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Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends.

Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by people regardless of gender, age or size.^[3] In 2023, there were more than 10 million people playing worldwide, of whom 8.4 million were registered players. World Rugby, previously called the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) and the International Rugby Board (IRB), has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886, and currently has 116 countries as full members and 18 associate members.

In 1845, the first laws were written by pupils at Rugby School; other significant events in the early development of rugby include the decision by Blackheath F.C. to leave The Football Association in 1863 and, in 1895, the split between rugby union and rugby league. Historically rugby union was an amateur sport, but in 1995 formal restrictions on payments to players were removed, making the game openly professional at the highest level for the first time.^[4]

Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of the United Kingdom and Ireland, with other early exponents of the sport including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. The sport is followed primarily in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Australia, Pacific Islands – Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Georgia, Oceania, Southern Africa, Argentina, Italy, and in recent times also, Japan, South America, the United States, Canada and Eastern Europe,^[5][6][7] its growth occurring during the expansion of the British Empire and through French proponents (Rugby Europe) in Europe. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar,^[8] New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and Wales.

International matches have taken place since 1871 when the first game was played between Scotland and England at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, is held every four years. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are other important international competitions that are held annually.

National club and provincial competitions include the Premiership in England, the Top 14 in France, the Bunnings NPC in New Zealand, the League One in Japan and the Currie Cup in South Africa. Other transnational club competitions include the United Rugby Championship of club teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales, European Rugby Champions Cup in Europe, and Super Rugby in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

History

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Main article: History of rugby union

Primitive forms of football included harpastum, played by the Romans, where two opposing teams competed to throw a large ball into an opposition net, fighting for possession of the ball. Medieval Irishmen played caid, carrying an inflated bladder and using arched trees as goals. The Welsh played an inter-parish game using a wooden ball called cnapan. Frenchmen played soule and Georgians played lelo. “Football” as a game was well established by 1803 at Rugby School and by the 1830s, “running in” with the ball in hand was allowed but subject to hacking and “collaring”.^[9]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Laws of Football as played at Rugby School

Former Rugby School student Albert Pell is credited with having formed the first “football” team while a student at Cambridge University.^[10] Major private schools each used different rules during this early period, with former pupils from Rugby and Eton attempting to carry their preferred rules through to their universities.^[11] A significant event in the early development of rugby football was the production of a written set of rules at Rugby School in 1845,^[12][13] followed by the Cambridge Rules that were drawn up in 1848.^[14]

Formed in 1863, the national governing body The Football Association (FA) began codifying a set of universal football rules. These new rules specifically banned players from running with the ball in hand and also disallowed hacking (kicking players in the shins), both of which were legal and common tactics under the Rugby School’s rules of the sport. In protest at the imposition of the new rules, the Blackheath Club left the FA^[15][16] followed by several other clubs that also favoured the “Rugby Rules”. Although these clubs decided to ban hacking soon afterwards, the split was permanent, and the FA’s codified rules became known as “association football” whilst the clubs that had favoured the Rugby Rules formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871,^[15] and their code became known as “rugby football“.

In 1895, there was a major schism within rugby football in England in which numerous clubs from Northern England resigned from the RFU over the issue of reimbursing players for time lost from their workplaces. The split highlighted the social and class divisions in the sport in England. Although the rules of the game were not a factor in the split, the breakaway teams subsequently adopted some rule changes and this became the separate code of “rugby league“. The RFU’s code thereafter took on the name “rugby union” to differentiate it from rugby league,^[17] but both versions of the sport are known simply as “rugby” throughout most of the world.^[18]

First internationals

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The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England in Edinburgh. Scotland won the game by one goal and one try to one goal.^[15][19] By 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby sevens tournament, the Melrose Sevens,^[20] which is still held annually.

Two important overseas tours took place in 1888: a British Isles team visited Australia and New Zealand—although a private venture, it laid the foundations for future British and Irish Lions tours;^[21] and the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team brought the first overseas team to British spectators.^[22]

During the early history of rugby union, a time before commercial air travel, teams from different continents rarely met. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia,^[23] followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe.^[24] Traditionally the most prestigious tours were the Southern Hemisphere countries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa making a tour of a Northern Hemisphere, and the return tours made by a joint British and Irish team.^[25] Tours would last for months, due to long traveling times and the number of games undertaken; the 1888 New Zealand team began their tour in Hawkes Bay in June and did not complete their schedule until August 1889, having played 107 rugby matches.^[26] Touring international sides would play Test matches against international opponents, including national, club and county sides in the case of Northern Hemisphere rugby, or provincial/state sides in the case of Southern Hemisphere rugby.^[23][27]

Between 1905 and 1908, all three major Southern Hemisphere rugby countries sent their first touring teams to the Northern Hemisphere: New Zealand in 1905, followed by South Africa in 1906 and Australia in 1908. All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics,^[28] and were far more successful than critics had expected.^[29]

The New Zealand 1905 touring team performed a haka before each match, leading Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams to suggest that Wales player Teddy Morgan lead the crowd in singing the Welsh National Anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, as a response. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in: the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event.^{[30][nb 2]} In 1905 France played England in its first international match.^[28]

Rugby union was included as an event in the Olympic Games four times during the early 20th century. No international rugby games and union-sponsored club matches were played during the First World War, but competitions continued through service teams such as the New Zealand Army team.^[32] During the Second World War no international matches were played by most countries, though Italy, Germany and Romania played a limited number of games,^[33][34][35] and Cambridge and Oxford continued their annual University Match.^[36]

The first officially sanctioned international rugby sevens tournament took place in 1973 at Murrayfield, one of Scotland’s biggest stadiums, as part of the Scottish Rugby Union centenary celebrations.^[37]

World Cup and professionalism

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In 1987, the first Rugby World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand, and the inaugural winners were New Zealand. The first World Cup Sevens tournament was held at Murrayfield in 1993. Rugby Sevens was introduced into the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and was added to the Olympic Games of 2016.^[38] Both men and women’s Sevens took place at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.^[39]

Rugby union was an amateur sport until the IRB declared the game “open” in August 1995 (shortly after the completion of the 1995 World Cup), removing restrictions on payments to players.^[40][41] However, the pre-1995 period of rugby union was marked by frequent accusations of “shamateurism“,^[42] including an investigation in Britain by a House of Commons Select committee in early 1995.^[43][44] Following the introduction of professionalism trans-national club competitions were started, with the Heineken Cup in the Northern Hemisphere and Super Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere.^[45][46]

The Tri Nations, an annual international tournament involving Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, kicked off in 1996.^[46] In 2012, this competition was extended to include Argentina, a country whose impressive performances in international games (especially finishing in third place in the 2007 Rugby World Cup) was deemed to merit inclusion in the competition. As a result of the expansion to four teams, the tournament was renamed The Rugby Championship.^[47]

Teams and positions

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Main article: Rugby union positions

Each team starts the match with 15 players on the field and typically seven or eight substitutes but this varies at amateur level.^[48] The 15 players on the field are divided into eight forwards (two more than in rugby league) and seven backs.^[49] There are typically significantly more forwards on the bench than backs with, for example, South Africa having a 7-1 split in favour of forwards in their August 2023 match against New Zealand in Twickenham. A 6-2 or 5-3 split is more common.

Forwards

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The main responsibilities of the forward players are to gain and retain possession of the ball. Forwards play a vital role in tackling and rucking opposing players.^[50] Players in these positions are generally bigger and stronger and take part in the scrum and line-out.^[50] The forwards are often collectively referred to as the ‘pack’, especially when in the scrum formation.^[51]

Front row

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The front row consists of three players: two props (the loosehead prop and the tighthead prop) and the hooker. The role of the two props is to support the hooker during scrums, to provide support for the jumpers during line-outs and to provide strength and power in rucks and mauls. The third position in the front row is the hooker. The hooker is a key position in attacking and defensive play and is responsible for winning the ball in the scrum. Hookers normally throw the ball in at line-outs.^[49][52]

Second row

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The second row consists of two locks or lock forwards. Locks are usually the tallest players in the team and specialise as line-out jumpers.^[49] The main role of the lock in line-outs is to make a standing jump, often supported by the other forwards, to either collect the thrown ball or ensure the ball comes down on their side. Locks also have an important role in the scrum, binding directly behind the three front row players and providing forward drive.^[49]

Back row

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The back row, not to be confused with ‘Backs’, is the third and final row of the forward positions, who are often referred to as the loose forwards.^[51] The three positions in the back row are the two flankers and the number 8. The two flanker positions, known as the blindside flanker and openside flanker, are the final row in the scrum. They are usually the most mobile forwards in the game. Their main role is to win possession through ‘turn overs’.^[49] The number 8 packs down between the two locks at the back of the scrum. The role of the number 8 in the scrum is to control the ball after it has been heeled back from the front of the pack, and the position provides a link between the forwards and backs during attacking phases.^[53]

Backs

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The role of the backs is to create and convert point-scoring opportunities. They are generally smaller, faster and more agile than the forwards.^[50] Another distinction between the backs and the forwards is that the backs are expected to have superior kicking and ball-handling skills, especially the fly-half, scrum-half, and full-back.^[50]

Half-backs

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The half-backs consist of two positions, the scrum-half and the fly-half, also known in the Southern Hemisphere as half-back and first five-eighth respectively. The fly-half is crucial to a team’s game plan, orchestrating the team’s performance.^[53] They are usually the first to receive the ball from the scrum-half following a breakdown, lineout, or scrum, and need to be decisive with what actions to take and be effective at communicating with the outside backs.^[53] Many fly-halves are also their team’s goal kickers. The scrum-half is the link between the forwards and the backs.^[53] They receive the ball from the lineout and remove the ball from the back of the scrum, usually passing it to the fly-half.^[54] They also feed the scrum and sometimes have to act as a fourth loose forward.^[55]

Three-quarters

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There are four three quarter positions: two centres (inside and outside) and two wings (left and right). In the Southern Hemisphere, the inside centre is commonly referred to as the second five-eighth, while the outside centre is simply known as the centre. The centres will attempt to tackle attacking players; whilst in attack, they should employ speed and strength to breach opposition defences.^[53] The wings are generally positioned on the outside of the backline. Their primary function is to finish off moves and score tries.^[56] Wings are usually the fastest players in the team and are elusive runners who use their speed to avoid tackles.^[57]

Full-back

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The full-back is normally positioned several metres behind the back line. They often field opposition kicks and are usually the last line of defence should an opponent break through the back line.^[53] Two of the most important attributes of a good full-back are dependable catching skills and a good kicking game.^[58]

Laws and gameplay

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Main articles: Rugby union laws and Rugby union gameplay

Scoring

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See also: History of rugby union § Scoring

Rugby union is played between two teams – the one that scores more points wins the game. Points can be scored in several ways: a try, scored by grounding the ball in the in-goal area (between the goal line and the dead-ball line), is worth 5 points and a subsequent conversion kick scores 2 points; a successful penalty kick or a drop goal each score 3 points.^[59] The values of each of these scoring methods have been changed over the years.^[60]

Playing field

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According to World Rugby’s Laws of the Game,^[61] a typical rugby ground, formally known as the “playing enclosure”, is formed by two major zones:

• The “playing area”, which includes the “field of play” and the two “in-goals”, and
• The “perimeter area”, a clear space, free of obstructions such as fences and other objects which could pose a danger to players and officials (but not including marker flags, which are typically of soft construction).

The referee (and their assistants) generally have full authority and responsibility for all players and other officials inside the playing enclosure. Fences or ropes (particularly at amateur clubs) are generally used to mark the extent of this area, although in modern stadia this may include the entire arena floor or other designated space.

The Laws, above all, require that the playing enclosure’s surface be safe, whilst also permitting grass, sand, clay, snow or conforming artificial turf to be used; the surface would generally be uniform across both the playing area and perimeter area, although depending on how large the perimeter is, other surfaces such as dirt, artificial turf, etc. may be used outside of a “sliding” perimeter from the bounds of the playing area.

