The DNA of Rugby Football: A Short History of the Origin of Rugby Football

This book is about how football was played in ancient times and worlds, from Australia and South America to China and Europe. It tells the story of how towns and parishes competed against each other. During the Industrial Revolution football moved from the streets to the schools. The book describes how rugby football started at Rugby School and how the schoolboys wrote the first laws in their schoolbooks. From there it grew into the modern international game we play and watch today. It also tells the story of other football games and how it happened that Rugby football and Association football (soccer) became two different sports.

Gerhard Roodt has been a rugby referee at the Blue Bulls Rugby Union in Pretoria since 1981. In 1996 he became an executive member of the Referee Society and served as chairman in 2010 and 2011. The constant changes in rugby laws and the evolving of the game led to his research in how the game and its laws began.