Blood, money and seven Scots: how rugby split into three games

One oval ball, backward passes and a race to the try line: rugby appears to have a straightforward identity. Then come the numbers. Some teams have 15 players, others 13, and others just seven. These differences are the legacy of arguments over money, experiments with entertainment and a Scottish club’s need to pay its bills.

Understanding them means separating two distinct codes, rugby union and rugby league, from sevens, a shortened form of union. Their shared ancestry explains the similarities. Their different histories explain why they feel so different to watch.

An origin story bigger than one schoolboy

The familiar story begins at Rugby School in England in 1823, when William Webb Ellis supposedly picked up the ball and ran during a football game. It is an irresistible founding moment, but its historical reliability is disputed. Rugby developed through changing school football customs, rather than through one conclusively documented act of rebellion.

The firmer landmarks came later. Pupils at Rugby School produced written rules in 1845. The Rugby Football Union was founded in 1871, the same year Scotland and England contested the first rugby international in Edinburgh. A collection of local practices was becoming an organised sport. World Rugby’s account of Webb Ellis acknowledges the uncertainty surrounding the legend; the New Zealand Rugby historical timeline records the establishment of the RFU.

How rugby travelled—and became local

British schools, migration, trade and imperial connections helped carry rugby abroad. It established deep roots in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, but also flourished beyond the British Empire, notably in France and Argentina. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga developed powerful rugby identities, while Japan and Georgia became important parts of the international landscape. TIME’s account of rugby’s global spread describes this uneven but enduring geography.

Its appeal cannot be explained by export alone. Communities made it their own: a club could represent a town, a workplace or a region, while a national team offered a shared public identity. Rugby’s history is therefore both international and intensely local. The same game could acquire very different cultural meanings thousands of miles apart.

Why union settled on 15

Fifteen was not rugby’s original, inevitable number. Early international matches featured 20 players per side. During the 1870s, smaller teams gained acceptance, with 15 becoming the international standard in 1877. A historical account of the change connects it both to the practical difficulty of assembling larger teams and to the space it created for passing and running.

Modern union divides those 15 players into eight forwards and seven backs. Its distinctive appeal lies in the interaction between different skills: scrummaging, lineouts, kicking, carrying, passing and contests for possession after tackles. A match can shift from close physical pressure to an attack across the width of the field.

That variety is also a challenge for newcomers. The contest for the ball creates tactical depth, but understanding why a referee awards a penalty can require more explanation than understanding who has scored.

Why league broke away—and chose 13

Rugby league’s decisive break came in 1895, when northern English clubs separated from the RFU. At the heart of the dispute were working-class players who lost wages when rugby kept them away from their jobs. Clubs wanted to compensate them; the governing amateur system resisted. The question was not simply whether players should become stars on salaries, but who could afford to play.

The breakaway competition initially retained 15 players. It subsequently changed its laws, reducing teams to 13 in 1906. As Te Ara’s history explains, the split and the numerical change were separate events.

Removing two forwards helped create space. The play-the-ball reduced the need for repeated scrums and replaced union’s rucks and mauls, giving possession a different rhythm. These changes sought a game that spectators could follow more readily and would pay to watch, helping sustain payments to players. The NRL’s historical account makes that connection between rules, audiences and livelihoods clear.

Why sevens needed only seven

Sevens came first: it predates the union–league split. In 1883, Melrose in Scotland needed a fundraising event. Ned Haig and David Sanderson helped devise smaller teams and shorter matches so a tournament could fit into one day. Seven players per side and seven-minute halves provided a practical solution. World Rugby traces the format to that local initiative.

Played on a full-sized rugby field, sevens turns empty space into its defining feature. Speed matters, but so do positioning, support running and the judgment to retain possession instead of forcing a pass. One missed tackle can be devastating. Short matches make tournaments easy to package, while the physical demands remain severe.

Its Olympic debut at Rio 2016 gave rugby a new global stage. Yet the format remains recognisably part of union, with adapted laws rather than a separate historical code. World Rugby’s beginner’s guide explains that relationship.

Three numbers, three different answers

Fifteen preserves a broad contest between specialist roles. Thirteen reflects a break over players’ livelihoods followed by deliberate changes to the spectacle. Seven emerged from the practical need to stage a tournament and became a showcase for space and speed.

There is no need to declare one the purest expression of rugby. Each answers a different question about what the game should offer—and each reveals how sport changes when the people playing, organising and watching it ask for something different.