´óÏó´«Ã½

This leather rugby football was made by William Gilbert, the founder of Gilbert rugby. It was made to be exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Although he was not the only rugby football producer by that time he is thought to be the earliest and was the first to promote himself on this commercial level. Of the 13,000 exhibitors at the exhibition only 25 manufactured sporting equipment and only one related to rugby football. As it was still such a new sport William Gilbert on stand 187 became the first major commercial producer with this template ball as his product.

The ball was made of cowhide leather and when it was produced would have had an inflated pig's bladder in the interior, which was later replaced with a modern rubber bladder. The plum shape of the ball became the standard for 19th century rugby ball production until the International Rugby Board set the first international standard dimensions in 1892.