Girls Playing Rugby

1864 - The first rugby clubs are formed, followed by hundreds more in Cumberland, Lancashire and Yorkshire in the 1870s and 1880s.
1871 - The Rugby Football Union is founded, following a meeting of 21 clubs at the Pall Mall restaurant.
1871 - First recognised international rugby match, played between England and Wales.
1876 - Matthew Bloxam’s letter is published in "The Meteor". It claims William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, picked up the ball and invented rugby. A Rugby Union inquiry in 1895 found no proof, although it decided to perpetuate the myth.