The Origin Of Rugby Ball

The origins of the rugby ball, the object of all desires on the pitch, goes back to ancient times but its oval shape was given to it far more recently.

The ancestors

Even if it is difficult to tell precisely, it seems the oldest balls are from ancient Egypt. For the greatest relief of the animals of that time they were made of straw or cut reeds and wrapped in linen. But their joy didn't last very long, with animal bladders filled with air soon used because they were considered more flexible and bounced better, although they exploded more easily. In Greece, it was the cows that contributed their bladders, filled with sand or air and chased around by about 15 players in a game called episkiros, one of the precursors of football. In ancient Italy people stopped playing with their feet and started playing with their hands. The game was called harpastum, the ancestor of rugby, which means 'a ball of play'. The ball used was of a standard size and hard, so hard you couldn't kick it with your feet.

Choule or Soule

In the middle ages, in three regions of France (Picardie, Normandie and Brittany) and in England, the Choule or Soule seemed to be inspired by the Greeks and Romans. The goal of the game was to get the ball into the opponents territory by any means. The nature of the object, which was called a choule or soule depending on which region the game was played in, was a pig bladder or cow bladder with oil on it or covered with leather. This envelope 30cm in diameter could be filled with air, straw, bran, wood shavings, foam or compressed hay. The choule became more elaborate as the importance given to it increased. Adding to the traditions of the game, the latest married couple would order it and buy it from the village saddler. In these places the choule, which was encrusted with copper nails, was made of leather bands of different colours, often the colours of the King and of the province where the game was played. It was believed touching the choule would bring a player luck. The player carrying it at the end of the game was allowed to keep it and show it as a trophy.

The birth of Rugby

You cannot talk about the rugby ball without first talking about the invention of rugby, and you cannot talk about the birth of rugby without talking about William Webb Ellis. In 1823 Webb Ellis was a student at Rugby University. He picked up the ball during a football gameand ran with it through the opposition defence to score the first try in history. This action was to be the start of the division between the different football codes and the invention of 'rugby football'. At that time the ball was provided to students by William Gilbert, the shoemaker of Rugby, whose shop was next to the school. Gilbert made balls for the school out of hand stitched leather casings and real pigs bladders. When he died, his nephew James took over and was famous for the extraordinary power of his lungs, which enabled him to inflate the biggest match balls. It was not a pleasant task because the pig bladder had to be inflated when it was in a green smelly state. This onerous task was done with the stem of a clay pipe. Another resident of Rugby, Richard Lindop, invented the inflatable rugby bladder in 1870, relieving the rest of the community of the unpleasant animal odours.

From round to oval

There are different theories to explain the birth and shape of the oval rugby ball which generates the unpredictable bounce, one of the charms of the game. For some people it is the shape of the pig bladders themselves that is responsible for the elongated shape of the ball, although balls of those early days were more plum shaped than oval. According to others it was in fact thanks to the ease of shaping rubber compared to the inflexibly round bladders of pigs that the shape became more oval. The oval shape was chosen because it fits better when held to the upper body while running. In any case the first description of oval balls seems to come in 1835. In 1851 William Gilbert was showing the Rugby School Football, an oval ball made from pig bladder, at an International Exhibition in London. So much for the supporters of the rubber theory. The oval shape became more popular among followers of the rugby game, becoming widespread in 1877. At that time as well, teams were reduced from 20 to 15 players. In 1892 the Rugby Football Union, born in 1871, standardised the size of the ball which until that time was varied depending on the whim of mother nature and how generous she was with the size of the chosen pig's bladder. The progressive flattening of the ball continued over the years and it's size was also reduced in 1931 to the size it is nowadays.

Forget about leather

Prone to water damage, despite the use of cod oil and tallow (according to one's taste), the leather casing was replaced in the 1980s by all weather synthetic materials. The modern rugby ball, a real hi tech product, is made of polyurethane, synthetic leather, laminated polyester, latex and glue - designed to keep its shape and withstand the elements. It is also aerodynamically tested to ensure this identified flying object travels in the air as long as possible in a perfectly straight trajectory. The official ball of RWC 2003 will be the new Xact ball, made by Gilbert.