugby football was born.
The sport allegedly invented in 1823 by William Webb Ellis later branched out into the world, giving birth to not only rugby but association football, too. And many other sports that are closely related to it.
While not the most followed sport in the world (that distinction belongs to association football) rugby football is popular enough for it to make it to an online casino. UK-based developer Microgaming even launched a slot machine to honour its fans ahead of the UK’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup in 2015. The game was a homage to the sport itself, not any national team, and was one of the most-played games at Spin Casino around the time of its release.
But the family of ball sports born at the Rugby School has several offshoots that are closely related to the sport that bears its name, played locally in countries around the world.
Back in the 19th century, the two ‘serious’ sports in Australia were horse racing and cricket, with football being considered a mere ‘amusement’. That until 1858, when the first official football games were organized at - and between - Melbourne private schools. The first official rulebook of Australian football came to be a year later, based on which today’s Aussie rules football was created. The most visible difference between rugby and Aussie rules football is the field - the latter is played on an oval field, often a repurposed cricket field.
The AFL is Australia’s wealthiest sports organization, and Aussie football matches are the highest-attendance sporting events in the country.
Gaelic football is not based on or inspired by the games invented at the Rugby school but they probably have a common ancestor - this is reflected by the many similarities in these sports. Unlike rugby, though, Gaelic football is a strictly amateur sport, with players and officials prohibited from receiving payment in any form.
Gaelic football has been officially codified in 1887 when the Gaelic Athletic Association was formed to promote traditional Irish sports and to reject ‘imports’, especially English sports.
International rules football is a team sport born out of the effort to merge the rules of Irish and Australian football, so the teams playing them can play representative matches against each other. The first IR matches were played in 1967 in a tournament organized by an Irish-born Melbournian and former AFL (then VFL) umpire Harry Beitzel.
The rules of IR are a combination of Gaelic football and Aussie rules football, with the former contributing the shape and size of the field, while the latter, the possibility to tackle by grabbing between the shoulders and thighs, among others.
