Somerset County Rugby Football Union
The first authentic Somerset County XV made its appearance in the 1875/76 season when a match was played against Devon at Taunton. The game was very different from the one we know today. The teams usually changed in a pub and walked to the ground. The referee carried a flag and was assisted by two umpires. Heeling back in a scrum was almost unknown; the main idea was for the forwards to carry the ball on by sheer weight and strength leaving the outsides to snap up a scoring chance, generally from a pass by the halfbacks.
Times have certainly changed since then. Somerset in 2004-05 played in the third tier of County rugby competing in the County Plate Competition. Despite losing to Surrey in the final at Twickenham they have gained promotion to the second tier and will play in the CountyShield competition. Whilst there are no Premiership players representing counties there are still many players without international aspirations who think it an honour to play for the County and with their enthusiasm and loyalty Somerset will rise again.
On 6 September 1882 saw a meeting of clubs in the County held at The Clarence Hotel, Bridgwater under the Chairmanship of H G Fuller of Bath and Cambridge who was also an England international of the day. The result of the meeting was that the Somerset Rugby Union was formed.
It was in the 1890/91 season that the County Championship was established. However, it was not until 1923 that Somerset reached the final. They defeated Leicestershire by 8pts - 6 pts. Somerset also reached the final in 1935, 1939, 1984 and 1997 but have in each case have not won the final.
In season 1887-88 Somerset played against the Maoris at Wellington. In 1905-06 they played against the All Blacks at Taunton and in the following season South Africa, also at the Taunton ground. In 1908-09 Somerset entertained Australia at Taunton losing by 8 pts. In the season Somerset had the honour of supplying five members of the British touring team to New Zealand.
More than 80 players who have worn the Somerset shirt have gone on to play for their country, 60 for England and the others for Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In recent decades, amongst others, John Horton, Jon Hall, David Trick, Richard Hill, Simon Halliday, Jerry Guscott and Andy Robinson have all been Somerset players who all went on to play for England and some the British and Irish Lions. Andy Robinson of course is the current England Head Coach.
There has been a vast number of young players from County age-grade sides that have represented England at their own level. Indeed, since 2001 no less than 35 have gained international honours.
There have been administrators in the County who have gone on to serve beyond the County. W S Donne of Castle Cary, who served on the County Committee, was President of the Rugby Football Union in 1924. Alec Lewis, in addition to being an international player was later Chairman of the England Selectors and John Garland served as the first secretary to the South West Division. The County’s present representative on the RFU Council, Mike Curling, does valuable work on their Competitions Sub-Committee.
Early history
Rugby School
Playing
football
has a long tradition in England and football had probably been played at
Rugby School
for two hundred years before three boys published the first set of written rules in
1845.
The rules had always been determined by the pupils and not the masters and they were frequently modified with each new intake. Rules changes, such as the legality of carrying or
running with the ball, were often often agreed shortly before the commencement of a game. There were thus no formal rules for football during the time
William Webb Ellis
was at the school (1816-1825) and the legendary story of the boy
"who with a fine disregard for the rules as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it" in
1823 is apocryphal. The story first appeared in
1876, some four years after the death of Webb Ellis, and is attributed to a
local antiquarian and former Rugbeian Matthew Bloxam. Bloxam was not a
comtemporary of Webb Ellis and vaguely quoted an unnamed person as informing him of the incident that had supposedly happened 53
years earlier. The story has been dismissed as unlikely since an official investigation by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895. However, the trophy for the Rugby Union World Cup is named "Webb Ellis" in his honour (as is Ellis Park in Johannesburg a major international rugby
union stadium), and a plaque at the school commemorates the 'achievement'.
Rugby football has strong claims to the world's first and oldest "football club": the Guy's
Hospital Football Club, formed in London in 1843, by old boys from Rugby School. Around the anglosphere, a number of
other clubs formed to play games based on the Rugby School rules. One of these, Dublin
University Football Club, founded in 1854, has arguably become the world's oldest
surviving football club in any code. The Blackheath Rugby
Club, in London, founded in 1858, is the oldest surviving non-university rugby
club.
The schism between the Football Association and Rugby Football
The Football Association was formed at the
Freemason’s Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Lincoln Inn Fields, London October
26, 1863 with the intention to frame a code of laws that would embrace the best and
most acceptable points of all the various methods of play under the one heading of "football". At the beginning of the
fourth meeting attention was drawn to the fact that a number of newspapers had recently published the Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA
rules in two significant areas; namely 'running with the ball' and 'hacking' (kicking an opponent in the shins). The two
contentious draft rules were as follows:
- IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the
ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark he shall not run.