Playing area

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For the most part, the “playing area” is where the majority of play occurs. The ball is generally considered live whilst in this area, so long as players do not infringe, with special rules applied to specific zones of the playing area.

The playing area consists of:

• The ‘field of play”, bounded by (but not including) the sidelines and goal-lines, and
• One “in-goal” area at each end of the field, each bounded by, but not including the extensions two parallel sidelines (known in this context as the “touch in-goal” lines) and the dead-ball line, and its other bound being the goal line (or “try line”) which is included as part of the “in-goal” area.

Field of play

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A typical “field of play” is generally 100 metres long by 68–70 metres wide for senior rugby, depending on the specific requirements of each ground. The Laws require the field of play to be between 94 and 100 metres (103 and 109 yards) long, with a width of between 68 and 70 metres (74 and 77 yards).

As other football codes, such as association football and rugby league, have specified a preferred or standard 68 metre width, this is often used unless a ground has been specifically designed to accommodate a 70-metre rugby field. 100 metres is the typical length, with a line (see below) often marked at halfway with “50” on it, representing 50 metres from each goal line. The variations have been allowed in the Laws, possibly to accommodate older grounds (perhaps even pre-metrification when yards and feet were specified) and developing nations.

Other lines and markings

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The field of play is divided by a solid “halfway” line, drawn perpendicular to the sidelines at their midpoint. A 0.5m line is marked perpendicular to the halfway lines at its midpoint, designating the spot where the kickoffs shall be taken. The areas between each goal line and the halfway line are known as “halves” as in other football codes.

A pair of solid lines are also drawn perpendicular to the sidelines, 22 metres (formerly 25 yards) from each end of the field of play and called the 22-metre lines, or “22”s. An area at each end, also known as the “22”, is bounded by, but does not include, the sidelines, goal line and 22-metre line. In this area, a defensive player who cleanly catches a ball kicked by the other team, without the ball having already touched the ground after the kick, is entitled to claim a free kick, or “mark“. Additionally, if the ball is kicked into touch by a player who had at least one foot on or behind their own 22-metre line, the line-out formed at the spot where the ball crossed the touch-line instead of being taken in line with the spot from where it was kicked.^[62]

Additional broken or dashed lines (of 5 metre dash lengths, according to the Laws^[63]) are drawn in each half or on each side of, the field, each with specific purposes under the Laws:

• “10-metre” lines: Dashed lines 10 metres either side of, and parallel to, the halfway line, designating the minimum distance a receiving team must retreat when receiving a kick-off, and the minimum distance a kick-off must travel to be legal. Equivalent to the 40-metre lines in rugby league but generally marked differently.
• “5-metre” lines: Dashed lines 5 metres into the field of play, parallel to each goal line. Scrums can be packed no nearer to each goal line than this line, and referees will often penalise scrum and ruck infringements in this area more harshly as defending sides will often try to stifle the attacking side’s breakdown play.
• “Tram tracks/tramlines”: Unnamed in the Laws and sometimes also referred to, confusingly, as the “5-metre” and “15-metre” lines, these two pairs of dashed lines are drawn parallel to each sideline, 5 metres and 15 metres, respectively, into the field of play from the nearer sideline, terminating at each of their respective ends’ 5-metre line (parallel and adjacent to the goal line). The area between these lines are where players must stand when contesting a lineout throw.
• Additionally, the area between the two perpendicular sets of “5-metre” lines (i.e. 5 metres from each sideline and 5 metres from each goal line) is designated the “scrum zone”. Where an offence occurs outside this area and the non-infringing side wishes to pack a scrum, the mark of the scrum will be moved into the zone by the referee.

Generally, points where the dashed lines intersect other lines will be marked with a “T” or cross shape, although the extensions of dashed lines are generally not drawn within 5 metres of the goal lines or sidelines, to allow a clear demarcation of the field of play’s boundaries.

The Laws require the playing area to be rectangular in shape, however variations may be permitted with the approval of relevant unions. A notable example is Chatswood Oval in Sydney, Australia, an elliptically shaped cricket ground which is the home of Gordon rugby club, that has curved dead-ball lines to maximise the available in-goal space.

Where multiple sports share a field (e.g. a rugby league and a rugby union club sharing one field), lines may be overlaid on top of each other, sometimes in different colours. However, particularly for television, rugby union line markings are generally painted white. Some exceptions include the Wallabies (Australia’s national team) who often have yellow markings. Local clubs may use black, yellow, or other colours on grass, with other surfaces possibly requiring different marking techniques.

Unlike association football, where on-field advertising is strictly forbidden in the laws,^[64] World Rugby allows sponsors logos to be painted on the playing surface. This is another way in which clubs can make money in the professional era and is also often used by host nations, professional leagues and tournaments as additional revenue streams, particularly when games are broadcast. In recent years, augmented reality technology has been used to replace painting to protect the surface or save costs on painting fields, producing a similar effect for broadcast albeit sometimes with poorer results.^[65]

In-goal areas

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The in-goal areas sit behind the goal lines, equivalent to American football’s “end zones”. The in-goal areas must be between 6 and 22 metres (6.6 and 24.1 yards) deep and cover the full width of the field. A ball grounded in this area by an attacking player will generally result in a try being awarded, unless there has been a previous infringement, or the player has gone out-of-bounds whilst in possession of the ball.

Perimeter area

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The perimeter area is considered “out-of-bounds” for the ball and the players, normally resulting in the non-infringing team receiving possession of the ball at a restart. The perimeter area can be divided into two areas:

• “Touch”: The perimeter area beyond the sidelines of the playing area, but between the goal lines.
• “Touch-in-goal”: The perimeter areas behind each goal line outside of the playing area. Some may refer to a ball which crosses the dead-ball lines as “dead”, rather than touch-in-goal.

For the purposes of determining if a ball is “out-of-bounds” (i.e. has left the playing area), the perimeter area extends indefinitely away from the playing area.

When a ball or player goes into touch, a lineout throw is generally awarded to the opposition at the spot on the sideline where they left the field. Exceptions include a kick out “on the full” (i.e. the ball did not land in the field-of-play before going into touch) in which case the lineout would still take place on the sideline but back in line with where the ball was kicked, or when a team takes a free kick from a penalty where they would retain the right to throw-in.

The perimeter area should be clear and free of obstructions and heavy, solid objects which could pose a danger to players for at least 5 metres from the playing area, according to the Laws. Players often leave the playing area whether accidentally or due to being forced off of the field, sometimes sliding or needing to slow down from a sprint. Many venues at elite levels leave larger spaces around the field to accommodate fitter and faster (or heavier) players. Fixed cameras on tripods and advertising hoardings are often the main culprits for injuring players in the perimeter area.

Flag posts

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Also required in the perimeter area are a set of 14 flag posts, each with a minimum height of 1.2 metres, marking the intersections of certain lines or other nominated distances. These are generally a plastic pole on a spring loaded or otherwise soft base, sometimes with a flag on top, covered in foam padding. Others may be moulded plastic or disposable cardboard. At lower levels, these flags may not be used, but are still specified in the Laws. Flags are placed as follows:

• One flag post at each intersection of the touch-in-goal lines and the goal-lines (four flags total)
• One flag post at each intersection of the touch-in-goal lines and the dead-ball lines (four flags total)
• One flag post positioned 2 metres outside of both of the sidelines, in line with both of the 22-metre lines (four flags total)
• One flag post positioned 2 metres outside of both of the sidelines, in line with the halfway line (two flags total)

Goalposts

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Rugby goalposts are H-shaped and are situated in the middle of the goal lines at each end of the field. They consist of two vertical poles (known as “uprights”), generally made of steel or other metal but sometimes wood or a plastic, 5.6 metres (6.1 yd) apart, connected by a horizontal “crossbar” 3 metres (3.3 yd) above the ground. The minimum height for posts’ uprights is 3.4 metres (3.7 yd),^[66] with taller posts generally seen. The bottom parts of each upright are generally wrapped in purpose-made padding to protect players from injury when coming into contact with the posts and creating another opportunity for sponsors. Until a Law change by World Rugby in 2020, it was possible for an attacking player to score a try by grounding the ball against the base of the upright as the padding was considered an extension of the goal line.^[67]

Match structure

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At the beginning of the game, the captains and the referee toss a coin to decide which team will kick off first. Play then starts with a dropkick, with the players chasing the ball into the opposition’s territory, and the other side trying to retrieve the ball and advance it. The dropkick must make contact with the ground before being kicked. If the ball does not reach the opponent’s 10-metre (11-yard) line 10 meters away, the opposing team has two choices: to have the ball kicked off again, or to have a scrum at the centre of the half-way line.^[68] If the player with the ball is tackled, frequently a ruck will result.^[69]

Games are divided into 40-minute halves, with an intermission of not more than 15 minutes in the middle.^[70] The sides exchange ends of the field after the half-time break.^[70] Stoppages for injury or to allow the referee to take disciplinary action do not count as part of the playing time, so that the elapsed time is usually longer than 80 minutes.^[70] The referee is responsible for keeping time, even when—as in many professional tournaments—he is assisted by an official time-keeper.^[70] If time expires while the ball is in play, the game continues until the ball is “dead”, and only then will the referee blow the whistle to signal half-time or full-time; but if the referee awards a penalty or free-kick, the game continues.^[70]

In the knockout stages of rugby competitions, most notably the Rugby World Cup, two extra time periods of 10 minutes periods are played (with an interval of 5 minutes in between) if the game is tied after full-time. If scores are level after 100 minutes then the rules call for 20 minutes of sudden-death extra time to be played. If the sudden-death extra time period results in no scoring a kicking competition is used to determine the winner. However, no match in the history of the Rugby World Cup has ever gone past 100 minutes into a sudden-death extra time period.^[71]

Passing and kicking

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A player about to
pass the ball

Kicking conversion after a try

Forward passing (throwing the ball ahead to another player) is not allowed; the ball can be passed laterally or backwards.^[72] The ball tends to be moved forward in three ways—by kicking, by a player running with it or within a scrum or maul. Only the player with the ball may be tackled or rucked. A “knock-on” is committed when a player knocks the ball forward, and play is restarted with a scrum.^[72]

Any player may kick the ball forward in an attempt to gain territory. When a player anywhere in the playing area kicks indirectly into touch so that the ball first bounces in the field of play, the throw-in is taken where the ball went into touch.^[73] If the player kicks directly into touch (i.e. without bouncing in-field first) from within one’s own 22-metre (24-yard) line, the lineout is taken by the opposition where the ball went into touch, but if the ball is kicked into touch directly by a player outside the 22-metre (24-yard) line, the lineout is taken level to where the kick was taken.^[73]

Breakdowns

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The aim of the defending side is to stop the player with the ball, by tackling them, and either bringing them to ground (which is frequently followed by a ruck) or contesting for possession with the ball-carrier on their feet (a maul). A ruck or maul is called a breakdown, and each is governed by a specific law.

