Rugby football is a contact team sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 19th century. In contrast with association football, rugby football is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a match is played between two teams of 13 players. In most of the world, the sport is known simply as “rugby,” although in North America it is commonly called “football” (by contrast, association football is commonly called “football” in the rest of the world and “soccer” in North America).
In 1845, the first football laws were written by pupils at Rugby School. Rugby and association football developed largely in tandem until the Football Association outlawed handling the ball at their first meeting in 1863, creating a permanent cleavage between the two sports. A further split within the rugby community, over the question of amateurism, was averted in 1895, when a meeting of the Rugby Football Union voted to allow professionalism. (The question of professionalism would remain a live one in other countries, however, with New Zealand not having a unified league until 1905 and the United States not until 1933.) The last major rules change occurred in 1920, when the northern and southern hemisphere codes were equalized, with northern hemisphere teams adopting certain southern hemisphere rules such as 13-a-side play and a maximum of six tackles before possession is turned over.
Rugby spread around the Home Nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and was embraced by many other countries, particularly those which were members of the British Empire. Notable early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and France. The sport also gained popularity in the United States after the banning, in 1909, of gridiron football as a result of a spate of deaths on the field. Other countries where the sport is popular include the Commonwealth of Independent States, Madagascar, Argentina, Japan, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
International matches have been held since 1871. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1947, is contested every four years. The tournament was originally contested in a round robin format over the course of the English domestic season, with matches being played at a variety of grounds around the United Kingdom. Ahead of the 1967 tournament, agreement was reached with the American rugby authorities for them to send a team and the competition format was changed to one featuring a pools stage and a simple-knockout stage which would be held in a single country over the course of about a month.
Aside from the World Cup, the other major international tournaments are the British Lions tour, the European Championships, the Six Nations and the Big Game. The European Championships are a knockout tournament contested between England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, France, the CIS and the Soviet Union. The Six Nations is a round-robin tournament contested between New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea, Zulu-Natal and Argentina. The Big Game is an annual match contested between the American and Canadian teams. The British Lions are a team made up of players from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland who tour a country in either North America or the southern hemisphere every four years. The major domestic competitions include the Super League in England, the Celtic League in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Latin League in France and Italy, the National Rugby League in the CIS and Soviet Union, the National Football League in Canada and the United States and Super Rugby in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea. More minor domestic professional leagues include the Currie Cup in Zulu-Natal, the Championship in Argentina and the Top League in Japan.