A RARE book detailing the original guidelines for the game of rugby in its formative years sold for thousands of pounds at auction.
Titled The Laws of Football as Played at Rugby School, the tiny rulebook fetched £13,000 – over ten times its guide price – at an auction in Cardiff.
Dating back to 1851, the inside cover of the book shows a signature from William Henry Waddington – a former prime minister of France who also attended Rugby School.
The school’s archivist, Rusty MacLean, confirmed to the auctioneers Roger Jones & Co the inscription was genuine.
The book itself, now in the hands of a memorabilia collector, is a list of 33 rules across 17 pages describing what to do if there are any disagreements in the middle of a game – including the now-obvious instruction that “no player may stand on the goal bar to intercept” a goal.
The introduction reads: “Rather as a set of decisions on certain disputed points in football, than as containing all the laws of the game, which are too well known to render any explanation necessary to Rugbaeans (sic).”
Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones told the Observer they sold the book on behalf of a retired bookseller – but said it was a miracle the book even surfaced.
He said: “The book was among hundreds of rugby books which were among thousands of sporting books, which were part of his lock up containing literally tens of thousands of other mixed subject books.
“We thought the book was interesting to pick out but after some research we certified how rare and important it was in the context of early organised rugby-football.
“The book is exceptionally rare and we do not think another copy from this time has ever come to market.”
