Rugby Wallpaper, #4904

Rugby football, usually just "rugby", may refer to a number of sports descended from a common form of football developed at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom. Rugby league, rugby union, American football and Canadian football are modern sports that originated from Rugby football. However rugby league and rugby union are the only two sports referred to as "rugby" today.Rugby descends from an 18th century Cornish or Welsh sport known as "hurling" in which a ball was thrown up and the players acting either as individuals or as teams attempted to carry it to a goal. The goal could be set as far as several miles away thereby creating the opportunity for large-scale brawls in intervening villages. In Welsh the sport is called cnapan or "criapan," and has medieval roots. The old Irish predecessor of rugby may be caid, not to be confused with Gaelic "hurling" or "hockey" which has the difference that the ball was hit with a stick rather than carried. Rugby football is commonly known as "rugby" and as "rugger". Rugby is also said to be derived from Bottle Kicking an old English tradition which is said to date back to pagan times. The oldest attested ball-game resembling Rugby football was a game played by ancient Greeks, episkuros (Greek: επίσκυρος) .