Rugby Union, also known only as Rugby, is one of the top sports in the world in popularity, with millions of loyal friends around the world, while in several countries, it is the ultimate sport, practiced by almost the entire population, either as athletes, from the school to the professional level or as spectators, fans and loyal supporters of teams. It is an exciting sport, and at the moment, it is the sport with the most significant growth potential in the world, continually conquering “new countries.” But just as fascinating as the sport itself is its history, let alone its prehistory, which is lost in the depths of the millennia.
Photo: Unsplash
At the beginning of the 20th century, Rugby was first included in the Olympic Games program. At competitions in Paris, in 1900, Baron de Coubertin could not have seen the two projects be combined, so three groups, representing France, England, and Germany, participated in the tournament. The Union des Sociétés Françaises des Sports Athlétiques, which was nothing more than the Union that de Coubertin had formed a few years earlier with like-minded people, won the first gold medal. Rugby appeared in two other Olympics in Antwerp in 1920 and Paris in 1924, where the US team won the gold medal, leaving France in second place in both cases. Rugby returned to the Olympics, this time in rugby sevens (7 vs. seven players instead of 15 vs. 15) in 2016.
Since the mid-1990s and with the media industry expanding, the amateur data under which the sport is conducted could not remain intact. Under the pressures and needs of the time, the IRB decided to allow rugby professionalism in 1995, opening a new era for the sport.
It was then that Rubert Merdoch was inspired to create a vast television product, a tri-national league with teams from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, originally called Super 12, later Super Rugby, and is one of his most expensive television products. Planet.
At the same time, it created the championships Premiership in England and the Celtic League between groups of provinces Wales, Scotland, and Ireland joined later by Italy and 2 to make the Pro 12. In France, the championship acquires categories and is called Top 14, while the 2nd category is also professional. During the same period, international inter-club competitions were created for the first time in Europe, the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge as a second-class event, which in 2014 gave way to the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup respectively.
The brands behind Rugby
As we move forwards, brands that are getting behind Rugby’s sport are developing and starting to branch out. Brands such as Umbro are now on board, and you can look at the England Rugby Kit Umbro. This is a departure for Umbro, but it shows how more and more brands are starting to incorporate Rugby and how its popularity is forever increasing. Right now, looking to the future, Rugby is facing the massive challenge of becoming a well-known sport in every corner of the globe.
