ABSTRACT
Even in England, so leading historians of rugby tell us, rugby as an organized game was born of the need to provide 'a manly education tempered by civilising restraints'. The setting was the English public school in the mid-nineteenth century. Long before then unstructured games of folk-football had occurred in English villages - rough contests with no rules and few restrictions as to the number of players or even the physical confines of the game. As new standards of propriety and public order emerged, these village games were suppressed for being violent and morally dangerous. They continued to be played, however, without supervision by the boys at English public schools. Eventually a 'civilizing process' entered the school. Masters and parents alike became concerned at the bullying and violence which they believed occurred after lessons.2
