The history of rugby dates back year 1823. It was then, on April 7, William Webb Ellis disregarded the rules of a modern football, taking the ball in his hands and ran with it by pitch. The athlete was then punished for breaking the rules, but is now recognized as the symbolic founder of a new game, so just rugby.
It is worth to clarify that William Webb Ellis is recognized as the symbolic founder of rugby, because the beginnings of the sport we should look back in medieval times and, according to some scholars, even in antiquity. Many people looks for the roots of rugby in ancient Greece, which was very popular game was "arpaston". Later, the Romans adopted it, giving it name "Harpastum". In ancient, the game ball was from a pig bladder, which was filled with a straw. It was given from hand to hand, stopping an opponent was possible, for example, by tearing, choking and clinging to it. In the Middle Ages a game resembling rugby was popular in France and England, and later in Italy. Over the centuries the rules of the game were often adapted to conditions in the venue of games. In the mid-nineteenth century, on paved pitches restricted to the conduct the ball by foot, while on the fields covered with grass played using hands. The sport became popular in the late nineteenth century.
It is a very brief history of rugby. It is worth to read the detailed description of the history of this sport, because the history of its development is really interesting.
