The
year 1823 was a momentous occasion in the history of rugby football. In
a Bigside game at Rugby School a young William Webb Ellis laid the foundation
of the game as we know it today when running with the ball. A tablet
set in a wall at the school reads ‘This stone commemorates the exploit
of William Webb Ellis who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played
in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating
the distinctive features of the rugby game – A.D. 1823.’ It
was almost 50 years later, circa 1870, that rugby first appeared in Cornwall.
Bodmin claimed to be the first town in the county in which the game was
played, closely followed by Penzance, Redruth and Hayle. Rugby in Newlyn
was to come later, but on this website history of the Pirates it is essential
that brief histories are provided of both the Newlyn and Penzance clubs. 
Penzance
Newlyn V Guys 1945
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