The Rugby World Cup concluded Saturday in a match between South Africa’s Springboks and England’s Lions. The Springboks dominated with a 32-12 victory over the English team. The tournament was held in Japan, the first time it was held in Asia and outside the traditional Tier 1 rugby nations.

The New Zealand All Blacks took third with a 40-17 victory over Wales. With the highest number of championship wins, the All Blacks were the favorites going into the tournament with 5-4 odds betting they would take the top spot. 

Not only had the Springboks won only two championships, before this year’s final, they were the first team to win the title after having lost a match in the pool stage.

While many celebrated the Springbok’s victory, distaste surrounded England’s defeat. Several of the English players refused to wear their runner-up medals during the post-final celebrations in a poor display of sportsmanship, and multiple high-profile celebrities in England symbolically disowned the team.

Earlier in the tournament the English team was fined over $2,500 for crossing the halfway line during the All Black’s haka – a challenge posed by the New Zealand team by way of traditional dance before every game. 

But this year’s Rugby World Cup news wasn’t all fixated on broken rules and poor sportsmanship. 

The Springboks were led to victory by the team’s first black captain, Siya Kolisi. This is significant in light of the challenges faced by black people in South Africa, not only during Apartheid, but even today. Yet while the win was significant, the team’s coach, Rassie Erasmus, was adamant that no one should read too far into the symbolism. According to him, the win bought his country a few happy hours but nothing more than that. 

England’s team was also compiled of noteworthy demographics. With 25 players in their squad of 32 being in their twenties, the English presented the youngest team to ever play in a World Cup final.

Globally, the sporting event spurred record numbers of TV viewers. Approximately 54.8 million viewers were recorded in Japan alone, and the final game saw 12.8 million TV viewers within England. 

Ultimately, the Rugby World Cup saw enthusiasm from around the globe, a reality fitting for the third-largest sporting event in the world – behind only the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics – and the sport with the fastest-growing popularity in the United States. 

Rugby shares a common origin with soccer and American football, the two sports to which it is most often compared. The sport’s roots can be traced to 10th century England, when a rudimentary version was played with inflated pig bladders in city streets. Such games were often disorganized, attracting large mobs of villagers competing against each other and using extreme amounts of violence in order to win. Due in part to the destruction and the disruption to ordinary city life these events caused, they were outlawed by many authorities and even monarchs. However, the general idea of the sport was revitalized in a more civilized manner around the 18th and 19th centuries with the creation of the style of football we know today as American.

From American football, rugby arose in an unknown manner that is typically told in the form of an English local legend. At the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, the sport is said to have come about from an unusual play. In 1823, William Webb Ellis decided to pick up the ball and run with it in attempt to score against the other team. At the time, such a play was against the rules of football, so the school’s relatively large reputation caused the odd style to catch on and become adopted at other boys’ schools in England. Later, at a bar in London, rules were eventually drawn up that would officially split football from rugby, with the former forbidding ball-running and shin-kicking and the latter allowing such practices.

Modern rugby is played on a rectangular grass area almost identical to a football field with goals at either end. The aim is to score as many “tries” as possible, with each equating to five points. A team can earn tries by grounding the ball in the goal area or by kicking at the goals, and all players have an equal opportunity to score. The team in possession of the ball can choose to kick, carry or pass it in any way or direction they like. Players on defense may tackle only the one in possession of the ball, but anti-tackle training is highly stressed as one of the make-or-break aspects of a good player. Even if any of these rules or others of the staggering list of 59 statutes is broken, gameplay can continue if it will grant either team a sufficient advantage. Regardless, foul play is highly discouraged and frowned upon.

One reason for rugby’s growing popularity can be attributed to the fact that, while still a violent game, some claim it is far less so than American football. American football is currently facing a string of concussion-related controversies. In rugby, rather than tackling headfirst, the shoulders are emphasized as a means of hitting a player. While this can reduce head injuries, spinal problems are still commonly reported in rugby, leading to further questioning of its safety. For these reasons, it is often referred to as the toughest and most physically demanding team sport. As football coaches begin to rely more and more on rugby techniques for training, the gap between the two sports is beginning to merge, which could lead to great success down the road for football’s more obscure counterpart.

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