Tackling

A player may tackle an opposing player who has the ball by holding them while bringing them to ground. Tacklers cannot tackle above the shoulder (the neck and head are out of bounds),^[74] and the tackler has to attempt to wrap their arms around the player being tackled to complete the tackle. It is illegal to push, shoulder-charge, or to trip a player using feet or legs, but hands may be used (this being referred to as a tap-tackle or ankle-tap).^[75][76] Tacklers may not tackle an opponent who has jumped to catch a ball until the player has landed.^[74]

Rucking and Mauling

Mauls occur after a player with the ball has come into contact with an opponent but the handler remains on his feet; once any combination of at least three players have bound themselves a maul has been set.^[51] A ruck is similar to the maul, but in this case the ball has gone to ground with at least three attacking players binding themselves on the ground in an attempt to secure the ball.^[51]

Set pieces

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Lineout

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Main article: Line-out (rugby union)

When the ball leaves the side of the field, a line-out is awarded against the team which last touched the ball.^[77] Forward players from each team line up a metre apart, perpendicular to the touchline and between 5 and 15 m (5.5 and 16.4 yd) from the touchline.^[77] The ball is thrown from the touchline down the centre of the lines of forwards by a player (usually the hooker) from the team that did not play the ball into touch.^[77] The exception to this is when the ball went out from a penalty, in which case the side who gained the penalty throws the ball in.^[77]

Both sides compete for the ball and players may lift their teammates.^[78] A jumping player cannot be tackled until they stand and only shoulder-to-shoulder contact is allowed; deliberate infringement of this law is dangerous play, and results in a penalty kick.^[79]

Scrum

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Main article: Scrum (rugby union)

A scrum is a way of restarting the game safely and fairly after a minor infringement.^[80] It is awarded when the ball has been knocked or passed forward, if a player takes the ball over their own try line and puts the ball down, when a player is accidentally offside or when the ball is trapped in a ruck or maul with no realistic chance of being retrieved. A team may also opt for a scrum if awarded a penalty.^[80]

A scrum is formed by the eight forwards from each team crouching down and binding together in three rows, before interlocking with the opposing team.^[80] For each team, the front row consists of two props (loosehead and tighthead) either side of the hooker.^[80] The two props are typically amongst the strongest players on the team. The second row consists of two locks and the two flankers. Behind the second row is the number 8. This formation is known as the 3–4–1 formation.^[81] Once a scrum is formed the scrum-half from the team awarded the feed rolls the ball into the gap between the two front-rows known as the tunnel.^[80] The two hookers then compete for possession by hooking the ball backwards with their feet, while each pack tries to push the opposing pack backwards to help gain possession.^[80] The side that wins possession can either keep the ball under their feet while driving the opposition back, in order to gain ground, or transfer the ball to the back of the scrum where it can be picked up by the number 8 or by the scrum-half.^[80]

Officials and offences

[edit]

Main articles: Rugby union match officials and Laws of rugby union

There are three match officials: a referee, and two assistant referees. The referees are commonly addressed as “Sir”.^[82] The latter, formerly known as touch judges, had the primary function of indicating when the ball had gone into “touch”; their role has been expanded and they are now expected to assist the referee in a number of areas, such as watching for foul play and checking offside lines.^[82] In addition, for matches in high level competitions, there is often a television match official (TMO; popularly called the “video referee”), to assist with certain decisions, linked up to the referee by radio.^[83] The referees have a system of hand signals to indicate their decision.^[84]

Common offences include tackling above the shoulders, collapsing a scrum, ruck or maul, not releasing the ball when on the ground, or being offside.^[85] The non-offending team has a number of options when awarded a penalty: a “tap” kick, when the ball is kicked a very short distance from hand, allowing the kicker to regather the ball and run with it; a punt, when the ball is kicked a long distance from hand, for field position; a place-kick, when the kicker will attempt to score a goal; or a scrum.^[85] Players may be sent off (signalled by a red card) or temporarily suspended (“sin-binned”) for ten minutes (yellow card) for foul play or repeated infringements, and may not be replaced.^[85]

Occasionally, infringements are not caught by the referee during the match and these may be “cited” by the citing commissioner after the match and have punishments (usually suspension for a number of weeks) imposed on the infringing player.^[86]

Replacements and substitutions

[edit]

During the match, players may be replaced (for injury) or substituted (for tactical reasons).^[48] A player who has been replaced may not rejoin play unless he was temporarily replaced to have bleeding controlled; a player who has been substituted may return temporarily, to replace a player who has a blood injury or has suffered a concussion, or permanently, if he is replacing a front-row forward.^[48] In international matches, eight replacements are allowed; in domestic or cross-border tournaments, at the discretion of the responsible national union(s), the number of replacements may be nominated to a maximum of eight, of whom three must be sufficiently trained and experienced to provide cover for the three front row positions.^[48][87]

Prior to 2016, all substitutions, no matter the cause, counted against the limit during a match. In 2016, World Rugby changed the law so that substitutions made to replace a player deemed unable to continue due to foul play by the opposition would no longer count against the match limit. This change was introduced in January of that year in the Southern Hemisphere and June in the Northern Hemisphere.^[88]

Equipment

[edit]

Main article: Rugby union equipment

The most basic items of equipment for a game of rugby union are the ball itself, a rugby shirt (also known as a “jersey”), rugby shorts, socks, and boots. The rugby ball is oval in shape (technically a prolate spheroid), and is made up of four panels.^[89] The ball was historically made of leather, but in the modern era most games use a ball made from a synthetic material. World Rugby lays out specific dimensions for the ball, 280–300 mm (11–12 in) in length, 740–770 mm (29–30 in) in circumference of length and 580–620 mm (23–24 in) in circumference of width.^[89] Rugby boots have soles with studs to allow grip on the turf of the pitch. The studs may be either metal or plastic but must not have any sharp edges or ridges.^[90]

Protective equipment is optional and strictly regulated. The most common items are mouthguards, which are worn by almost all players, and are compulsory in some rugby-playing nations.^[91] Other protective items that are permitted include headgear; thin (not more than 10 mm thick), non-rigid shoulder pads and shin guards, which are worn underneath socks.^[90] Bandages or tape can be worn to support or protect injuries; some players wear tape around the head to protect the ears in scrums and rucks. Female players may also wear chest pads.^[90] Although not worn for protection, some types of fingerless mitts are allowed to aid grip.^[90]

It is the responsibility of the match officials to check players’ clothing and equipment before a game to ensure that it conforms to the laws of the game.^[90]

Governing bodies

[edit]

See also: World Rugby and Timeline of foundation of national rugby unions

The international governing body of rugby union (and associated games such as sevens) is World Rugby.^[92] The World Rugby headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.^[92] World Rugby, founded in 1886, governs the sport worldwide and publishes the game’s laws and rankings.^[92] As of February 2014, World Rugby (then known as the IRB, for International Rugby Board) recorded 119 unions in its membership, 101 full members and 18 associate member countries.^[2] According to World Rugby, rugby union is played by men and women in over 100 countries.^[92] World Rugby controls the Rugby World Cup,^[92] the Women’s Rugby World Cup,^[93] Rugby World Cup Sevens,^[94] HSBC Sevens Series,^[95] HSBC Women’s Sevens Series,^[96] World Under 20 Championship,^[97] World Under 20 Trophy,^[98] Nations Cup^[99] and the Pacific Nations Cup.^[100] World Rugby holds votes to decide where each of these events are to be held, except in the case of the Sevens World Series for men and women, for which World Rugby contracts with several national unions to hold individual events.

Six regional associations, which are members of World Rugby, form the next level of administration; these are:

• Rugby Africa, formerly Confederation of African Rugby (CAR)^[101]
• Asia Rugby, formerly Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU)^[102]
• Rugby Americas North, formerly North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA)^[103]
• Rugby Europe, previously Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur – Association Européenne de Rugby (FIRA-AER)^[104]
• Oceania Rugby, formerly Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU)^[105]
• Sudamérica Rugby, formerly Confederación Sudamericana de Rugby (South American Rugby Confederation, or CONSUR)^[106]

SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) is a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia and the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) that operates Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations before the entry of Argentina).^[107] Although UAR initially had no representation on the former SANZAR board, it was granted input into the organisation’s issues, especially with regard to The Rugby Championship,^[108] and became a full SANZAAR member in 2016 (when the country entered Super Rugby).

National unions oversee rugby union within individual countries and are affiliated to World Rugby. Since 2016, the World Rugby Council has 40 seats. A total of 11 unions—the eight foundation unions of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France, plus Argentina, Canada and Italy—have two seats each. In addition, the six regional associations have two seats each. Four more unions—Georgia, Japan, Romania and the USA—have one seat each. Finally, the chairman and vice chairman, who usually come from one of the eight foundation unions (although the current vice chairman, Agustín Pichot, is with the non-foundation Argentine union) have one vote each.^[109][92]

Global reach

[edit]

See also: List of rugby union playing countries

The earliest countries to adopt rugby union were England, the country of inception, and the other three Home Nations, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The spread of rugby union as a global sport has its roots in the exporting of the game by British expatriates, military personnel, and overseas university students. The first rugby club in France was formed by British residents in Le Havre in 1872, while the next year Argentina recorded its first game: ‘Banks’ v ‘City’ in Buenos Aires.^[110] In turn, French and Argentine travellers, particularly students, spread the Game beyond the British Empire, forming roots in particular in Italy, Romania, Uruguay and Chile.

Eight countries have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport; they are Fiji,^[111] Georgia, Madagascar,^{[112][113][114]} New Zealand,^[115] Samoa,^[116] Tonga,^[117] Wales and South Africa.^[118]

Oceania

[edit]

A rugby club was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1864; while the sport was said to have been introduced to New Zealand by Charles Monro in 1870, who played rugby while a student at Christ’s College, Finchley.^[15]

Several island nations have embraced the sport of rugby. Rugby was first played in Fiji c. 1884 by European and Fijian soldiers of the Native Constabulary at Ba on Viti Levu island.^[119][120] Fiji then sent their first overseas team to Samoa in 1924, who in turn set up their own union in 1924.^[121] Along with Tonga, other countries to have national rugby teams in Oceania include the Cook Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.^[122]

North America and Caribbean

[edit]

See also: Rugby Americas North

In North America, a club formed in Montreal in 1868, Canada‘s first club. The city of Montreal also played its part in the introduction of the sport in the United States, when students of McGill University played against a team from Harvard University in 1874.^[15][110] The two variants of gridiron football — Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football — were once considered forms of rugby football, but the introduction of the legal forward pass severed the conceptual link between the old world rugby codes and new world gridiron codes, and they are seldom now referred to as forms of rugby football. One lasting element of the link, the governing body of Canadian football, Football Canada, was known as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) as late as 1967, more than fifty years after the sport parted ways with the established rules of rugby union. The Grey Cup, the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of the professional Canadian Football League (CFL), was originally awarded to the champion of the CRU. The two strongest leagues in the CRU, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in Eastern Canada and the Western Interprovincial Football Union in Western Canada, evolved into the present day CFL.

Although the exact date of arrival of rugby union in Trinidad and Tobago is unknown, their first club Northern RFC was formed in 1923, a national team was playing by 1927 and due to a cancelled tour to British Guiana in 1933, switched their venue to Barbados; introducing rugby to the island.^[123][124] Other Atlantic countries to play rugby union include Jamaica^[125] and Bermuda.^[126]

Rugby union is the fastest growing college sport and sport in general in the US.^[5][6][7]

Major League Rugby is the top professional rugby union competition in the US and Canada. One American professional team, American Raptors, formerly the MLR Glendale and Colorado Raptors, plays in the broadly South American Super Rugby Americas competition.

Europe

[edit]

The growth of rugby union in Europe outside the 6 Nations countries in terms of playing numbers, attendances, and viewership has been sporadic. Historically, British and Irish home teams played the Southern Hemisphere teams of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as France. The rest of Europe were left to play amongst themselves. During a period when it had been isolated by the British and Irish Unions, France, lacking international competition, became the only European team from the top tier to regularly play the other European countries; mainly Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Romania, Poland, Italy and Czechoslovakia.^[104][127] In 1934, instigated by the French Rugby Federation, FIRA (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur) was formed to organise rugby union outside the authority of the IRFB.^[104] The founding members were Italy, Romania, Netherlands, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden.

