In 1843, a young student named William Ebb Ellis at Rugby school in England, seemingly tired of the restrictions placed on him during a traditional game of association football, picked up the ball and ran with it down the field. While Ellis had violated the golden rule of football, that it is illegal to touch the ball with one’s hands, the students and staff at Rugby were intrigued by the prospect of a game which involved carrying, rather than dribbling with, the ball. The result was the game we now call Rugby. By 1845, a set of rules had been developed. Large goal posts were erected on the school’s playing field, and it was decided that players who touched the ball down over the goal line would be permitted a try at goal, and would receive points for successfully kicking the ball over the cross-bar which lay between the posts.
The game of Rugby quickly increased in popularity. More schools, and later private clubs, were intrigued by the sport and leagues began to develop. The school’s invention was even exported to Canada. There are records of the sport being played at Trinity College in Montreal by the 1860s. A number of other Canadian universities followed suit and a league, played according to Rugby school rules, developed during the 1860s.