A Brief History of Rugby – Volume 3

A new century dawns and professional rugby is now well established. The Five Nations becomes the Six Nations, the Tri-Nations is soon to be contested between four nations and renamed The Rugby Championship. The Rugby World Cups for both men and women have grown into major sporting events and are watched by billions around the globe.

Players develop strict training regimes, and the pace of the game accelerates as the players become bigger, stronger and faster, requiring greater officialdom to administer matches at the top level, yellow and red cards become a regular feature and the need to review and revise the laws of the game intensifies as technology becomes an import element of match management.

Satellite and Cable TV coverage contracts finance the game as global audiences increase. The rapid expansion of the internet provides access to archived newspapers and gives rise to social media, providing millions of fans around the globe with a constant stream of content for review, debate and discussion resulting in a situation where every comment, gaff and slip-of-the-tongue from players, coaches, administrators and fans alike are recorded for posterity… and therefore creating rich pickings for A Brief History of Rugby.

Volumes 1 & 2 coming soon!