Four European teams have had, at different times, notable success; the most successful, Italy, joined the Five Nations Championship in 2000 as its sixth member, and while it remains the weakest of the Six Nations, it has recorded numerous wins over all its 6N rivals with the exception of England, as well as defeating South Africa, Australia and Argentina in official matches. Before Italy’s ascension, Romania enjoyed a period of success as their teams, backed by a supportive Communist government, regularly challenged the major European nations. The fall of Communism in Romania led to an era of steep decline from which Romania has yet to fully emerge, but it remains one of the most prominent of the second level European teams. Georgia, in the Caucasus, rose to prominence in the early 21st century; the traditional national game lelo bore strong similarities to rugby union, meaning the country was naturally attracted to the sport upon independence, and the Georgians are now regarded as the top European nation below the traditional Six Nations, and even possibly on a par with Italy. Having qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup through the final repechage, Portugal had a startlingly successful tournament, holding Georgia to an 18-18 draw, and performing strongly against Tier One sides Wales and Australia before an historic victory over eventual quarter-finalists Fiji. Portugal demonstrated significant fan support during the tournament.

Other European rugby playing nations of note include Russia, whose first officially recorded match is marked by an encounter between Dynamo Moscow and the Moscow Institute of Physical Education in 1933.^[128] Rugby union in Spain, often associated with the Basque and Catalan regions near the French border, is also relatively strong in this context, having twice missed out on World Cup qualification by rule breaches having gained the points required, and hosting several large crowds for European Professional Rugby Cup matches.

In 1999, FIRA agreed to place itself under the auspices of the IRB, transforming itself into a strictly European organising body. Accordingly, it changed its name to FIRA–AER (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur – Association Européenne de Rugby). It adopted its current name of Rugby Europe in 2014.

South America

[edit]

Although Argentina is the best-known rugby playing nation in South America, founding the Argentine Rugby Union in 1899,^[129] several other countries on the continent have a long history. Rugby had been played in Brazil since the end of the 19th century, but the game was played regularly only from 1926, when São Paulo beat Santos in an inter-city match.^[130] It took Uruguay several aborted attempts to adapt to rugby, led mainly by the efforts of the Montevideo Cricket Club; these efforts succeeded in 1951 with the formation of a national league and four clubs.^[131] Other South American countries that formed a rugby union include Chile (1948),^[132] and Paraguay (1968).^[133]

Super Rugby Americas is the professional Rugby union competition in South America.

Asia

[edit]

Main article: Rugby union in Asia

Many Asian countries have a tradition of playing rugby dating from the British Empire. India began playing rugby in the early 1870s, the Calcutta Football Club forming in 1873. However, with the departure of a local British army regiment, interest in rugby diminished in the area.^[134] In 1878, The Calcutta Football Club was disbanded, and rugby in India faltered.^[135] Sri Lanka claims to have founded their union in 1878, and although little official information from the period is available, the team won the All-India cup in Madras in 1920.^[136] The first recorded match in Malaysia was in 1892, but the first confirmation of rugby is the existence of the HMS Malaya Cup which was first presented in 1922 and is still awarded to the winners of the Malay sevens.^[137]

Rugby union was introduced to Japan in 1899 by two Cambridge students: Ginnosuke Tanaka and Edward Bramwell Clarke.^[138][139] The Japan RFU was founded in 1926 and its place in rugby history was cemented when Japan hosted the 2019 World Cup.^[140] It was the first country outside the Commonwealth, Ireland and France to host the event, and was viewed by the IRB as an opportunity for rugby union to extend its reach,^[140] particularly in Asia. Other Asian playing countries of note include Singapore, South Korea, China and The Philippines, while the former British colony of Hong Kong is notable within rugby for its development of the rugby sevens game, especially the Hong Kong Sevens tournament which was founded in 1976.^[141]

Rugby in the Middle East and the Gulf States began in the 1950s, with clubs formed by British and French Services stationed in the region after the Second World War.^[142] When these servicemen left, the clubs and teams were kept alive by young professionals, mostly Europeans, working in these countries. The official union of Oman was formed in 1971.^[143] Bahrain founded its union a year later, while in 1975 the Dubai Sevens, the Gulf’s leading rugby tournament, was created. Rugby remains a minority sport in the region with Israel and the United Arab Emirates, as of 2019, being the only member unions from the Middle East to be included in the IRB World Rankings.^[144]

Africa

[edit]

In 1875, rugby was introduced to South Africa by British soldiers garrisoned in Cape Town.^[110] The game spread quickly across the country, displacing Winchester College football as the sport of choice in South Africa and spreading to nearby Zimbabwe. South African settlers also brought the game with them to Namibia and competed against British administrators in British East Africa. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the sport in Africa was spread by settlers and colonials who often adopted a “whites-only” policy to playing the game. This resulted in rugby being viewed as a bourgeois sport by the indigenous people with limited appeal.^[145] Despite this, enclaves of black participation developed notably in the Eastern Cape and in Harare. The earliest countries to see the playing of competitive rugby include South Africa, and neighbouring Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), which formed the Rhodesia Rugby Football Union in 1895 and became a regular stop for touring British and New Zealand sides.^[146]

In more recent times, the sport has been embraced by several African nations. In the early 21st century Madagascar has experienced crowds of 40,000 at national matches,^[147] while Namibia, whose history of rugby can be dated from 1915, have qualified for the final stages of the World Cup seven times since 1999.^[148] Other African nations to be represented in the World Rugby Rankings as Member Unions include Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.^[144] South Africa and Kenya are among the 15 “core teams” that participate in every event of the men’s World Rugby Sevens Series.^[149]

Women’s rugby union

[edit]

Main article: Women’s rugby union

Records of women’s rugby football date from the late 19th century, with the first documented source being Emily Valentine‘s writings, in which she states that she set up a rugby team in Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland in 1887.^[150] Although there are reports of early women’s matches in New Zealand and France, one of the first notable games to prove primary evidence was the 1917 war-time encounter between Cardiff Ladies and Newport Ladies; a photo of which shows the Cardiff team before the match at the Cardiff Arms Park.^[151] Since the 1980s, the game has grown in popularity among female athletes, and by 2010, according to World Rugby, women’s rugby was being played in over 100 countries.^[152]

The English-based Women’s Rugby Football Union (WRFU), responsible for women’s rugby in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, was founded in 1983, and is the oldest formally organised national governing body for women’s rugby. This was replaced in 1994 by the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) in England with each of the other Home Nations governing their own countries.^[153]

The premier international competition in rugby union for women is the Women’s Rugby World Cup, first held in 1991; from 1994 through 2014, it was held every four years.^[153] After the 2014 event, the tournament was brought forward a year to 2017 to avoid clashing with other sporting cycles, in particular the Rugby World Cup Sevens competition.^[154] The Women’s Rugby World Cup returned to a four-year cycle after 2017, with future competitions to be held in the middle year of the men’s World Cup cycle.

Major international competitions

[edit]

Further information: List of rugby union competitions

Rugby World Cup

[edit]

Main article: Rugby World Cup

The most important competition in rugby union is the Rugby World Cup, a men’s tournament that has taken place every four years since the inaugural event in 1987. South Africa are the reigning champions, having defeated New Zealand 11–12 in the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.^[155] South Africa has the highest number of World Cup wins: 4 (1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023). New Zealand won the title three times (1987, 2011 and 2015), Australia have won twice (1991 and 1999), and England once (2003). England is the only team from the Northern Hemisphere to have won the Rugby World Cup.^[156]

The Rugby World Cup has continued to grow since its inception in 1987. The first tournament, in which 16 teams competed for the title, was broadcast to 17 countries with an accumulated total of 230 million television viewers. Ticket sales during the pool stages and finals of the same tournament was less than a million. The 2007 World Cup was contested by 94 countries with ticket sales of 3,850,000 over the pool and final stage. The accumulated television audience for the event, then broadcast to 200 countries, was a claimed 4.2 billion.^[157]

The 2019 Rugby World Cup took place in Japan between 20 September and 2 November. It was the ninth edition and the first time the tournament has been held in Asia.^[158]

Regional tournaments

[edit]

Major international competitions are the Six Nations Championship and The Rugby Championship, held in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere respectively.^[159]

The Six Nations is an annual competition involving the European teams England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.^[160] Each country plays the other five once. Following the first internationals between England and Scotland, Ireland and Wales began competing in the 1880s, forming the Home International Championships.^[160] France joined the tournament in the 1900s; in 1910, the term Five Nations first appeared.^[160] However, the Home Nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) excluded France in 1931 amid a run of poor results, allegations of professionalism and concerns over on-field violence.^[161] France then rejoined in 1939–1940, though World War II halted proceedings for a further eight years.^[160] France has played in all the tournaments since WWII, the first of which was played in 1947.^[160] In 2000, Italy became the sixth nation in the contest and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico has replaced Stadio Flaminio as the venue for their home games since 2013.^[162]

The Rugby Championship is the Southern Hemisphere’s annual international series for that region’s top national teams. From its inception in 1996 through 2011, it was known as the Tri Nations, as it featured the hemisphere’s traditional powers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.^[163] These teams have dominated world rankings in recent years, and many considered the Tri Nations to be the toughest competition in international rugby.^[164][165] The Tri Nations was initially played on a home and away basis with the three nations playing each other twice.^[166]

In 2006, a new system was introduced where each nation plays the others three times, though in 2007 and 2011 the teams played each other only twice, as both were World Cup years.^[163] Since Argentina’s strong performances in the 2007 World Cup,^[167] after the 2009 Tri Nations tournament, SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) invited the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) to join an expanded Four Nations tournament in 2012.^[168] The competition has been officially rechristened as The Rugby Championship beginning with the 2012 edition. The competition reverted to the Tri Nations’ original home-and-away format, but now involving four teams. In World Cup years, an abbreviated tournament is held in which each team plays the others only once. In 2020, the “Tri Nations” format was temporarily revived due to the withdrawal of South Africa owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[169]

Rugby within multi-sport events

[edit]

See also: Rugby union at the Summer Olympics, Rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games, and Rugby union at the Asian Games

Rugby union was played at the Olympic Games in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924.^[170] As per Olympic rules, the nations of Scotland, Wales and England were not allowed to play separately as they are not sovereign states. In 1900, France won the gold, beating Great Britain 27 points to 8 and defeating Germany 27 points to 17.^[170] In 1908, Australia defeated Great Britain, claiming the gold medal, the score being 32 points to three.^[170] In 1920, the United States, fielding a team with many players new to the sport of rugby, upset France in a shock win, eight points to zero. In 1924, the United States again defeated France 17 to 3, becoming the only team to win gold twice in the sport.^[170]

In 2009, the International Olympic Committee voted with a majority of 81 to 8 that rugby union be reinstated as an Olympic sport in at least the 2016 and 2020 games, but in the sevens, 4-day tournament format.^[38][171] This is something the rugby world has aspired to for a long time and Bernard Lapasset, president of the International Rugby Board, said the Olympic gold medal would be considered to be “the pinnacle of our sport” (Rugby Sevens).^[172]

Rugby sevens has been played at the Commonwealth Games since the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur.^[173] The most gold medal holders are New Zealand who have won the competition on four successive occasions until South Africa beat them in 2014.^[174] Rugby union has also been an Asian Games event since the 1998 games in Bangkok, Thailand. In the 1998 and 2002 editions of the games, both the usual fifteen-a-side variety and rugby sevens were played, but from 2006 onwards, only rugby sevens was retained. In 2010, the women’s rugby sevens event was introduced. The event is likely to remain a permanent fixture of the Asian Games due to elevation of rugby sevens as an Olympic sport from the 2016 Olympics onwards. The present gold medal holders in the sevens tournament, held in 2014, are Japan in the men’s event and China in the women’s.^{[citation needed]}

Women’s international rugby

[edit]

Main article: Women’s international rugby union

Women’s international rugby union began in 1982, with a match between France and the Netherlands played in Utrecht.^[175] As of 2009 over six hundred women’s internationals have been played by over forty different nations.^[176]

The first Women’s Rugby World Cup was held in Wales in 1991 and was won by the United States.^[153] The second tournament took place in 1994, and from that time through 2014 was held every four years. The New Zealand Women’s team then won four straight World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010)^[177] before England won in 2014. Following the 2014 event, World Rugby moved the next edition of the event to 2017, with a new four-year cycle from that point forward.^[178] New Zealand are the current World Cup holders.

