Chapter 4 The original game

History abounds in references to ball games, such as harpastum, camp-ball, or hurling to goals, which had features now recognised as belonging to soccer or to rugby. Most games combined handling and kicking, and in some, such as the game at Scone, kicking was actually forbidden. In general, we should not be asking when carrying the ball was first allowed, but when it was first banned.

However the boys at Rugby School in 1820 would not have been aware of any historical precedents for their game, so we should look a little closer at the version they were playing. Here we can safely start with Matthew Bloxam's own memories:

"When all had assembled in the Close, two of the best players in the school commenced choosing in, one for each side. [...] After choosing in about a score on each side, a somewhat rude division was made of the remaining fags, half of whom were sent to keep goal on the one side, the other half to the opposite goal for the same purpose. Any fag, though not chosen in, might follow up on that side to the goal of which he was attached. Some of these were ready enough to mingle in the fray; others judiciously kept half-back, watching their opportunity for a casual kick, which was not unfrequently awarded them. Few and simple were the rules of the game; touch on the sides of the ground was marked out and no one was allowed to run with the ball in his grasp towards the opposite goal. It was football and not handball, plenty of hacking but little struggling. As to costume, there were neither flannels or caps, the players simply doffed their hats, and coats, or jackets, which were heaped together on either side near the goals till the game was over."

In those early days the game was controlled entirely by the boys themselves, and it was governed by custom rather than written rules. As the Rev. Thomas Harris (of whom more later) wrote of the late 1820s: "Our Laws in those days were unwritten and traditionary, so that I can give no authority beyond custom."

There are some exercise books extant that record discussions of Bigside Levees, at which such matters were argued, but the first known written rules date from 1845. Until then the game was handed down from one generation to the next, and, like the children's games you can observe in primary schools today, each generation felt free to modify the rules as they thought fit, careless of what previous generations had decided or what future generations might think.

Most of the other descriptions of the early game come from after the time of WWE, and will be considered later. One thing at least is crystal clear: running with the ball was not permitted in 1820, whatever the historical precedents elsewhere.

Page updated 15 August 2002 by Peter Shortell