Why Are Rugby Balls Oval?

First designed and created in the 1800s, the rugby ball and the sport that goes with it still firmly lives on today. Every four years nations across the globe go rapt with attention watching an oblong ball get tussled, kicked, thrown, passed and grappled by 30 players on a 100-meter field. Despite all the modern changes of today, the rugby ball still looks very much like it did in the early history of the game.

  1. Beginning of a Funny Looking Ball

    • Rugby balls first began in the early 1800s as stuffed and stitched pig bladders in early English schools. Richard Lindon is credited with the invention and may have also died from personally inflating diseased pig parts. The sport quickly became a mainstay in British education programs, both in private and public schools. Much of the early shape of the ball was due to the natural shape of the pig's bladder when fully inflated and stuffed. Compared to modern rugby balls, the early rugby ball was a bit rounder than today, but the general oblong shape remained the same. Somewhere around 1835 the ball slimmed out more versus the initial round shape, mainly due to better construction and leather materials.

      By the 1850s ball-makers, including Gilbert and Macintosh, began to experiment and design balls using rubber inflatable bladders rather than pig versions. This choice continued the march of slimming the ball shape down, conforming the rubber bladder to the shape of the outer stitched leather panels that made up the ball surface.

    Rules for the Ball Shape

    • In 1892, the first game rule codification occurred, specifying the regulation shape of the accepted rugby ball. The distance from tip to tip had to be between 11 and 11 1/4 inches. The circumference measurement around the middle of the ball could be no bigger than 26 inches. The weight capped at 13 ounces and at least eight stitches had to be used per inch of seam. In 1931 these specs changed a bit more with the width shrinking to 24 inches and the weight increasing to maximum of 15 ounces.

    Preferences Changed Globally

    • By 1935, rugby balls remained very similar to a squashed basketball rather than the rugby ball used today. While slimming had occurred, the ball was still a bloated blob. During the early 1900s with British migration to colonies, the game had spread across the world, and different locations had their own ideas what the rugby ball should look like. New Zealand and Australia liked a pointier version of the ball. South Africa preferred more panels on the ball to increase gripping. The British Kingdom and France stuck with the original squashed-basketball version.

    One Maker Becomes the Standard

    • Throughout the early years of rugby ball making and today, the Gilbert company and name has been synonymous with rugby. Having traveled with the history of the rugby ball from the 1850s, the Gilbert ball became a required equipment for national and international matches. The Gilbert family remained in charge of the ball shape and standards used until 1978, when they had to sell the company on hard times. Today the Gilbert ball is still used, and the company controls and influences the technology standards that will be used in future changes, consistent with the International Rugby Board rules.

    Modern Rules and Shape

    • Today's rules for union rugby, the most common rugby played (Australian rugby league has different ball and playing rules), require the rugby ball to be no more than 300 millimeters (mm) long, be 580 to 620 mm in middle circumference, have no extruding stitches and made of four stitched-together panels. The outer material can either be leather or a comparable synthetic production. The weight is capped at 460 grams. Shape-wise the ball retains a lengthy, oblong look and appears far thinner than its 1800s ancestor.