As well as the Women’s Rugby World Cup, there are also other regular tournaments (including a Six Nations) run in parallel to the men’s competition. The Women’s Six Nations, first played in 1996 has been dominated by England, who have won the tournament on 14 occasions, including a run of seven consecutive wins from 2006 to 2012. However, since then, England have won only in 2017; reigning champion France have won in each even-numbered year (2014, 2016, 2018) whilst Ireland won in 2013 and 2015.

Professional rugby union

[edit]

Rugby union has been professionalised since 1995. Professionalism has brought mixed results, with grassroots participation falling and financial struggles in the professional arena.^[179] The following table shows professional and semi-professional rugby union competitions.

Competition	Teams	Countries	Average Attendance
Super Rugby Pacific	11[a]	New Zealand (5), Australia (4), Fiji (1), Pacific Islands (1)	14,436 (2017)[180]
Premiership Rugby	10	England	15,358 (2023–24)[181]
Japan Rugby League One	12	Japan	14,952 (2020)[182]
Top 14	14	France	14,841 (2022–2023)[183]
Currie Cup	8	South Africa
United Rugby Championship	16	Ireland (4), Wales (4), Scotland (2), Italy (2), South Africa (4)[b]	10,809 (2022–23)[184]
National Provincial Championship	14	New Zealand
Pro D2	16	France
RFU Championship	12	England
Major League Rugby	11	United States
Didi 10	10	Georgia
Russian Rugby Championship	10	Russia
Liga Națională de Rugby	14	Romania
Super Rugby Americas	7	Argentina (2), Uruguay (1), Brazil (1), Chile (1), Paraguay (1), United States (1)

1. ^ Super Rugby peaked at 18 teams in 2016 and 2017, but reverted to 15 in 2018 with the loss of two teams from South Africa and one from Australia.
2. ^ The two South African teams that were dropped from Super Rugby after its 2017 season joined the renamed Pro14 for the 2017–18 season.

Variants

[edit]

Main articles: Rugby sevens, Rugby tens, Touch rugby, Tag rugby, and Mini rugby

Rugby union has spawned several variants of the full-contact, 15-a-side game. The two most common differences in adapted versions are fewer players and reduced player contact.

The oldest variant is rugby sevens (sometimes 7s or VIIs), a fast-paced game which originated in Melrose, Scotland in 1883. In rugby sevens, there are only seven players per side, and each half is normally seven minutes. Major tournaments include the Hong Kong Sevens and Dubai Sevens, both held in areas not normally associated with the highest levels of the 15-a-side game.

A more recent variant of the sport is rugby tens (10s or Xs), a Malaysian invention with ten players per side.^[185]

Touch rugby, in which “tackles” are made by simply touching the ball carrier with two hands, is popular both as a training game and more formally as a mixed sex version of the sport played by both children and adults.^[186][187]

Several variants have been created to introduce the sport to children with a less physical contact.^[188] Mini rugby is a version aimed at fostering the sport in children.^[189][190] It is played with only eight players and on a smaller pitch.^[189]

Tag Rugby is a version in which the players wear a belt with two tags attached by velcro, the removal of either counting as a ‘tackle’. Tag Rugby also varies in that kicking the ball is not allowed.^[191] Similar to Tag Rugby, American Flag Rugby, (AFR), is a mixed gender, non-contact imitation of rugby union designed for American children entering grades K-9.^[192] Both American Flag Rugby and Mini Rugby differ from Tag Rugby in that they introduce more advanced elements of rugby union as the participants age.^[189]

Ten man rugby is an extreme style of play in rugby union in which the team uses the power of its forwards to dominate possession, scrums and line-outs, and the kicking ability of its fly-half to attain position. The four three-quarter backs and the full back are not usually used in attack; if they are, this is usually restricted to the inside centre on the crash ball, and chasing kicks, especially garryowens. Ten man rugby is a very conservative style of play, and not particularly entertaining for the spectator, but can be effective if a team has a strong pack and a good 10, and perhaps less effective backs. The term “ten man rugby” is somewhat derogatory, though most teams will employ these tactics to a degree, especially in foul weather, but usually not exclusively.^{[193][194][195][196]}

Other less formal variants include beach rugby and snow rugby.^[188][197]

Influence on other sports

[edit]

See also: History of American football, Comparison of American football and rugby union, Origins of Australian rules football, Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, History of rugby league, and Rugby football

Rugby league was formed after the Northern Union broke from the Rugby Football Union in a disagreement over payment to players. It went on to change its laws and became a football code in its own right. The two sports continue to influence each other to this day.

American football^[198][199] and Canadian football^[200] are derived from early forms of rugby football.^[200]

Australian rules football was influenced by rugby football and other games originating in English public schools.^{[201][202][203]}

James Naismith took aspects of many sports including rugby to invent basketball.^[204] The most obvious contribution is the jump ball‘s similarity to the line-out as well as the underhand shooting style that dominated the early years of the sport. Naismith played rugby at McGill University.^[205]

Swedish football was a code whose rules were a mix of Association and Rugby football rules.^[206][207]

Rugby lends its name to wheelchair rugby, a full-contact sport which contains elements of rugby such as crossing a try line with the ball to score.^[208]

Statistics and records

[edit]

See also: List of top rugby union players by international caps and List of top scoring international rugby union players

According to a 2023 report by the Centre for the International Business of Sport, over ten million people play rugby union or one of its variants organised by the IRB.^[209] This is a significant increase since the previous report in 2011.^[210] The report also claimed that since 2011 participation has grown by 33 per cent in Africa, 28 per cent in South America and 18 per cent in Asia and North America.^[210] In 2023 the IRB published a breakdown of the total number of players worldwide by national unions. It recorded a total of 10.9 million players globally, of those, 8.4 million were registered members playing for a club affiliated to their country’s union.^[2] The 2016 World Rugby Year in Review reported 8.5 million players, of which 3.2 million were registered union players and 1.9 million were registered club players; 22% of all players were female.^[211]

The most capped international player from the tier 1 nations is Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones who has played over 150 internationals. While the top scoring tier 1 international player is New Zealand’s Dan Carter, who has amassed 1442 points during his career.^[212] In April 2010 Lithuania which is a second tier rugby nation, broke the record of consecutive international wins for second tier rugby nations. In 2016, the All Blacks of New Zealand set the new record 18 consecutive test wins among tier 1 rugby nations, bettering their previous consecutive run of 17.^[213] This record was equalled by England on 11 March 2017 with a win over Scotland at Twickenham.^[214] The highest scoring international match between two recognised unions was Hong Kong’s 164–13 victory over Singapore on 27 October 1994.^[215] While the largest winning margin of 152 points is held by two countries, Japan (a 155–3 win over Chinese Taipei) and Argentina (152–0 over Paraguay) both in 2002.^[215]

The record attendance for a rugby union game was set on 15 July 2000 in which New Zealand defeated Australia 39–35 in a Bledisloe Cup game at Stadium Australia in Sydney before 109,874 fans.^[216] The record attendance for a match in Europe of 104,000 (at the time a world record) was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated Wales 12–10 at Murrayfield in Edinburgh during the 1975 Five Nations Championship.^[216] This crowd however is an estimate and contemporaneous newspaper accounts list a crowd of 80,000 only. The record attendance for a domestic club match is 99,124, set when Racing 92 defeated Toulon in the 2016 Top 14 final on 24 June at Camp Nou in Barcelona. The match had been moved from its normal site of Stade de France near Paris due to scheduling conflicts with France’s hosting of UEFA Euro 2016.^[217] The record attendance for a regular season club fixture is 83,761, set when Harlequins played Saracens at Wembley Stadium during a Premiership game in 2012.^[218]

In culture

[edit]

Thomas Hughes’s 1857 novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays, set at Rugby School, includes a rugby football match, also portrayed in the 1940s film of the same name. James Joyce mentions Irish team Bective Rangers in several of his works, including Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939), while his 1916 semi-autobiographical work A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has an account of Ireland international James Magee.^[219] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his 1924 Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, mentions that Dr Watson played rugby for Blackheath.^[220]

Henri Rousseau‘s 1908 work Joueurs de football shows two pairs of rugby players competing.^[221] Other French artists to have represented the sport in their works include Albert Gleizes‘ Les Joueurs de football (1912), Robert Delaunay‘s Football. L’Équipe de Cardiff (1916) and André Lhote‘s Partie de Rugby (1917).^[222] The 1928 Gold Medal for Art at the Amsterdam Olympics was won by Luxembourg’s Jean Jacoby for his work Rugby.^[223]

In film, Ealing Studios’ 1949 comedy A Run for Your Money and the 1979 BBC Wales television film Grand Slam both centre on fans attending a match.^[224] Films that explore the sport in more detail include independent production Old Scores (1991) and Forever Strong (2008). Invictus (2009), based on John Carlin‘s book Playing the Enemy, explores the events of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and Nelson Mandela‘s attempt to use the sport to connect South Africa’s people post-apartheid.^[225][226]

In public art and sculpture, there are many works dedicated to the sport. There is a 27 feet (8.2 m) bronze statue of a rugby line-out by pop artist Gerald Laing at Twickenham^[227] and one of rugby administrator Sir Tasker Watkins at the Millennium Stadium.^[228] Rugby players to have been honoured with statues include Gareth Edwards in Cardiff and Danie Craven in Stellenbosch

Santiago de Cali (Spanish pronunciation: [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ˈkali]), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by DANE in 2023.^[3] The city spans 560.3 km² (216.3 sq mi) with 120.9 km² (46.7 sq mi) of urban area,^[4] making Cali the second-largest city in the country by area and the third most populous. As the only major Colombian city with access to the Pacific Coast, Cali is the main urban and economic center in the south of the country, and has one of Colombia’s fastest-growing economies.^[5][6][7] The city was founded on 25 July 1536 by the Spanish explorer Sebastián de Belalcázar.

As a sporting center for Colombia, it was the host city for the 1971 Pan American Games.^[8] Cali also hosted the 1992 World Wrestling Championships, the 2013 edition of the World Games, the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2014, the World Youth Championships in Athletics in 2015 as well as the inaugural Junior Pan American Games in 2021 and the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.

Etymology

[edit]

Cali is the shortened form of the official name of the city: Santiago de Cali. “Santiago” honors Saint James whose feast day is celebrated on 25 July. The origin of the word “Cali” comes from the local Amerindians, the “Calima“.

History

[edit]

See also: Timeline of Cali

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Pre-Columbian era and settlers

[edit]

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the region was inhabited by indigenous tribes, mostly speakers of Cariban languages. In the region between the Cauca River and the Western Cordillera, the Gorrones established themselves between the present day Roldanillo and Santiago de Cali. The biggest town of the Morrones was sited on the River Pescador near the present-day towns of Zarzal and Bugalagrande. The Morrones traded with the Quimbayas who inhabited the north of the Valle del Cauca.

On his way to Cali, Sebastián de Belalcázar first met the Timbas who ran away before the arrival of the men, leaving behind gold. After the Timbas, towards the north, the Spaniards entered the territory of the chief Jamundí and his tribe, the Jamundíes, between the rivers Pance and Jamundí. This tribe offered a strong resistance to the invaders, fighting with poisonous darts and arrows against the arquebuses and swords of the Spaniards. Eventually, the Spanish prevailed in the struggle over the central valley.

