The modern game is all about running rugby. The carry. The hard yards. The slick hands. It’s what we rugby fans love. It’s what lifts us from our seats. It’s what we talk about for years. And what we post to youtube.
It’s Brad Thorn. It’s Manu Tuilagi. It’s Jonah Lomu.
Yet the greatest carry of them all isn't on youtube and never will be!
It took place long before youtube. Long before the moving picture. Long before you and I.
It took place on an autumn day in 1823- the very moment the game of rugby was born. Not by a towering athlete, but by a 16 year old boy named William Web Ellis who’s desire to pick up and carry a football made him a legend.
Now as the Rugby World Cup fast approaches and the relevance of this great moment in history gains momentum, the power houses of world rugby ready themselves for battle. And as they battle, they will carry that ball with all their might in the hope that, at the end of it all, they may have the honour of what would surely be their finest carry - the Webb Ellis Trophy!