History of rugby union

Rugby is a really fun game that people have been playing for a really long time! It started way back in the 1800s in England. A man named William Webb Ellis was playing a game of football (which is another sport) and he did something really unusual - he picked up the ball with his hands and ran with it!

This was a big no-no in football at the time, but some people thought it was really cool and they started to play a new game where you could pick up the ball and run with it. They called it rugby, named after the place where William Webb Ellis went to school.

People loved rugby so much that it soon became really popular, not just in England but in other countries too. They even started to have big tournaments with teams from different places playing against each other.

Rugby is a really tough and physical game, so over the years, people had to make rules to keep everyone safe. They also made different versions of the game - one for men and one for women, and even special versions for kids.

Today rugby is played all over the world and it has become a really big sport. It's even part of the Olympics! So next time you see a group of people playing rugby, you'll know all about its history and how it started.