Why are rugby balls egg-shaped?

It could be surprising but first rugby balls were round. Rugby balls have become egg-shaped 50 years later!

An example of beautiful egg-shaped rugby ball

How was the rugby invented?

In 1823, while a football match at the college of Rugby, a town in United Kingdom close to Birmingham, William Webb Ellis, one of the students, grabbed the ball with his hands to drive it into the opponent goal.

The ball provided from the Rugby's shoemaker, William Gilbert who used inflated pork bladders to create it. The ball was still round.

What is the point of an egg-shaped ball?

In 1840, William Gilbert invented egg-shaped balls to avoid that slipped through rugby player's hands, especially when it rained, by wrapping inflated pork bladders with leather.

How the Gilbert's ball became the reference?

However, in 1846, the rugby game rules are officially determined, form and size of the ball are not specified. We have to wait until 1877, to see the egg-shaped ball officially adopted by the Rugby Football Union. Gilbert’s ball was exported firstly to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, then all over the world. It even became the regulatory standard.

In 1930, rugby balls were changed again to make it more handy for players and more impressive for spectators. Indeed, the more the ball is egg-shaped, the less its trajectory can be calculated.

So now, the length of a rugby ball should be between 280mm to 300mm, the length circumference 740mm to 770mm and the width circumference is 580mm to 620mm. But there are also different sizes for children and women.

Gilbert' s ball is still the reference of rugby ball, it is even use for international competition like the World Cup.

Did you know?

Rugby has only featured in the Olympics four times: 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924, and US Olympic rugby team is the most successful (won in both 1920 and 1924).