Before taking control over the region, the Spaniards had to defeat the chief Petecuy, whose tribe inhabited the area between the river Lilí and the Western Cordillera. Petecuy formed a large army with many tribes and fought the Spaniards on Holy Tuesday of 1536. The natives lost to the Spaniards and the region was divided in encomiendas.

Santiago de Cali was important for Belalcázar because it was outside the Inca Empire. After the capture and execution of the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca, Francisco Pizarro had sent Belalcázar to take possession of Guayaquil and Quito on his behalf, but Cali, being outside the Quechua empire, was claimed by Belalcazar as his own territory. After his death, his descendants maintained possession of much of the land until the war of independence against Spain.

Founding and colonial period

[edit]

The founder of Cali, Sebastián de Belalcázar, came to the American continent in the third voyage made by Columbus in 1498. In 1532, after serving in Darién and Nicaragua, he joined Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Perú. In 1534, Belalcázar separated from Pizarro’s expedition to find the city of Quito, and later in his search of El Dorado he entered the territory of what is now Colombia, founding the cities of Pasto and Popayán.

Belalcázar founded Santiago de Cali on 25 July 1536, a few kilometres north of its present location, near what are now the towns of Vijes and Riofrío. Under the orders of Belalcázar, captain Miguel Muñoz moved the city to its present location in 1537, where the chaplain Brother Santos de Añasco celebrated a mass in the place occupied by the Church La Merced today, and Belalcázar designated Pedro de Ayala as the first municipal authority.

During the Colonia (colonial period), Santiago de Cali was part of the gobernación of Popayán, which was part of Quito‘s Audiencia. Although initially Cali was the capital of Popayán’s gobernación, Belalcázar moved this function to Popayán in 1540, owing to “better” weather there.

Until the 18th century, most of the territory of what is now Santiago de Cali was occupied by haciendas (cattle farms and plantations of food, with some sugar cane), and the city was only a small town near the Cali River. In 1793, Santiago de Cali had 6,548 inhabitants, 1,106 of whom were (African) slaves. The haciendas were the property of the dominant noble class with many slaves dedicated mostly to stockbreeding and raising sugar cane crops. Many of these haciendas became zone of the present city like Cañaveralejo, Chipichape, Pasoancho, Arroyohondo, Cañasgordas, Limonar and Meléndez. Santiago de Cali was strategically positioned for trade, centrally located in relation to the mining regions of Antioquia, Chocó, and Popayán. The first trail for mules and horses between Santiago de Cali and the port of Buenaventura was completed in the colonial period.

Independence

[edit]

On 3 July 1810, Santiago de Cali refused to recognize the Council of Regency of Spain, and established its own junta. This local uprising predates the national one in Bogotá by 17 days.^[9] The Governor of Popayán, Miguel Tacón organized an army to control the uprising. The people from Cali called for help to the “Junta Suprema” in Bogotá, which sent a contingent under colonel Antonio Baraya to support the independence cause. For mutual defense, Cali also formed, with Anserma, Cartago, Toro, Buga and Caloto, the Confederated cities of the Cauca Valley, which declared independence from the Governorate of Popayán on 1 February 1811, although they continued to recognize the absent Ferdinand VII as their head of state. On 28 March 1811 in the battle of Bajo Palacé, the first in Colombia’s Independence, the royalist Spanish army was defeated by the revolutionary army commanded by colonel Antonio Baraya with a detachment of 120 soldiers from his native Cundinamarca and a huge garrison of 1.080 men from Valle del Cauca led by brothers Miguel and Francisco Cabal Barona.^[10]

In the following years there were many battles between royalists and local militia. After having been released from captivity by Napoleon, Ferdinand VII sent a large army under the command of the “Pacificador” (Pacifier) Pablo Morillo who restored royalist rule in the area by 1816.

In 1819, after Simón Bolívar defeated the bulk of the royalist army in the Battle of Boyacá, there were new uprisings in the Valle del Cauca and the Criollos took control permanently. In 1822, Bolívar arrived in Santiago de Cali. The city was an important military outpost and the region contributed many men to the war of independence that liberated the nations in the south.

Modernism

[edit]

In the 19th century Cali, capital of the Valley of the Cauca department, was a quiet community with no more than 20,000 inhabitants. The urban center of the city was around the neighborhoods of Altozano and San Antonio.

Outside the city there were mango plantations, pastures and communal land that were transferred from the Spanish Crown to the working classes. From the market gardens on this land the city was supplied with food. The economy centered around livestock, sugar cane, panela (jaggery; a sugar derivative), cheese and gold mined in the Pacific. There was also a growing industrial and financial sector.

Jewish entrepreneurs came during the 18th and 19th centuries and achieved prominent positions in the city. Some married local women and felt they had to diminish or abandon their identity. These included the De Lima, Salazar, Espinoza, Arias, Ramirez, Perez and Lobo families from the Caribbean, as well as the author Jorge Isaacs of English Jewish ancestry, and the industrialist James Martin Eder (who adopted the more Christian name of Santiago Eder when he translated his name to Spanish) born into the Latvian Jewish community. Over the generations most of their descendants were raised as secular Christians.

James Martin Eder. Colombian Jewish entrepreneur.

Portrait of Jorge Isaacs. Colombian Jewish writer and intellectual.

Around 1890 the Company of Public Works of Cauca, a private venture, built the market plaza. This spurred commercial development and it transformed into the Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Caycedo. In 1921, the market was sold to the Cali municipality. Very close to the 9th street was the principal station of the tranvia of Cali, a system of public transportation that linked the city with suburban areas.

Recent history

[edit]

On 7 August 1956, at around 1 a.m., seven Colombian army trucks filled with 42 tons of dynamite exploded near the train station, destroying eight city blocks.^[11][12] The nearby army barracks was instantly destroyed. Windows were shattered for miles. More than 1,000 people were killed and several thousand injured (see Cali explosion).^[13] The following year, the government decided to organize a fair in order to lift up the spirits of citizens as well as generate economic reactivation, which came to be known as the Cali Fair.

In 1971, Santiago de Cali hosted the Pan American Games, an event which is considered by many as the height of the city’s golden age as a model of civic orderliness: following it, Cali was named the Sports Capital of Colombia. In 1982, the government of Cali inaugurated what is now the city’s largest building and the third-largest in the Republic of Colombia—”La Torre de Cali”, or The Cali Tower. It stands 42 stories tall and houses a hotel, offices and apartment complexes.

Cali became a focus center of the 2021 Colombian protests, which started on 28 April 2021. While most demonstrations held in the city were peaceful, there was also strong rioting, looting, and clashes between protesters and police officers. The statue of Spanish conquistador and founder of the city Sebastián de Belalcázar was torn down by Misak protesters,^[14] while several buses and stations of the mass transit system MIO were vandalized and burned,^[15][16] causing the MIO network to be destroyed by 60%.^[17] Reports of multiple human rights violations and police abuse in the city were received by organizations such as Human Rights Watch.^[18] During the night and early morning of 3 May 2021, 5 people died and 33 were injured due to clashes between protesters and the police and ESMAD in the city.^[19] In the Siloé neighborhood, a peaceful demonstration was violently broken up by members of the public force,^[20] with that sector being also affected by an unexpected internet crash, which occurred twice on 4 and 5 May.^[21]

Geography

[edit]

Cali is located on the Cauca Valley to the west of the Cauca River and to the east of the Western Mountain Range near the hills known as Farallones de Cali. The city rests approximately 1,000 metres (3,281 feet) above sea level. Approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Cali and over the Western Cordillera, lies the port city of Buenaventura on the Colombian Pacific coast. To the northeast are the manufacturing center of Yumbo and Cali’s international airport, the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón (CLO). It is Colombia’s third-largest airport in terms of passengers, transporting 2,667,526 in 2009.

Santiago de Cali is located in a valley. The city is completely bordered by mountains to the West; the Farallones de Cali mountains are the closest to the city. The Eastern part of the city is bordered by the Cauca River. To the north and south are extended plains. In the first one you can find the industrial city of Yumbo which is part of Cali’s metropolitan area, to the south you can find Jamundí, also part of the metropolitan area. The city is mainly flat, but there are areas mostly to the west that are mountainous, like San Antonio and La loma de la Cruz, which are both tourist sites. There are several rivers that descend from the Western Mountain Range and empty into the Cauca River, passing through the metropolitan area of Cali. In the western part of the city the Aguacatal River flows into the Cali River, which continues on to the Cauca River. In the south the rivers Cañaveralejo, Lilí, and Meléndez flow into the CVC Archived 8 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine south channel which also empties into the Cauca River. Farther south, the banks of the Pance River are a popular place for recreation and leisure.

Climate

[edit]

Under Köppen’s climate classification, Cali features a dry-summer tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification: Am), bordering a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: As). The Western Mountain Range rises from an average of 2,000 m (6,562 ft) above sea level in the northern part of the city to approximately 4,000 m (13,123 ft) to the south. Because of this variation in altitude, the weather in the northwest portion of the city is drier than in the southwest. The average annual precipitation varies between 900 and 1,800 mm (35 and 71 in) depending on the metropolitan zone for a citywide average of approximately 1,483 mm (58 in). Even though there is enough rainfall to make for lush surroundings, Cali is still in a strong rain shadow. Its closest seaport of Buenaventura about 80 kilometres (50 mi) away^[22] is among the rainiest locations in the world. This is due to Buenaventura being on the windward side of the coastal mountains that in return shield Cali from the Pacific monsoons. Cali’s average temperature is 24 °C (75 °F) with an average low temperature of 17.4 °C (63 °F) and a high of 30.5 °C (87 °F).

Owing to its proximity to the equator, there are no major seasonal variations in Cali like winter, spring, summer and fall. However, locals refer to the dry season as the city’s “summer”, in which temperatures can rise to 30 to 34 °C (86 to 93 °F) and go down to 15 to 17 °C (59 to 63 °F) at night. During the rainy season (or “winter”) temperatures can rise to 28 to 30 °C (82 to 86 °F) and go down to 18 to 20 °C (64 to 68 °F) at night. There are typically two rainy seasons: from March to May and from October to November. However, rain can be expected to fall at any point during the year, nourishing the city’s permanent green and lush vegetation. The highest temperature ever recorded was 36.5 °C (98 °F) in July 1997, and the lowest temperature ever recorded was 13.4 °C (56 °F) in August 1979.^[23]

showClimate data for Cali (Marco Fidel Suárez Air Base), elevation 954 m (3,130 ft), (1981–2010)

showClimate data for Cali (University of Valle), elevation 985 m (3,232 ft), (1981–2010)

Tourism

[edit]

Cali Tower
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
General information
Coordinates	3°27′32.40″N 76°31′44.4″W
Completed	1984
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jaime Vélez
Developer	Julián Echeverri cía.
Structural engineer	Enrique Martínez Romero

Historic district

[edit]

Santiago de Cali offers historical areas with cultural variety and other attractions. In downtown Cali there are many historic churches such as La Merced and La Ermita. Cali contains a well-preserved historical center. The most important zone is La plaza de Cayzedo, considered the center of the city, which is a square surrounded by many historical and modern buildings like El edificio Otero, La Catedral and El Palacio de Justicia. This plaza is close to other tourist places, like The Saint Francis church (in Spanish, Iglesia de San Francisco), the municipal theater and La Merced church. The city is also rich in monuments, parks, squares and museums. The most emblematic sculptures are Cristo Rey, located upon a mountain range; Sebastian de Belalcazar, founder of the city; and Las tres Cruces, a place of pilgrimage during the days of the Holy Week.

