Rugby Football facts
While investigating facts about Rugby Football, I found out little known, but curios details like:
There's an Italian sport called Calcio Storico that is a combination of rugby, football, and bare-knuckle fighting. It's known as the 'most violent sport' in the world.
About one of the rarest plays in (American) football: The "Fair Catch Kick". After a team calls a fair catch, they can opt to attempt a free kick from the spot of the catch to try for a field goal. Adapted from Rugby, only 24 recorded regular game attempts with 6 successes.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 32 of the best facts about Rugby Football I managed to collect.
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American football is based on "rugby football" and soccer is based on "association football". Both of them are called "football" because they were played on foot as opposed to horseback.
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The term "soccer" was coined as an abbreviation of "Association Football," to distinguish from "Rugby Football," and was used internationally. It wasn't until the late 1900s that England and Australia began to use "football" commonly, and America never changed its name for the sport.
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Many of the national sports teams of New Zealand have nicknames that are base off of their Rugby team, the All Blacks. Some of these team names include the DiamondBlacks (baseball), IronBlacks (football), Tall Blacks (basketball) and Black Cocks (Badminton).
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Lucozade sponsors many teams and athletes including the McLaren Formula One team, the Republic of Ireland Football Team, the England Football Team, the England Rugby Football Union, the FA Cup, the FA Premier League, the Amateur Rowing Association, Ben Wynne, Ronan O"Gara, Damien Duff, Steven Gerrard, and Michael Owen.
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Sports that are popular in the Irish culture include Gaelic football, soccer, hockey, rugby, and hurling.
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Rugby involved two teams of 15 players each. The object of the game is to run or kick the ball across the opponent's goal or kick it up and through the posts. It is similar to football but there is no forward passing or time-outs.
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Sports that commonly result in concussions for athletes include basketball, hockey, rugby, football, and soccer.
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Speedgate - the world's first sport generated by artificial intelligence. It is described as a mixture of soccer, rugby, and football. The AI generated a complete set of rules, with the end goal of scoring points by kicking or passing a ball through a gate at either end of a field.
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Rugby was invented in 1823 when a student at Rugby School in Great Britain playing football (soccer) broke the rules and picked up the ball to run it past the goal line.
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The word "soccer" originated in England in the late 19th century. They used it to refer to association football and "rugger" to refer to rugby football.
What is true about rugby football?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
There is an Italian sport called Calcio storico Fiorentino that combines rugby, football and wrestling/mma.
The first NBA game and the first American rugby style college football game were both played in Canada - source
"soccer" was actually concocted by the Brits to differentiate Rugby Football and Association Football. It was a trend then to add "-er" thus soccer. - source
Aston Villa FC was started by a church and their first match was against a rugby team. They played ruby rules for the first half and football rules for the second!
When the Rugby Football Union formed in 1871, Wasps' representative missed the meeting, reportedly because he went to the wrong venue and got drunk. - source
In the United Kingdom there is a full day of Premier League football (soccer in North America) on Boxing Day. Rugby, hockey and even horseracing are also popular Boxing Day sporting events.
There is a sporting event held annually in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Italy called Calcio Fiorentino, an ancient form of football that is essentially rugby, but with a whole bunch of dudes just mercilessly beating the crap out of each other.
In 2013, Leeds United (football) had a manager named Brian McDermott and a 25 year old winger named Ryan Hall. At the same time, Leeds Rhinos (Rugby League) had a manager named Brian McDermott and a 25 year old winger named Ryan Hall
Soccer is a British term coined to differentiate two competing forms of Football: Rugby and Association. In countries where Rugby is more popular, Soccer is used. This includes America, where Rugby evolved into US Football.
Calcio fiorentino AKA calcio storico is an ancient Italian game similar to American football, rugby, and MMA all rolled into one.
