Rugby Football

(or "rugger")
Rugby Union (15-a-side) is played strictly by amateurs while Rugby League (13-a-side) is played by professionals. Rugby Union is played all over Britain. National teams representing England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France compete in a yearly championship before huge crowds. Rugby is certainly a much rougher game than soccer. Nowadays rugby is more than just a different way of playing football. Modern rugby owes its name to Rugby Public School (where in a form of soccer match in 1823, William Webb Ellis "with a fine disregard for the rules... first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game"), and the first Rugby clubs were set up by former public school-boys. At its foundation in 1863 the Football Association ruled against "the carrying code"; Rugby Union developed separately.