Rugby union Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known in most of the world as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by male and female players of all ages. In 2014, there were more
Rugby union in Japan Rugby union in Japan Rugby union in Japan is a moderately popular sport. Japan has the fourth largest population of rugby union players in the world and the sport has been played there for over a century. There are 125,000 Japanese rugby players, 3,631 official rugby clubs, and the Japan national team is ranked 11th in the world. Before the arrival of rugby, Japan was home to a game known as "kemari" (), which in some ways was a parallel development to association football, and to a lesser extent rugby football. It is said that "kemari" was introduced to Japan