Rugby’s key point and its evolution in France

Sport is an integral part of our life. In each country there are the most common disciplines and in the case of France we talk about rugby. Though the game is pretty simple, let’s better puzzle out the main aspects.

The origin of the sport of rugby

Even though the sport’s origins are much more ancient, the history of rugby dates back form 1823. The legend says that while playing football William Webb Ellis, a college boy at College in England, grabbed a ball with both hands and carried it over the opponent’s goal line, violating the rules of football. This form of the game and the rules developed soon spread out and the first clubs were established.
Rugby’s history became official when the rules of the game were established in 1871. Since the discipline became the national sport in Britain and its colonies before arriving in France.

Later in the same year the Blackheath Club made up the first national federation, the Rugby Football Union, to finally distinguish rugby from football. The RFU initially brought together 20 clubs. Under this newly created organization, Scotland and England faced each other in Edinburgh, in the first, an official international meeting.

As the time went on the RFU gradually adopted various rules to improve the game, including suppressing certain dangerous kicks, allowing hand-offs and reducing the number of athletes from twenty to fifteen persons, for instance.

History of rugby in France

In France, the first club was created in 1872. Then, a very important organization called The Union of French Sports Sports Unions (USFSA) was founded in 1889. The first international match of the French team took place in 1906.
Later during the first Five Nations tournament, France faced Wales at Welsh Stadium in Swansea and lost by a score of 49-14. They also lost to the other three competitors in the tournament: Scotland 27-0, Ireland 11-3 and England 8-3.
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) was created in 1920 and separated from the USFSA.
In 1934, France after being excluded from the championship turned to Germany, Italy and Romania to establish FIRA, the European Rugby Association.
The staging point in French sporting history to pay attention to is that the Five Nations tournament became a Six Nations tournament with Italy entering competing.

Nowadays the discipline in France keeps on developing and more and more young athletes prefer building a professional sport career in the niche. Along with men’s discipline, women’s rugby is highly spread and supported in almost any province of France. To find the competition to visit not so much efforts you need to make. France is a world-known epicenter as well as Great Britain, that’s why many first-class players hail from here.

A little about the sport or the rugby essence

The aim of the game is, of course, to score more points than the opposing team. According to the rules of the games, points can be scored in different ways:

1. due to the flattening of the ball against the ground in the opponents’ end zone);
2. due to passing the ball between the posts, over the crossbar, on a spot kick or on a drop kick, especially when an opponent is awarded with a penalty.

General rules to know before playing rugby

As a rule, the team, who can possess the ball, may select the strategy to advance ahead by throwing or holding the ball and attempting to pass into the opponents’ camp by running. The ball may be passed to another athlete provided the pass is not forward. According to rugby rules, any player of the attacking team who comes across the ball and the opponents’ goal line is offside. A throw-in parallel to the goal line is considered to be the extreme boundary beyond which there is a forward, that’s a mistake which may be penalized by a scrum or even a penalty. The opposing crew may try to stop a player carrying the ball by catching it with the help of hands and throwing it. The player being picked up must actually pass or release the ball, allowing the ball to be returned.

The types of penalties to be applied

Some mistakes, such as offside or a wrong tackle, are punished by a penalty. The penalized team must move at least 10 meters away from the penalty spot and the opposing team has the choice of trying to score, kicking and benefiting from the throw-in or even taking the ball in their hand after an easy kick and following to set up regular play.

Not so grave mistakes may be punished by a penalty kick, which does not award a goal. Opponents removed by 10 meters can also attack the kicker on his first impulse. The kicker is also penalized for minor mistakes, such as a let-off or an incorrect throw-in. In this case it’s considered to be what is a ‘close’ or ‘orderly’ scrum, in which eight forwards from one team link up and face off against eight forwards from the opposing team in a push off to win possession of the ball.

You can be faced with a so-called spontaneous or open scrum, that is an action in which at least two athletes come together to bind the one carrying the ball and the one receiving it. The joining athletes must remain on their feet. Rugby rules also provide for a yellow card to punish for some violations by temporarily suspending a player for 10 minutes. The last option to be applied is the right of the referee to award a try to shoot a goal, based on the opponent’s foul.

Rugby or football – what is going to be on the TOP in France?

It’s quite difficult to answer properly. As both sports were constantly compared throughout history, there is no wonder why football as well as rugby gained enormous popularity in France. Today the situation is rather equal, so each French athlete or spectator is free to choose what to prefer.