FOOTBALL 



it is lying on the ground. A free 

 kick or a penalty kick must not 

 be taken until the referee has given 

 a signal for the same. 



Touch is that part of the ground 

 on either side of the field of play. 

 When the ball is kicked or headed 

 into touch the opposing team is 

 awarded a throw-in. The thrower 

 must keep part of both feet on the 

 touch-line and throw the ball from 

 above his head with both hands 

 from the point on the touch-line at 

 which the ball left the field of play. 

 If the ball be thrown in any other 

 manner it is a foul throw, and the 

 opposing team is awarded a free 

 kick, to be taken from the same 

 point on the touch-line. A goal can 

 be scored directly from a free kick 

 only when it has been awarded for 

 an infringement of law 9, which re- 

 lates to tripping, kicking, handling, 

 etc. When [a free kick has been 

 awarded opponents may not ap- 

 proach within ten yards of the ball 

 before the kick is taken, unless they 

 be on their own goal-line. 

 The Law of Offside 



The law dealing with offside is the 

 one most frequently infringed and 

 least understood. A player is onside 

 at all times when there are three or 

 more opponents between him and 

 the opponents' goal-line. A player 

 cannot be offside from a corner- 

 kick, a throw-in (amendment made 

 to law in 1920), a goal-kick from 

 either goal, a backward pass, or 

 when the ball is last played by an 

 opponent. It is important to realize 

 that a player is adjudged on or off 

 side according to his position at the 

 time the ball was last played. Pro- 

 viding he is not attempting to play 

 the ball, or is not in any way inter- 

 fering with an opponent, a player 

 can be in any position on the play- 

 ing field and not be ruled offside. 



RUGBY FOOTBALL. Running 

 with the ball, the distinctive fea- 

 ture of Rugby football, was once 

 unknown at Rugby. It came into 

 vogue as the result of the spirit of 

 enterprise and audacitv shown by 

 one William Webb Ellis. In the 

 school play it was customary for a 

 boy, having caught the ball from 

 an opponent's kick, to step back 

 and punt, or drop-kick, or place it 

 for another of his side to kick. In 

 1823 Ellis astonished his fellow 

 players, after having caught the 

 ball, by running with it in the 

 direction of his opponents' goal. 

 This innovation was not recognized 

 in the school rules until 1841, and 

 then only with certain limitations. 



Rugby school boys took their 

 game to Oxford and Cambridge, 

 and also founded clubs. The oldest 

 of these, the Blackheath Club, was 

 founded in 1860. Those were the 

 days of hacking and tripping. The 



3242 



Blackheath rules stated, " No 

 player may be hacked and held 

 at the same time ; hacking above 

 or on the knee, or from behind, 

 is unfair. No player can be held 

 or hacked unless he has the ball 

 in his hands. Although it is 

 lawful to hold a player in the 

 scrummage, this does not include 

 attempts to throttle or strangle, 

 which are totally opposed to the 

 principles of the game. A goal 

 must be a kick through, or over, 

 and between the poles, and, if 

 touched by the hands of one of the 

 opposite side before or whilst going 

 through, it is no goal." 



Rugby football found its way to 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in 

 1873 the Scottish Football Union 

 was founded to encourage football 

 in Scotland, to cooperate with the 

 English Rugby Union, and to 

 select international teams. The 

 Irish Union came into existence in 

 1874, the Welsh Union in 1880. 



Originally there were 20 players 

 a side, and a set of 59 rules was 

 compiled. Hacking and tripping 

 were abolished. A player, being off- 

 side, was placed onside when one of 

 his own side had run in front of 

 him with the ball, or kicked it 

 when the offside player was behind 

 him. A try having been gained, 

 the ball was brought straight out 

 from a mark made on the goal-line 

 opposite to the spot where it was 

 touched down. It was also pro- 

 vided that captains should arbi- 

 trate on all disputes. 



Point Scoring in Rugby 



In the course of time these rules 

 came to be considerably altered, a 

 system of penalties exacted, and 

 scoring was revolutionised. In the 

 early days a goal beat any number 

 of tries. Subsequently it was re- 

 solved that if no goal was kicked 

 a match could be decided by a 

 majority of tries. A system of 

 points was instituted later. The 

 goal kicked from a try (the try not 

 counting) is now valued at 5 points, 

 the dropped goal 4 points, the pen- 

 alty goal 3 points, the goal from a 

 mark 3 points, and a try 3 points. 



In a few years, however, for- 

 ward play became faster and more 

 open. The arrangement of the 

 backs in the field was altered, the 

 greater part of the offensive work 

 falling upon the half-backs, and of 

 the defensive upon the full backs 

 alone. The original notion was to 

 have only two classes of players 

 behind the scrummage, half-backs 

 and backs, there being two half- 

 backs, three backs, and ten for- 

 wards. The earliest development 

 of the game was to put the centre 

 back in front of the two backs at 

 the sides to enable him occasion- 

 ally to get away on a run after a 



' FOOTBALL 



drop kick from the back ranks of 

 the other side. 



Forwards continued to shove 

 vigorously, while the backs had the 

 more showy part, the running and 

 tackling. "Half-backs of fine in- 

 dividual powers came on the 

 scene, and meanwhile captains had 

 begun to realize that more was 

 required from forwards than mere 

 shoving. In 1882 H. Vassall intro- 

 duced running and passing among 

 the Oxford forwards. From that 

 time the game became more and 

 more open. A further alteration 

 was made in the composition of the 

 side, and the new placing con- 

 sisted of one full back, three three- 

 quarters, two half-backs, and nine 

 forwards. Wales, pursuing the 

 principle of running and passing, 

 tried the experiment of only eight 

 forwards, putting the extra man in 

 the three-quarter line, and this 

 innovation became general. 

 International Matches 



The first international match 

 was played between England and 

 Scotland at Edinburgh in the 

 season of 1870-71, and was won by 

 Scotland by a goal and a try to a 

 try. The first match between Eng- 

 land and Ireland was played at the 

 Oval in 1874-75, and won by Eng- 

 land by 2 goals and a try to nfl. 

 The first international between 

 England and Wales took place at 

 Blackheath 1880-81, and won by 

 England by 8 goals (one dropped) 

 and 6 tries to nil. The first inter- 

 national between England and 

 France was played in Paris, in 

 1905-6, and England won all the 

 ten matches played to 1919. 



The series of matches between 

 England and Scotland was inter- 

 rupted in the season 1884-85, owing j 

 to a dispute over a try scored by j 



Dead Boll Line 

 75 Yards 



Football. Plan of Rugby football 

 ground 



