Rugby
Authority: World Rugby Law 2
An official Size 5 World Rugby ball is oval-shaped, measuring 280–300 mm in length with a longitudinal circumference of 740–770 mm and a transverse circumference of 580–620 mm. It weighs 410–460 grams with inflation pressure of 0.67–0.70 bar.
| Parameter / Specification | Standard Value | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Oval Length | 280 - 300 | mm |
| Mass Range | 410 - 460 | g |
| Inflation Pressure | 0.67 - 0.70 | bar (9.5 - 10.0 PSI) |
History & Origin
Rugby's founding legend holds that William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School in England, picked up the ball and ran with it during a football match in 1823 -- but most rugby historians treat this as an unverified origin myth rather than documented fact. What is well established is that a local bootmaker, William Gilbert, was already supplying hand-stitched leather balls to Rugby School from his shop next door to the school around this period, using four leather panels wrapped around a pig's bladder.
Those early balls were plump and irregular rather than a true oval, since their shape simply followed the inflated bladder inside. The now-familiar elongated oval emerged after ball-makers, including Gilbert's successors, switched to rubber bladders around 1870, which could be molded into a more consistent elongated shape. Rugby football's laws first formally specified the ball's size and shape in 1892.