Other tourist attractions

[edit]

Main touristic centers:

• Plaza de Caicedo: The main square of the city, located in downtown Cali. The plaza is named after Cali’s hero, Joaquín de Caicedo y Cuero.
• Parque del perro: Located in the San Fernando neighborhood, this is one of the most popular areas in the city. It is full of restaurants and bars. The park gets its name because it has a dog monument in the middle of it.
• Avenida San Joaquín: Located in the Ciudad Jardín, it is a popular place in the city.
• Sebastian de Belalcázar’s monument: It is the most visited and popular monument in the city^{[citation needed]} located in the hills overlooking the city. The monument is famous due to its pointing finger which is pointing to the opposite direction of the valley, while its face is looking down at the city.
• Cali River: The river is located in the west and is surrounded by restaurants, hotels and museums like La Tertulia, an art museum.
• El Gato del Río: Located next to the river, a sculpture of a cat by Hernando Tejada^[27]
• Cristo Rey: A religious monument located on a hill that offers the best view of the city. It is 31 m high, of which 5 m belong to the base.^[28][29]
• Boulevard del río Cali: (Colombia Avenue Boulevard) is located by the Cali river side in the historic center of the city of Santiago de Cali, Colombia. It carries the name of the avenue where vehicles used to transit but today is the boulevard where there is a tunnel located directly below it. This boulevard is about 980 meters long.
• San Antonio: This is the most traditional neighborhood of Cali. In the colonial age, it was the extension of the downtown. Although it was split off by ‘La calle Quinta’ (Fifth street),. The entire neighborhood is on a hill, and at the top you will find the San Antonio Park.
• Juanchito: Host to a large number of night clubs dedicated to salsa music, motels offering hourly rates, and adjacent to some of the poorest areas of the city. Technically, it belongs to another municipality, but is often visited by and associated with citizens of Cali.
• Farallones de Cali: A part of the city sits on hills belonging to the Colombian western mountain chain. Beyond these hills is Farallones de Cali national park.
• La Ceiba: A large and old Ceiba tree on a street corner at the west of the city.^[30]
• Orquideorama Enrique Perez Arbeláez: This wooded park, at AV 2 N #48-10, is the site of the large orchid show hosted each fall by Asociacion Vallecaucana de Orquideologia.^[31] In 2011, the show was to be held from 21 to 25 September and was to include international judging by the American Orchid Society.^[32] It is also a good place for birdwatching.
• Cerro de las Tres Cruces: The Three Crosses monument sits at 1,480 m above sea level and is located in the NW part of the city. The central cross is the largest sitting at 26 m tall and 11 m wide. The two crosses besides the main cross have a height of 22 m and a width of 8 m. Visitors are known to hike the mountain and can enjoy the view of the city, a freshly squeezed orange/carrot juice, and an outdoor gym before hiking back down.^[33]

Medical tourism

[edit]

According to recent Lonely Planet^[34] guides of Colombia, Cali has recently become famous for being a prime destination for people seeking cheap cosmetic surgery and aesthetician centers. The city is very well known as The Capital of the Plastic Surgeries. There have been no significant reports of problems in this area, but Lonely Planet advises proper research before pursuing such an idea. About 50,000 cosmetic surgery procedures occurred in Cali in 2010, of which around 14,000 involved patients from abroad.^[35]

Transport

[edit]

Airports

[edit]

Santiago de Cali is served by Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport (IATA: CLO, ICAO: SKCL), located in the City of Palmira. It is Colombia’s third largest airport in terms of passengers (transporting 3,422,919 in 2010) and fourth in cargo. Alfonso Bonilla Aragón is located in a long, narrow valley that runs from north to south, and is surrounded by mountains up to 14,000 feet (4,300 m) high. The airport is connected to the city by a highway known as the “recta a Palmira”, that in the last few years has been upgraded to make the airport more accessible to Cali and the surrounding city centers in the region. The airport has also been remodeled recently; some of the last significant events in those terms were the inauguration of the VIP room in the National terminal and the installation of a main electronic screen in the center of the check-in area.

The Marco Fidel Suárez Air Base is a military airport close to the city’s downtown. It is located in the east side of the city and belongs to the Colombian Air Force. It is used as one of the main training centers for the country’s fighter pilots.

Public transport

[edit]

The city of Cali offers a variety of ways to move through the city; in March 2009, The Masivo Integrado de Occidente (MIO) began operations. It is planned to be the primary system that connects the city. Taxis and old buses are the secondary way to get around. Taxis are one of the best systems that tourists can use, as they are relatively inexpensive and are more secure. Non-MIO buses round out the system and are used primarily by the working class to get around and are less expensive to use. Buses are secure but not at the same level as taxis. This part of the transport in the city is awaiting a needed reorganization of routes.

Masivo Integrado de Occidente (MIO): It is a bus rapid transit system of articulated buses that run on dedicated bus lanes in the middle of major thoroughfares, with stations connected to sidewalks by dedicated pedestrian crossings or bridges. The system layout is 243 kilometres (151 miles) distributed in trunk, pre-trunk and complementary corridors. The system also integrated the renovation and recuperation of the public space. The MIO system was not only designed for the public transport, but built for public use with extensive new sidewalks, parks, gardens and public squares for the public to enjoy.

The system also includes a cable car line named MÍO Cable, which is fully integrated with the MIO network and directly serves the residents of the Siloé district.

List of the Trunk or principal corridors:

• Calle 5
• Carrera 15
• Calles 13 y 15
• Avenida de las Américas
• Avenida 3N
• Carrera 1
• Transversal 25
• Carrera 29 y Autopista Oriental
• Autopista Simón Bolívar
• Avenida Ciudad de Cali
• Carrera 100
• Avenida Cañasgordas
• Avenida Colombia
• Autopista Sur

More information about El MIO is in the official web site of Metrocali.^[36]

Bus Central Station

[edit]

Cali is served by over 20 coach companies^[37] which gather in the Central Bus Station.^[38] The Station is centrally located near the old (now redundant) railway station, which serves now as Metrocali’s headquarters. Depending on the company and the destination, the vehicles range from minibuses to large coaches. Recently, in their last float renovation wave, Colombian coaches operators have opted for Brazil’s Marcopolo buses. Informal stops exist for the short destination rides all along the way from Central Station to the town of destination. In some cases, it is enough for a passenger to ask to get off the bus for the bus to stop.

Public transportation statistics

[edit]

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Cali, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 88 min. 23% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 21 min, while 43% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 5.6 km, while 3% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.^[39]

Economy

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Cali and Valle del Cauca constitute the third largest center national and international economic exchange in Colombia. The city is an important stop on way to Ecuador, and is connected with the world through the seaport of Buenaventura.

Economic history

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The economic transformation of Cali and the Valle del Cauca during the twentieth century and its crisis of the century, and the outlook to the new century have been the subject of deep analysis of financial and academic institutions. This section is based on the analysis and recommendations of the report Cali Colombia – Toward a City Development and Strategy published by the World Bank in 2002, and the Regional Economic Situation Reports (ICER) published quarterly by the DANE.

In the early twentieth century the city’s economy was concentrated in the production of sugar, based on an agricultural model in which large tracts of land were cultivated with minimum use of labor. As a result, a few families owned vast areas of land in one of the most fertile regions of the country. This was an important factor in determining the power relations and the organization of the city through the twentieth century.

In the period 1910–1930, the city’s economy shifted its focus from an agricultural model to become a commercial node at the national level through the development of basic infrastructure such as construction of the railway to Buenaventura and the creation of the department of Valle del Cauca with Cali designated as its capital.

Although the industrial vallecaucana revolution of Cali did not begin until the third decade of the twentieth century, some companies had already begun to build the industrial development of the region, as the printing company Carvajal y Cia (which began operations in 1904). In 1929 there is the creation of Soap Varela Hermanos, in the 1930s other industries begin to grow as large scale factories of gas and beer, printing and cigarettes. Smaller companies also appeared focusing on textile clothing, chemicals, chocolates, building materials, leather articles and furniture.

In 1940, Cali had already ceased to be a single point of trade and its economy was focused on industry. A few years before the decade began a major investment of foreign capital led to the establishment of many factories and local business grew to multinational corporations; as Croydon in 1937, Cementos del Valle in 1939, and Carton Colombia in 1941; Goodyear and Colgate-Palmolive came from the US in 1941. Later came other corporations like General CEAT (Centelsa) in 1955, and pharmaceutical laboratories were based in the Cauca Valley between 1940 and 1960, as Tecnoquímicas and Baxter.

The flourishing industrial city attracted waves of immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. In these decades there were important partnerships between the public and private sectors, as productive sector support to programs of business administration at the University of Valle. The growth of the university training professionals and technologists, as well as infrastructure development, were crucial for the further development of industry and trade in the Valle del Cauca. This trend continued in the 1970s and early years of the next decade. Public investment in infrastructure reached significant levels benefiting not only the production sector but also the growing population, this made Cali and Valle del Cauca models further development across the country.

In 1998, when the economic crisis became apparent, the national government could not respond to the call of the local politicians and mayors had to introduce austerity measures under pressure from creditors, which caused the vallecaucano development model to collapse. Additionally, the tightening of the country’s internal conflict required a tax increase aimed at national war spending, leaving less room for local governments to collect, through taxes, the money required for their development plans.

Current statistics

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According to statistics by DANE, in 1995 the annual growth of GDP of the Valle del Cauca region was almost twice the national rate. For 1997, GDP increased marginally, with the region itself going up 1%. In 1999 the country’s economic recession was felt through a depression that made the economy contract, showing GDP growth of 4%. Since then GDP has grown in the valley with ups and downs, but its percentage share nationwide has been falling since 1995 as shown in the graph.

The department contributes significantly to the national economy. According to statistics for the year 2005, for agriculture the valley contributes 5.37% of the national production, which is relatively low compared with Antioquia (15.48%) or Cundinamarca (12.81%). In fisheries products, the region ranks first, with the region contributing 36% of the country’s total production. As for mining, the valley is not a metal-producing region; however, in terms of non-metallic minerals, the department contributes 8.15% of the total value added across Colombia.

The regional industries contribute 13.81% of the national value-added tax, second only to Bogotá with 25.39% and 18.20% in Antioquia. Particularly, the industries of food, beverages, and snuff are important products in the valley’s economy, contributing 16% of the national value added, equaled or surpassed only by Antioquia and Bogotá. On trade, nationally Bogotá has 32.22%, Antioquia 13.25%, and Valle 11.34%. In the valley transportation services provide 12.52% of value added.

The Consumer Price Index (IPC) of Cali has been since the last decade one of the lowest among Colombian cities. About 78% of Cali’s people are of working age (over 18 years). In 2005, for the first time in six years, the city had an occupancy rate above 60%, which confirms the good state of the economy, led primarily by growth in manufacturing, agriculture, and trade, among others.

Drogas La Rebaja, one of Colombia’s largest pharmacy store chains, is based in Cali.So is candy company Colombina. A bank, Banco de Occidente, a Grupo Aval company, has its head office in Cali.

Public order

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This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2022)

Cali had a murder rate of 66.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014; this fell to 51.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.^[40][41] In 2006 the budget for security in Medellín was more than four times higher than in Cali, and in Bogota (which is 3.5 times more populous) the budget was more than seven times higher.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1 January and 1 December 2011 there were 1870^[42] intentional homicides in the municipality of Cali, which is considered a 5% increase compared to 2010.^[43] The surge in violence in Cali in 2011 has partly been attributed to what has been described as an ongoing ‘mafia war’ between the ‘neo-paramilitary’ groups Los Rastrojos and Los Urabeños, both involved in drug trafficking.^[44] Los Rastrojos are considered the ‘heirs’ of the Cali Cartel and Los Urabeños have their roots in Colombia’s coast. Los Rastrojos are accused of committing at least 80 murders in Cali in 2011.^[45] According to Colombia’s most influential weekly magazine, Semana, there are over 1,700 assassins working for various groups in the city.^[46] 3.8 percent of street addresses account for 100 percent of homicides.^[47]

During 2012, there was a decrease in homicides, with 24 cases fewer than for the same period last year, and there were 294 fewer people injured, which means a reduction of 8% from a year previous. There were 323 fewer car thefts, i.e. a decrease of 21% over the same period of 2011. There were 152 fewer residential burglaries, which means a reduction of 17% from the same period of 2011. There was also strengthening in technology citywide by the installation of 254 security cameras.

