Origins
See also: Rugby union in the United States#HistoryVarious forms of football have been played in Britain for centuries with different villages and schools having their own traditional rules.
The Football Association was formed in England in October 1863. Differences of opinion about the proposed laws led to the formation of the first governing body for rugby in 1871 the Rugby Football Union. Laws were drawn up for rugby football which was now distinct from Association football (soccer).
In 1872 rugby clubs were established in the San Francisco Bay Area, which were composed mainly of British expatriates. The first recorded rugby match in the United States occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and McGill University of Montreal, Quebec when McGill challenged Harvard to a game using rules in place at the Montreal campus.
In 1876, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, a competition based on the traditional rules of rugby. The sport of American football evolved from these intercollegiate games (see History of American football).
Back in England, a schism developed between those who favoured strict amateurism and those who felt that players should be compensated for time taken off work to play rugby. In 1895, this resulted in the formation of a break-away governing body, the Northern Union.
The Northern Union began to make changes to the laws of rugby in 1906, which resulted in the sport of rugby league. The Rugby Football Union's version of rugby became known as rugby union after its governing body.
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of American Football And Rugby Union
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