The Rugby World cup starts on 8 September 2023. 10 things you might not know about rugby:
Historians believe that a game similar to rugby was played in ancient Rome. The game the Romans played was called Harpastum, a Latin word derived from the Greek term for seize.
Rugby as we know it began with a schoolboy flouting the rules of Football. This occurred at Rugby school, and the boy in question was called William Webb Ellis. He picked up the ball and charged at the other team’s goal with it. Rather than give him detention for cheating, the school created a new sport with its own set of rules.
The Rugby World Cup trophy is called the William Webb Ellis trophy in his honour. Webb Ellis went on to win a Blue for Cricket at Oxford and became an Anglican clergyman.
Today, rugby balls are made from rubber tubes. The ball’s distinctive shape makes it aerodynamic, easy to hold, and easy to pass over distances. In the early days, though, rugby balls were made from Pigs’ bladders, inflated and tightly stitched. Making them cost one woman her life. Rebecca Lindon, wife of Richard, who owned the leather shop making those early balls, died from an infection contracted from the pig bladders she was blowing up.
Rugby became an Olympic sport in 1900, but hasn’t been played at the games since 1924 when the USA won gold and are therefore the reigning champions.
At time of writing there have been 9 Rugby World Cups. New Zealand have won 3, South Africa have won 3, Australia have won it twice, and England have won once, and hence are the only Northern Hemisphere team ever to win.
The same whistle is blown at the start of the first game in every world cup tournament. It’s the one used by Welsh referee Gil Evans for an England-New Zealand match in 1905.
The largest rugby stadium in the world is Twickenham Stadium in London, which has a capacity of 82,000 people.
The first international rugby match was between Scotland and England in 1871 at Raeburn Park in Edinburgh. Scotland won 1–0 by converting a try.
The Haka, a traditional dance of Maori People, was first performed by New Zealand Rugby Team The Natives in 1888 to demonstrate their pride, strength, and unity.
Character birthday
Clive Crowley, a teacher at Rathbone Academy. He appears in Obsidian’s Ark.
Obsidian's Ark
Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.
Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.
Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?
When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?
Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.
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