A 2007 panoramic showing Cali, main city in western Colombia.

Politics

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Cali is governed by a mayor, elected to a four-year term. Several administrative departments and secretaries report to the mayor. Mayoral elections started in 1986, followed by elections for governors in 1992. Previously, all Colombian regional executive-branch leaders were appointed by the President of Colombia. The first elected mayor was Carlos Holmes Trujillo of the Liberal Party. Unlike other Colombian cities, Cali has not properly adapted to the new mayoral election system^{[citation needed]}. The city has experienced unsuccessful terms under some of its elected mayors, two of which ended up being removed from office.

Mayor	Started	Ended
Carlos Holmes Trujillo García	January 1988	January 1990
Germán Villegas Villegas	January 1990	January 1992
Rodrigo Guerrero Velasco	January 1992	December 1994
Mauricio Guzmán Cuevas	January 1995	August 1997
Julio César Martínez Payán	August 1997	December 1997
Ricardo H. Cobo Lloreda	January 1998	December 2000
John Maro Rodríguez Flórez	January 2001	December 2003
Apolinar Salcedo Caicedo	January 2004	May 2007
Sabas Ramiro Tafur Reyes	May 2007	December 2007
Jorge Ivan Ospina	January 2008	December 2011
Rodrigo Guerrero Velasco	January 2012	December 2015
Maurice Armitage	January 2016	December 2019
Jorge Ivan Ospina	January 2020	December 2023
Alejandro Eder	January 2024	Incumbent

The City Council is composed of 21 members, elected by citywide circumscription for four-year terms. There is no relation between the number of City Counselors and the number of ‘comunas’ of the city, which is a merely administrative division created to facilitate the city’s management.

Cali has some decentralized agencies; the most important being:

• EMCALI: Energy, telecommunications, aqueduct and sewage systems services.^[48]
• Emsirva: Public waste management company for the city of Cali.^[49]
• Metrocali^[50]
• Calisalud^[51]
• Corfecali^[52]
• EMRU^[53]

Education

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A large part of the population relies on the public educational system, which is underfunded and in some cases improperly managed. Schools are under municipal or departmental management, the former being the most common. The Municipal Secretary of Education manages a large part of the city’s budget, which has brought some politicians to try to control it as their personal organization.

The city is endowed with the most sophisticated and high-quality secondary education institutions and universities in the region. Most universities are located in the south part of the city. Among the most prestigious are University of Valle (Public), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Private), and Universidad Icesi (Private).

Universities

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• University of Valle (Public) It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third largest in Colombia, with more than 30,320 students.^[54][55] Its Faculties of Medicine, Engineering, Sciences, and Social Sciences rank as the best of the region. The first three rank at the top in the national level.
• Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (Private) Founded in 1975, this private institution has more than 7,400 students.
• Pontifical Xavierian University (Private) Founded in 1970, Pontifical Xavierian University Seccional Cali serves as the sectional campus of the Pontifical Xavierian University of Bogotá (PUJ by its Spanish acronym) is a private higher education institution which currently has more than 5,700 students enrolled in its seventeen undergraduate and twenty graduate programs offered by its faculties of engineering, economic and administrative sciences, humanistic and social sciences and health sciences. With over 36,000 printed books spanning a wide array of academic topics, the university’s library is one of the biggest in the city. Beginning in 2010 the university will inaugurate its Medicine school bringing its total number of undergraduate degrees to seventeen.^[56] Pontifical Xavierian University is one of the universities in the city of Cali.
• Universidad Icesi (Private) University ICESI was founded in 1979 by regional entrepreneurs looking to solve the lack of highly skilled professionals in the areas relevant to their business. It offers undergraduates programs, specializations and masters. It has more than 2,950 students and a library with over 30,000 books. On the second semester of 2009, the university started its highly anticipated Medicine School, which will use the Valle del Lily Health Center as its training and educational facility.
• Universidad San Buenaventura^[57] (Private) Founded in 1970 by the Franciscan Order, it’s a private institution of higher education that serves like sectional for University of St. Buenaventura of Bogotá.
• Free University of Colombia
• Universidad Santiago de Cali^[58] (Private) The University Santiago de Cali also known as La Santiago or USC is a private corporation and institution of higher education founded in 1959.
• National Learning Service (SENA)
• Antonio Jose Camacho University Institute^[59] (Public)
• Corporación Universitaria Centro Superior – UNICUCES^[60] (Private)
• Escuela Nacional Del Deporte^[61] (Mixed) Founded in 1984, the Escuela Nacional Del Deporte (Sports National School) is, along with Politecnico Jaime Isaza Cadavid^[62] (Medellín), the most important institution in Colombia for sport education, physical therapy, and sports science.
• San Martin University
• La Manzana del Saber Located in the south of the city, La Manzana del Saber is today the most important educational project in Cali. There is already the Natural Science Museum, the “Abracadabra” Interactive Museum, the Jorge Garcés Borrero public library, and the Pedagogical Research and Innovation Centre. The project construction phase has taken many years; the demolition of a whole city block will be undertaken to build the complex.

Arts and culture

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Cultural centers

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• Casa de la cultura Proartes. Since 1871 this house has been a great influence in the culture in Cali. The building was restored in 1991 and it contains exhibition saloons, scenarios and a cinema.
• Centro cultural de Cali. Its design was under the charge of the famous Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona, who built as well the Torres del Parque in Bogotá and several other buildings. Since 1997 it is considered the cultural center in the city and headquarters of the Municipal secretaries of tourism and culture.
• Lugar a Dudas. The cultural center dedicated to contemporary art was created under the direction of Oscar Muñoz. It’s a place offering exhibition saloons, weekly film screenings, a contemporary art focused library and residencies for both local and international artist, amongst many other things.

Museums

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• La Tertulia Museum, an art museum
• Calima Gold Museum
• Museo Arqueológico La Merced
• Museo Religioso y Colonial de San Francísco
• Museo del Oro Calima from the Rebublica bank
• Museo Arqueologico de la Universidad del Valle^[63]
• Museo Departamental de Ciencias Naturales
• Museo Nacional del Transporte^[64]
• Museo de Arte Religioso^[65]

La Feria de Cali (The Cali Fair)

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Main article: Cali Fair

La “Feria de Cali” (The Cali Fair), also known as La Feria de la Caña (Sugar Cane Fair), is the most important cultural event in the city, celebrated since 1957. It is celebrated every year from December 25 to 30.^[66] The fair is not only the most important event for the cultural identity of the citizens, but it also stimulates the economic development of the city by significantly increasing tourism and seasonal employment, providing opportunities for independent merchants to sell their products during the events, and encouraging the improvement of the city’s infrastructure. Nowadays, the fair fhosts several national and international celebrities during the music festivals and concerts.^{[citation needed]}

Salsa music

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Cali is also known as the Salsa Capital “Capital de la Salsa” given the city’s love for that genre of music.^[67][68][69] In early July there is the Summer Salsa Festival which lasts for one week. It usually includes concerts by some of the world’s great salsa bands as well as dance shows and “melomano” competitions in which salsa connoisseurs try to outdo each other by digging deep into the archives of salsa music and related sounds to find and reveal long lost tunes. On any night of the week small salsa clubs offer a variety of Afro and Caribbean beats.^[70] Furthermore, the last Friday of every month, the city has an event known as “Delirio”, already internationally known with the most spectacular salsa shows presented, “Las Vegas” style.

Events

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• Salsodromo (Salsa Marathon)
• Carnaval de Cali Viejo (Old Cali’s Carnival)
• Desfile de Autos Clasicos y Antiguos (Classic and Antique Cars Parade)
• Superconcierto
• Chiquiferia (Little Fair)
• Cabalgata (Horse Parade)
• Reinado Panamericano de la Caña de Azúcar (Pan American Reign of Sugar Cane)
• Tascas

Sports

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At a professional level, Cali hosts only football teams. At the amateur level there are Basketball, Football, Volleyball, and other sports. Nationally, Cali’s athletes compete with Bogotá’s and Medellín’s in most sport tournaments and championships.

Cali has two main athletic events, a mid-year half marathon ¹⁄₂ Maraton de Cali^[71] and a December 10k race called Carrera del Río Cali.

Colombia’s sports capital

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Santiago de Cali is recognized as the sports capital of Colombia. It is the first Colombian city to have hosted the Pan American Games (see 1971 Pan American Games), and has also won the National Olympic Games more than any other region in Colombia. The city also has one of the most developed sport infrastructures in the country. Many sporting events have taken place in the city.

Cali has one football stadium: Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero, which is currently home of América de Cali, Atlético F.C., and Boca Juniors de Cali, and was home of Deportivo Cali until 2015 when they moved to Estadio Deportivo Cali, located in nearby Palmira. Deportivo Cali is the only Colombian football club that owns its stadium, since all other football stadiums in Colombia are government-owned. Other important places of sporting activity in the city are “Coliseo El Pueblo“, a covered arena center used for all types of events which hosted the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup, and Coliseo Evangelista Mora, mainly used for basketball. Cali will host the inaugural Junior Pan American Games in 2021.

Infrastructure

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Cali’s infrastructure has permitted it to host several major international sports competitions such as the 1971 Pan American Games, numerous Games of the Pacific, the final phase of the 1982 World basketball championship, the 1999 World’s Roller Hockey Championships, women’s basketball and swimming events, Pan American Speed-Track Cycling Championships, and most recently the World’s Roller Speed Skating Championships. Cali was the host city of the World Games 2013.

• Pascual Guerrero Olímpic stadium
• El Pueblo Arena
• Polideportivo de El Vallado
• Unidad Deportiva Panamericana
• Velódromo Alcides Nieto Patiño
• Gimnasio Evangelista Mora
• Patinódromo Los Diputados
• Iván Vassilev Todorov Arena

Football

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Santiago de Cali is home to football clubs Deportivo Cali and América de Cali. Many well-known football players were either born in Cali or have played in one of its clubs. including Willington Ortiz, Carlos Valderrama, Ántony de Ávila, Álex Escobar, Julio César Falcioni, Jorge Orosmán da Silva, Jorge Bermúdez, Giovanni Hernández, Hugo Rodallega, Mario Yepes, Faryd Mondragón, Adolfo Valencia, and Óscar Córdoba.

According to CONMEBOL, América ranks second and Deportivo Cali third^[72] in the Colombian national ranking, which ranks itself third in the CONMEBOL ranking. América was ranked as the world’s second best club in 1996 by the IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics)^[73] and 35th in the All-Time Club World Ranking of the IFFHS.^[74] Cali is the Colombian city having hosted the most Colombian first division finals, with 40 matches being played in the stadium. América has won 15 titles, and has been runner-up 7 times. Deportivo Cali has won 10 titles and ended as runner-up 14 times. They have played finals against each other three times. In the early 1950s, current second-tier team Boca Juniors lost two finals.

Basketball and bullfighting

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There is a basketball team in the city of Cali currently. It is known as Team cali.^[75] In addition, basketball is the second-most played sport in the city. Basketball is a preferred sport at the city center location “La Carrera del Cholado”. Football still surpasses basketball in sport popularity. Bullfighting is staged during the Cali Fair which is held in December. It is anticipated by many citizens in Cali, as well as by many people in all Colombia. The bullfighting ring is called Plaza de Toros de Cañaveralejo, with a capacity of 16,000 and located in the southwest of the city.

Other sports

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Rugby, tennis, swimming, archery, and ultimate are also played in Cali. The IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics was hosted in Cali in July 2015. Cali also hosted the 2015 Underwater Rugby World Cup