Fun Facts
Rugby is played in over 125 countries and is growing each year at all age levels. There is a Rugby World Cup every 4 years with qualification matches leading up to one of the largest viewed sporting events surpassed by scale only by the FIFA World Cup the Olympics and the Tour de France. The first World Cup, in 1987, had a cumulative world television audience of 300 million, it's succes
sor, the 1991 event in England, reached 1.75 billion. South Africa's 1995 tournament reached 2.67 billion and the Welsh-hosted event reached 3 billion. The 2003 tournament had a cumalative world television audience of 3.5 billion and broadcasted in 205 countries. The 2007 tournament had a cumulative world television audience of 4 billion. Rugby is a former Olympic sport and team USA won the last gold medal back in 1924. It will be reintroduced to the Olympics in the 7s format in Rio de Janeiro 2016. There are many different variations of rugby, the main ones are: Rugby Union (15 a side) Rugby league (13 a side) Rugby 7s (7 a side, Olympic version) and Flag rugby, there is also a ten a side variation, touch rugby, wheelchair rugby and even beach rugby! Rugby balls are oval because when first made they we’re created using pigs bladders, which when inflated became oval. Basketball was created by a rugby coach, James Naismith, who wanted an indoor sport to keep his players conditioned during the winter in 1891. Rugby was first played in 1823, 60 years before American football.
