Rugby football is a sport that people play around the world. Many people play rugby in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, South Africa, Argentina, Japan, USA, Canada, the Pacific Islands and some other countries.
Rugby football is named after a school in England called Rugby school. Legend has it that one day in 1823, a senior boy called William Webb Ellis ran with the ball rather than retiring to kick it as was the normal mode of play in Rugby School football matches. "Running in" was not considered correct then but was later formalised in the laws of Rugby Football (first published in 1846). Association Football, or normal football, was not formalised until 1863.
Rugby football is played on a field by two teams of 15 people. The ball is slightly oval at both ends. At each end of the field there is a field goal made out of poles, shaped like the letter H in English. There is also an area called the in-goal. Players try to take the ball to the other team's in-goal and place it on the ground. If they do that, they score a try. They can also then try to score a goal. To score a goal, they have to kick the ball through the top of the H on the other team’s side.
To try and stop the other team scoring, players try to tackle each other. Tackling in rugby means that they try to grab the other person and stop them from moving, or make them fall on the ground.
There are two types of rugby, called rugby union and rugby league. The two types of rugby moved away from each other because they did not agree about the how players were treated when they were injured while playing a game.
Every four years, there is a championship of the rugby union teams from countries all over the world. It is called the Rugby World Cup, and the next Rugby World Cup will be in 2011, in New Zealand.