Rule n°33 "the Island is all in goal"

Are you sure, dear reader, that you know all the rules of Rugby game ?

Just consider rule n°33 "the Island is all goal"... (in French "l'Ile est entièrement dans l'en-but")

I am "obviously" refering to the very first written rules of our favorite sport, written in 1845 by three 17 years old students of Rugby College (W.D.Arnold - Thomas Arnold's son -  W.W.Shirley and F.Hutchins )... A French editor recently had this fine idea to publish a booklet (here @ Amazon in French, and here @ Amazon in English) gathering and translating both 1845 and 1871 rules, together with a nice foreword by Jean Lacouture and historical explanations by Jed Smith, the curator the RFU Museum of Rugby at Twickenham (cf this previous note)

1845 rules - again, the very first written rules of any kind of football-rugby - were then comprizing of some local particularities of Rugby College, about discipline, about college rules etc... but also about local topography !

If the "Big-Side", i.e. this large area of deep grass inside the college walls, being just perfectly sized for the practice of rugby... , is fairly well known in "rugby litterature" (cf this 1900s postcard below), I must admit I didn't know anything about this Island... Here is larger map of Rugby College as shown in this book... and let's imagine a XIXth rugger diving for a valid try in this Island... without the support of the video referee...



Nota : "The Island" is a 1891 etching published in Illustrated London News (June 6, 1891) in a 8 page supplement about "the great schools of England" - great text and pictures about Rugby school...

More at www.rugby-pioneers.com