Football: The Rugby Union Game

Featuring team lists and match results, this classic 1892 illustrated history covers rugby at all levels, including early international encounters.

Francis Marshall (Author)

9781108083942, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 July 2015

532 pages, 155 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.67 kg

This classic 1892 history is reissued to mark the Rugby World Cup 2015. Its author, referee Frank Marshall (1845–1906), became president of the Yorkshire Rugby Union in 1890, and quickly made himself unpopular by enforcing the 'amateur' status of players, suspending those accused of 'professionalism'. How might Marshall have reacted to the elite teams of the twenty-first century, or the recent dominance of Southern Hemisphere nations ('colonials' to him)? Marshall's book covers rugby at British schools, the origins of the Rugby Football Union, university and county level rugby, and the Welsh game. Featuring team lists, match results, appreciations of individual players, and many illustrations, the book also describes early international encounters, including the gruelling 'Maori' tour of England in 1888–9, and England's tours to Australia (1888) and South Africa (1891–2). 'The South Africans played a very hard game, especially forward.' A taste of things to come?

Preface
1. The origins of the game
2. A bigside at Rugby
3. Eton football
4. The Harrow game
5. The Winchester game
6. Rugby football in Scottish schools
7. The foundation and progress of the Rugby Football Union from 1870 to 1880
8. Progress of the Rugby Football Union from season 1880–1 to the present time
9. Past development in rugby football and the future of the game
10. International matches and players, 1871–80
11. International matches and players, 1871–80
12. International football, Scotland
13. International football, Ireland
14. International football, Wales
15. Rugby football at Oxford
16. Rugby football at Cambridge
17. Metropolitan football
18. County football, the county championship
19. County football, Lancashire
20. County football, Yorkshire
21. County football, recollections of Northumberland
22. County football, Cheshire
23. County football, the Midlands, Gloucester and Somerset
24. Foreign tours.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]