- X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at
liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same
time.
At the fifth meeting a motion was proposed that these two rules be expunged from the FA rules, F. W. Campbell a
member of the Blackheath Club argued that hacking is an
essential element of the ‘football’ and that to eliminate hacking would “do away with all the courage and
pluck from the game, and I will be bound over to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s
practice”. At the 6th meeting on December 8 F.W.C. withdrew the
Blackheath Club explaining that the rules that the FA intended to adopt would destroy the game and all interest in it. Other
rugby clubs follow this lead and did not join the Football Association.
1871 engraving of the game
The forming of the First Rugby Union
In December 1870 Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should
meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to
play". On January 26, 1871 a
meeting attended by representatives from 22 clubs was held in London at the Pall Mall Restaurant. As a
result of this meeting Rugby Football Union (RFU) was
founded. Three lawyers who had been pupils at Rugby School drew up the first laws of the game which were approved in June
1871.
First international game
The first international rugby union game was played at Raeburn Place,
Edinburgh on March 27, 1871 between England and Scotland. It was won by the latter, though England got revenge at the Kennington Oval, London in the following year. (See the library (http://www.scottishrugby.org/library.cfm) of the Scottish Rugby Union for details.)
The forming of the International Rugby Football Board
In 1884 England had a disagreement with Scotland over a try, with England arguing that
as they made the Law, if they said it was a try then it was. After a messy dispute which pulled in the Irish and Welsh Unions on
the side of Scotland, it was agreed with England in 1890 that in future the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), which had
been founded in 1886, would oversee the games between the home unions.
The schism between union and league
For more details see History of rugby
league
On August 29, 1895 at a meeting at the
George Hotel, Huddersfield, twenty clubs from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire decided to resign from the RFU and form the
Northern Rugby Football Union which from 1922 would be known as the Rugby Football League. The dispute about payment was one which at the time was also effecting soccer and cricket. Each game had to work out a
compromise; Rugby was the least successful at doing this. It would be a century before union became professional and would allow
players who had played a game of league (even at an amateur level) to play in a union game.
World War I
The Five Nations Championship was suspended in 1915 and it is not resumed until 1920. One hundred and thirty three international players were killed during the conflict.
Interesting times 1931 – 1947
For many years, the sport’s authorities had suspected that the govering body of French Rugby Union, the French
Rugby Federation (FRF) was allowing the abuse of the rules on amateurism, and in 1931
the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French
players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country.
In 1934 the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) was formed at the
instigation of the French. It was designed to organise rugby union outside the authority of IRB. In 1990s the organisation recognised the IRB as the governing body of rugby union world wide and became in
1999 FIRA - Association of European Rugby an organisation to promote and rule over rugby
union in the European area.
In 1939 the FRF was invited to send a team to the Five Nations Championship for the
following season, but when war was declared, international rugby was suspended. Eighty eight international rugby union football
players were killed during the conflict.
In the UK, for the duration of the World War II the ban on Rugby
League players was temporarily lifted by the RFU. Many played in the eight rugby "Internationals" between England and
Scotland which were played by Armed Services teams, using the rugby union code. The authorities also allowed the playing of two
“Rugby League vs. Rugby Union” fixtures as fundraisers for the war effort. The Rugby League team (which included some
pre-war professionals) won both matches, which were held under union rules.
After the defeat of France in 1940, the French Rugby Union authorities worked with the German collaborating Vichy regime to re-establish the dominance of their sport; Rugby League was banned
and many players and officials of the sport were punished. All of the assets of the Rugby League and its clubs were handed over
to the Union. The consequences of this action reverberate to this day; the assets were never returned, and although the ban on
rugby league was lifted, it was prevented from calling itself “rugby” until the mid-eighties, having to use the name
Jeu de Treize (Game of Thirteen, in reference to the number of player in a Rugby League side)
In 1947 the Five Nations Championship resumed with France taking part.
The Rugby Union World Cup
For more details see Rugby Union World
Cup#History
The first Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand in 1987, and was won by the hosts. The Second was held in England in 1991
and was won by Australia who beat the hosts in the final. The World Cup of 1995 proved to
be a turning point for the game. The competition was held in South Africa, newly readmitted from international exile. The first
superstar was created when giant wing Jonah Lomu scored four tries for the All
Blacks against England. The Springboks won the final, beating the All Blacks 15-12 thanks to Joel Stransky's boot. South African President Nelson Mandela, dressed not
in a suit but in the Springbok jersey, long a symbol of apartheid, with the name and number (7) of South Africa's captain Francois Pienaar, gave Pienaar the William Webb Ellis Trophy.
