The birth as such of the game came when William Web-Ellis, a 17 year old student of Rugby School, Warwickshire, England picked up a football ball and ran with it in 1823. At the time of writting(June 2010) this made the games origin 187 years old. However, the actual formation and creation of the first code for union did not occur until 1870 this was as of the time of writting (June 2010) 140 years ago
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Whilst the running with the ball game was spreading from the year 1840 by 1871 a call went out in the English press advertising for the game to be standardised this was in January 1871. By June 1871 the rules had been formalised and the game of RUGBY UNION was fully consecrated