Sean Fagan

By the 1830s football at Rugby School allowed running with the ball. This set in place an evolution away from rugby being purely a kicking game.

Changes though were subtle at first. It was not until the 1890s, when scrum forwards began hooking the backwards for structured back-lines to use, that anything resembling today's rugby was played.

During the years between the 1830s and 1890s, 'football' was in a state of flux. Each school, club, or region had its own interpretations and rules of what games were. In the 1860s, when football clubs began to be formed throughout the British Empire, it quickly became obvious that codified rules were needed to stop the endless on-field arguments and disputes.

Like-minded football clubs combined to form Cambridge rules (which later became British Association 'soccer'). In Melbourne, clubs were formed to play by Victorian rules (taking the name of the colony) which became Australian rules. Rugby too, became markedly different to the other codes, and the Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871 by 21 clubs.

Rugby itself gave birth to two other codes: American football and rugby league. Led by Walter Camp, American football evolved during the final quarter of the 19th century - the scrum was replaced by a line-of-scrimmage, the ball was hooked backwards, and ultimately in 1906, the forward pass legalised. In that same year, rugby league introduced the play-the-ball and reduced teams to thirteen players (line-outs were eliminated earlier).

As a result rugby union, rugby league, and American football all share the same principles of scoring and (to a large extent) moving the ball forward, and re-starting play.

In the early days of Rugby School football, the goal posts had been extended to 18 feet high (with a cross-bar at 10 feet above the ground) and there were forms of scrummaging and line-outs. The inclusion of the cross-bar was accompanied by a rule that a goal could only be scored by the ball passing over the bar from a place kick or drop kick. Apparently this was done to make scoring easier from further out and also to avoid the horde of defenders standing in the goal mouth.

Apart from scoring by goals, there was no other way to earn points. However, players who were able to "run-in" the ball into the opponent's in-goal area, and "touch-down", were allowed a free kick. They would then attempt to kick the ball (effectively backwards) to a team mate positioned in front of the posts, hoping he would take a "mark" and kick the goal.

This was later replaced with the method we are familiar with today, where a "try-at-goal" kick (conversion) would be given from a point in-line with where the ball was "touched-down".

From 1875 games that ended in a draw were decided by awarding the win to the team that secured the most "tries-at-goal". In 1886 three "tries" equalled one goal in points. The balance gradually shifted in favour of "tries" ever since.

In 1893 the scoring was much closer to what we know today - a try was worth three points, a converted try five points, three for a penalty goal and four for a drop-kicked field goal. The scoring though still clearly favoured kicks from the field in general play:

A converted try could be beaten by just two goals
An unconverted try could be equalled by a penalty goal, beaten by a field goal

Over a century later, the ratios in the codes are:

Union: 3 goals from the field to defeat a converted try
American: 3 goals from the field to defeat a converted touchdown
League: 4 goals from the field to defeat a converted try

Union: 2 goals from the field to defeat an unconverted try
American: 3 goals from the field to defeat an unconverted touchdown
League: 3 goals from the field to defeat an unconverted try

Is there a possibility that one day we may seen rugby tries (or conversions) increased in value? The above information doesn't take into account the ease/difficulty to score tries/touchdowns. Given rugby's historical context, the current balance between the value of tries and goals is probably about right.