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2 min
Rugby World Cup: discovery of the cradle of the oval
This Friday, October 27, England and Argentina will compete in the small final of the Rugby World Cup, a sport which was invented 200 years ago in the English town of Rugby. – (France 2)
This Friday, October 27, England and Argentina will compete in the small final of the Rugby World Cup, a sport which was invented 200 years ago in the English town of Rugby.
200 years ago, this small English town unknowingly bequeathed its name to the history of sport. Rugby (United Kingdom) then became the birthplace of a new discipline. On the grounds of this 500-year-old school, a young student, William Webb Ellis, would change the course of the game during a football match in November 1823.”We are standing where William Webb Ellis took the ball in his hands and started running towards the goal, instead of kicking back, as was the rule at the time“, relates Peter Green, director of the Rugby School.
Webb Ellis Trophy
The transgression becomes popular with his classmates and then with other schools. Rugby was born. A local invention that is the pride of Rugby. The city even erected a statue in honor of the student, ball in hand of course. To understand the legacy left by young Webb Ellis, we must follow in the footsteps of Jenny Hunt, the school archivist. In this small museum, it preserves the relics of what was not yet called rugby. Caps, jerseys, photographs and above all the first rules of sport, written in 1845 by three students of the school. The Webb Ellis Trophy has been awarded to World Cup winners since 1987.