This had shown the commercial potential for the game, and breakaway competitions were being formed, thus forcing the hand of
the authorities to declare the game open.
The Professional Era
On August 26, 1995 the International Rugby (Football) Board declared Rugby Union
an "open" game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. It did this because of
a committee conclusion that to do so was the only way to end the hypocrisy and to keep control of rugby union.
The rugby union authorities of the time hoped that as players could now play in either code, in the long term most of the
sponsorship and interest would gravitate away from league to union. The union clubs and national teams in Australia and England
stand to gain the most, as they are able to call upon talent in terms of ideas, players and support from the League heartlands.
Conversely, the ending of sanctions against the playing of rugby league led to some amateur union players moving the other way
and sampling the ‘other code’.
The move to professionalism was not without its problems, and the many smaller unions have struggled (both financially and in
playing terms) to compete with the major nations since the start of the open era.
Timeline of the foundation of national rugby unions/federations
Year the National Rugby unions were founded:
- 1871 (England) Rugby Football Union (RFU)
- 1873 Scottish Rugby Union
- 1874 Southern (Australian) Rugby Union (later New South Wales Rugby Union)
- 1879 Irish Rugby Football Union (a merger of two Irish unions both formed in 1874)
- 1880 Welsh Rugby Union
- 1883 Northern (Australian) Rugby Union (later Queensland Rugby Union)
- 1889 South African Rugby Board
- 1892 New Zealand Rugby Football Union
- 1895 Rhodesia Rugby Football Union (Zimbabwe RFU after 1980)
- 1899 Argentinian Rugby Union
- 1913 Fijian Rugby Union
- 1919 French Rugby Federation
- 1923 Spanish Rugby Federation
- 1923 Tongan Rugby Football Union
- 1923 Samoan Rugby Football Union
- 1926 Japanese Rugby Football Union
- 1928 Italian Rugby Federatin
- 1931 Romanian Rugby Federation
- 1949 Australian Rugby Union
- 1951 Uruguay Rugby Union
- 1961 Cote d’Ivoire Rugby Federation
- 1964 Georgian Rugby Union
- 1965 Rugby Canada (founded as Canadian Rugby Union)
- 1975 USA Rugby (founded as United States of America Rugby Football Union)
- 1990 Namibian Rugby Union
- 1992 South African Rugby Football Union (a merger of the white South African Rugby
Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union)
The history of the International Rugby Board
- 1884 England had a disagreement with Scotland over a try with England arguing that as
they made the Law, if they said it was a try then it was. There was a messy dispute which pulled in the Irish and Welsh Unions on
the side of Scotland.
- 1886 International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded by the Rugby Unions of Ireland, Scotland
and Wales.
- 1890 England joins the IRFB and agrees that in future the IRFB would oversee the games
between the home unions.
- 1930 It was agreed that all future matches were to be played under the laws of the
IRFB.
- 1949 Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became members of the IRFB.
- 1978 France became a member of the IRFB.
- 1986 Canada became a member of the IRFB.
- 1987 Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Japan, Romania, Tonga, USA and Zimbabwe became members of
the IRFB.
- 1988 Cote d’Ivoire, Spain and Samoa became members of the IRFB.
- 1989 Uruguay became a member of the IRFB.
- 1990 Namibian became a member of the IRFB.
- 1991 Georgia became a member of the IRFB.
- 1998 The International Rugby Football Board dropped the ‘F’ to become the
IRB.
Important international competitions
- 1883 First Four Nations (Home
countries) Championship between England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
- 1910 The Four Nations becomes Five when France joins.
List of Rugby Union World Cups
For more details see the article Rugby Union World
Cup
List of Rugby and the Olympic Games
For more details see the article Rugby union at the Olympic Games
- 1900 Rugby is played at the Olympic
Games for the first time. Two countries enter. France defeated Germany 25-16.
- 1908 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the second time. Two countries enter.
Australia defeated Great Britain 32-3.
- 1920 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the third time. Two countries enter. USA
defeated France 8-0.
- 1924 Rugby is played at the Olympic Games for the fourth and final time. Three
countries enter Romania and France & USA. USA defeated the other two.
Memorable Games
- 1973 the Barbarians defeat
All Blacks at Cardiff Arms Park in "that game" (video of game available under the Millennium Stadium)
- 1999 France defeats the All Blacks in the world cup semi finals.
Memorable Tours
- 1971 Lions
tour of Australia and New Zealand.
- 1974 Lions tour of South Africa – the notorious 99 call
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